Thread: Hanging deer/pigs for preparation?

It’s relatively easy to hang a small deer from a tree when there’s two of you, but harder when you’re own with a larger animal. Any tips, or do you just prepare the animal on the ground?

I do small ones one the ground as well

Had to deal with this last friday.
I try to get my my grandson "Horse" to come along as much as possible but was alone on this occasion.
Got a decent hind and too heavy to lift even after gutting.
Cut off front legs an hung them up .
Back and inner steaks out.
Ribcage off next and then hang rear end and bone out.
Ended up boning the front legs out also.
Quite a load but only a couple of hours to wagon.

Might be able to do the same thing with 1 ratchet motorbike tiedown on each leg

Are you talking about where you shot it, or back at camp, or near your vehicle or what?

Lots of different ways you can get a deer up into a tree. There are some very ingenious handheld winches that you can lash to a tree, or lightweight but strong rope and pulley systems.

Or one of these.



Have a google of pulley systems, deer hoists, etc. There are some very nifty ideas out there for the solo hunter. Lightweight, but powerful enough, simple 2-to-1 mechanical advantage systems. If you want to bone one out by yourself in the bush, I will usually do it on the ground, but I have carried a simple pulley system before for fallow and yearling reds, very effective. That was for lifting them up to cool after I'd gutted them, and leaving them hanging overnight so the pigs couldn't get them, retrieving them following morning with the quad & trailer. Hoist them up, tie them off, take pulley off, carry on hunting.

My query was about in sorting it out in the bush.

find a leaning tree...it helps a great deal.... you can tie leg on the top side then roll animal down hill side and it gets up a bit...normally break it down on the ground and hang quarters to further process ...its not a huge deal to break a deer down on the ground...not hard at all really...hanging the bits up helps it to cool and keep clean.

[QUOTE=Flyblown;844526]Are you talking about where you shot it, or back at camp, or near your vehicle or what?

I was wondering the same , presuming he means once you get it home , most basic type of hoist is a truckers knot , next would be a tie down either the ratchet type or just the pull one,s , all 3 of the above work great if you already have the animal on the back of the ute as your already half way there ..that's my go to , after that the list is pretty much endless but I guess if you have a fwd next pick would be one of those hand crank type winches 3-4 ton that you can pick up for around $100 or less then you have 2 uses for it , getting unstuck & lifting animals , next would be a block & tackle there pretty handy but only if you want to lift a carcass , after that you could consider a specialised winch mounted to your fwd but if your not four wheel driving , your not worried about getting stuck & you just want to lift animals off the ground id go for an endless chain you can lift a cow with them next would be to just use a pulley & drive backwards but if you weren't meaning any of the above & what you actually mean is some sort of winch to lift a whole animal up a tree to gut it or do some other butchery well in that case you don't need to get it off the ground & all you need to work on is your butchery skills , carrying around some sort winch in your day bag hoping there's a handy tree is just stupid no matter where the animal may fall it can be cleanly or fairly cleanly done , more often than not leafs etc get picked up carrying the beast out vs dealing with it on the ground .

used an OLD endless chain the other day to lift up a 94kg pig...it was more than that before we gutted it....so easy to do,little effort required..... got a simple gamble and double pulleys at home for sheep...good rope makes all the difference.

That is a seriously big pig, wild? If it wasnt before i guess it was once your intentions became clear.(-:

I have a couple of lengths of para cord, one for each back leg. Pull one side up tight and tie it then pull the other one up and tie. That’s how I’ve done it on my own once. All the others I’ve done have been on a slip with nothing to hang it on. My hunting buddy has a couple of small pulleys. We mostly butcher them on the ground.

Well your not alone I have had the same problem as you in the past . Spent some time on uncle google and found this guys bush hack for lifting animals awhile back . Made one and it goes everywhere with me now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4krSGkLXu4.

When in the Bush do it on the ground lying down.

A young guy I was hunting with shot a hind a few weeks back at 4.15pm. Gets dark around 5 in Bush and we were still about 1km away from a marked track. Told him this had to be done and dusted in 10 mins and we go full tit down hill.

Start with a hind leg, keeping skin on and working along the join slicing carefully not to get near the gut sack. Hit the ball joint and you now have one leg. Remove knuckle.

Take back steak out.

Start on front leg working behind shoulder blade. Remove knuckle again.

Repeat on other side and that's it.

I don't bother with tenderloins unless I have time and the animal is big.

End result was we hit the track at 5.15pm. Sweat coming out of all sorts of places. Not as young as I use to be I told myself as I hit the track. And not wise enough to give the young guy the heavy pack.

I always fully bone out in the field. Cant see the point in carrying out bone and skin I can't eat. Your meat yield will be approx. 50% of the gutted animal weight. A red hind will yield between 20kg and 30kg of boned out meat depending on her size, which to my buggered back and knees is plenty heavy enough when you have to pack it out.
I don't gut animals any more, unless it is to leave the animal out over night and return the next day for processing. The risk of meat contamination is much less if you leave the gut where god put it.

I bone out on the ground. I start by opening the front and back legs up in the traditional manner on one side only, skinning them all round and back to the main body. Then lay the animal on its side and open the skin up down the back bone, working your way back to the legs. This keeps all the meat up off the ground and clean. Dissect the main muscle groups one by one and bag them. Once the first side is fully boned out from tail to just below the ears, roll the animal onto its back and start skinning out the last two legs, then roll it all the way over and repeat on the second side.

I do carry a gimble and hoist in the quad bike, and have on occasion dressed out full goat bodies is I was looking for a full body to do in the pizza oven. I did try once the golf ball skinning method using the winch on the quad bike but didn't work too well with a neck shot goat - just pulled the head off

On the ground in the bush. I can do a complete bone out in about 15-20 minutes. Take some paracord to hang the legs up with - or if need be do them on the ground. You can take the inside steaks by making a slit by the foating ribs. No need to gut.
Its something I could do a vid of, but everyone has their own way of doing it.