Hunting season~ a helpful method of skinning * PICS*

[Beekissed]

I was taking part in a thread on BYC and someone asked me about the golf ball method of skinning. I know we have some new folks on here that may not have gotten to see this method that I posted last year and now that info is gone.

It is a method that came out in the 70s that we tried and found to be quite a fast and great way to skin deer that were chilled with the skin still on, larger deer, etc.

We were skinning 8 or 9 deer a season, some hanging two and three at a time and the skinning needed to become more streamlined and quicker. This method also decreases greatly the amount of hair left on the meat.

Since we didn't have golf balls~we are hillbillies, not yuppies~we usually used a ball pean hammer.

Basically, the deer is hung by the neck, legs are removed and the deer is caped a little. The skin is cut on the inside of the legs for easier removal but this isn't really necessary...it just makes it easier. One just inserts a golf ball, baseball, hammer under the cape, ties it with a rope, hooks the rope to a vehicle of some kind and pulls.

The hide comes off smoothly and quickly and even skins out the tail in most cases. No more slice, pull, slice, pull, nick the meat, slice, pull....

Here are some pics of the calf my mother and I did last winter that shows this method:

 

[journey11]

This method also decreases greatly the amount of hair left on the meat.

I bet it would! I'll be sure to show this to DH. We don't have a 4 wheeler, but maybe the riding lawnmower would work...

 

[Beekissed]

It should...mine did! We also used it to hoist deer into the tree.

 

[freemotion]

Would that work on a pig? More specifically, would that work on two pigs?

 

[Beekissed]

I'm not sure how tough pig hide is but it wouldn't hurt to try. This calf had very thin skin that I actually put holes into when I was flaying it for preparation to tan, so it was pretty fragile and it withstood the pulling.

I would definitely try it.

 

[bama boy]

I will try that method. Thanks. We hang ours up from the hind legs on a gambrel, but it will work just the same. I was going to cement a large "eye" bolt under our cleaning station, run the rope thru it to "hammer",(lol) love it, and pull it with the 4 wheeler.

 

[valmom]

Wow, good idea! Not that I am ever going to be allowed to skin anything.
I am putting it in my memory bank incase I ever do need it. Along with the leather making information.

 

[Denim Deb]

That's neat!

 

[Neko-chan]

You may have a hard time flaying the pigs that way. I remember my uncle having to cut the hide into strips to peel off. For whatever reason, it appeared a lot harder to get off. Course, I really have no other expertise to offer.

 

[walkaboutjacks]

Why even take the skin off pigs? I don't know how to get rid of the hair (and need to learn how) but all pork in Australia still has the skin on and makes yummy crispy "crackling" as we call it.