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Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm #6995819 12/14/17 02:02 PM
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cliffie Offline OP
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I usually loop a steel cable around the upper jaw/snout and hang them head up to skin. Could it be easier if I went head down?
Once saw them skinned by attaching to a steel tube above (head up) and then the skin was pulled off with a boat winch tied to the ground.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6996389 12/14/17 08:29 PM
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earl39 Offline
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I like the head down method but to each his own


"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 (New King James Version)
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6996392 12/14/17 08:32 PM
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I have always skinned head down, but that is the way I was taught a long time ago. I do deer the same way. I am sure both methods are effective and the method used is probably the way people were taught when they were young.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6996396 12/14/17 08:33 PM
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Originally Posted By: cliffie
I usually loop a steel cable around the upper jaw/snout and hang them head up to skin. Could it be easier if I went head down?
Once saw them skinned by attaching to a steel tube above (head up) and then the skin was pulled off with a boat winch tied to the ground.


I've always done head down. Used a truck winch and that worked pretty well.


"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."
-- Confucius
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6997839 12/15/17 08:26 PM
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ifearnodeer Offline
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I too was taught head down


Everyone loves a joke, no one likes a fool
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: ifearnodeer] #6997944 12/15/17 09:33 PM
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Originally Posted By: ifearnodeer
I too was taught head down

Never tried it head up......


Originally Posted by Sneaky
I believe in science and I’m an insufferable [censored]
Originally Posted by beaversnipe
Actually, BBC is pretty damn good

"You Cannot Simultaneously Be Politically Correct And Intellectually Honest!"
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6998496 12/16/17 11:16 AM
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head down

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6998509 12/16/17 12:01 PM
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Went antelope hunting one time with four other guys. One of the guys brought one of those gambrel things that attached to your trailer hitch and had a small winch to lift them up. The lady that owned the ranch watched him do the first one, and gave him a lesson on how to do it with the head up really quickly. I wish I would have watched them closer, as he got to doing it very efficiently and quickly. We shot 17 of them, and he cleaned and skinned the whole bunch.
I have never gotten the hang of doing it that way though.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6998777 12/16/17 05:24 PM
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snake oil Offline
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Kickem in the bush and go to the grocery store.....LOL


"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas".
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #6998972 12/16/17 10:07 PM
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Belly down. Cut down back, get straps, remove hams if not smelly. Buzzards get the rest.


One shot is all it should take.
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7000219 12/18/17 02:29 AM
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I prefer head-down as well...on hogs, deer, elk...it's just the way Dad taught me. NEVER touch the meat after you've touched the hair. After skinning, wash up your hands and knives before gutting/cutting up the meat. (On hogs, I prefer nitrile gloves...but I still wash my knives). Be clean and careful... that'll take care of most of that "gamey" taste that folks complain about


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Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7000993 12/18/17 06:16 PM
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head down. easier to split in half.


Sometimes it's hard being me! But somebody has to do it.
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7003613 12/20/17 04:32 AM
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I always skin head down. Bare handed. No gloves for me. I nearly always take the biggest sow. Seven sows and one young boar on a fast follow up shot. I'm lucky to have running water so they get rinsed before getting iced down.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7003627 12/20/17 04:44 AM
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Just take the back hams and backstrap. Not much skinning needed and no gutting. Shoulders usually torn up. But we kill a lot of them.

Head down if I am skinning myself with knife. Processor the other day was pulling skin off with head up (cut off though) and winch on ceiling. At camp we have done the same using a vehicle to pull off. I don't trust our hanging branch though.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7004226 12/20/17 04:48 PM
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Skin 'em ?????

Used to do that. Started out head up because it's easier to get the guts out that way. Switched to head down when I quit gutting them and just took the legs and back straps. Now I don't skin them at all, but just cut off the leg quarters and back straps on the ground. Then I skin the legs on the truck tailgate. I usually debone the hindquarters at the same time.

I leave the carcass (sans legs) for the varmits. Often I'll cut the belly open to make it easier for the 'clean-up crew'.

Here's an excellent video showing how it's done:
http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/6708672/Re:_HOW_TO_DRESS_A_HOG_IN_10_M


I have two unwritten rules:
1.
2.
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7004398 12/20/17 06:53 PM
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Deer, head up take off the legs with loppers and skin the neck. put a golf ball under the skinned neck and wrap a chain around the golf ball. The other end on the chain gets attached to the ball hitch on my truck. Drive away and the deer gets skinned.

Hogs head down because I actually have to skin them.


�A hunt based only on the trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.� -Fred Bear
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7005186 12/21/17 06:40 AM
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Sirrah- I have done just that with deer It works fine
I just put a big blue tarp under them because once in a while the head pops off and the whole thing drops on the ground.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7007344 12/22/17 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted By: cliffie
Sirrah- I have done just that with deer It works fine
I just put a big blue tarp under them because once in a while the head pops off and the whole thing drops on the ground.


I've been lucky so far, the head has stayed intact but I have had the skinned deer swing into the tree when the skin comes off the hind legs and get bark and leaves on the meat. trout


�A hunt based only on the trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.� -Fred Bear
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7007396 12/22/17 06:32 PM
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We gut on the ground, then hang from the back legs skin, take front legs off debone ribcage(straps, tenderloins, flank and ribs) hanging, then cut the hind quarters off of the pelvis at the ball joint and cut the foot off either with a saw or at the joint by the hock (cut tendon with a knife and snap it)


It's hell eatin em live
Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7007452 12/22/17 07:07 PM
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Gutless method for me is all I ever do now.

Re: Head up or head down? Best way to skin'm [Re: cliffie] #7010960 12/25/17 04:00 PM
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Head down

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