Thread: How to: Prepare venison hindquarters to carry as a backpack

I've always just chopped them off the body and carried them balanced over my shoulders with the legs sticking out in front and one or two hands keeping them under control. After many years of hunting, someone showed me how to make pack straps out of the skin up the back and carry it like a pack with both hands free. Having just learned, I'm the right person to show you how to.

First take the backsteaks.



Keep a long strip of skin, right up to the neck. It has to be long enough. If too short, you will not be able to thread yourself into the straps.



This is a tongue to tail job so I've taken the antlers to go into a bone broth. You can see the two straps here.



Cut right around the anus, freeing it up so it can be pulled out from the inside.


Gut the animal by carefully slitting from pelvis to brisket.



Pull the gut contents towards the head and gently but firmly draw the rectum out without spilling too many pellets.
At this stage you can get out the eye fillets.



Detach the pelvis from the rest of the body by cutting through between the bone bits on each side (transverse processes) and then through the vertebral disc (This is a ligament joining one vertebra to the next. It's at the widest bulgy points. The narrow waisted parts are bone.)


Hold both legs firmly and give it a twist to break the pelvis clear.



Take off the hocks, again cutting in at a bulgy point and breaking the joint across your knee or somesuch.



These are the straps. Cut a 10cm slit in each, the same distance along the strap.



Cut a slit through the skin behind the achilles tendon and thread the strap through the hole.



It's a bit hard to show this in a photo but you now thread the slit in the strap back down over the hock and pull it tight. This loop knot holds it tight and it won't come off.



Here's what you're trying to make.. The legs will go down each side of your back to your waist.



If one strap is too long you can put in a twist or two round the hock.



The load sits nicely on the hunter's back. You can just see the yellow cloth pikau underneath. This has the backsteaks, eye fillets, boned out front legs, antlers, tongue, kidneys, heart and a bit of liver inside (did I miss anything ?)

Thanks to the hunter I met on the track who took this pic and also left some scorched almonds at the hut. Much appreciated and this is what the bush is about, helping out blokes you don't even know.

I've carried plenty this way, frees yours arms up which is handy if your climbing up/down steep shit, you can put your back pack on your front if you need too.

Sometimes carry them just over shoulders and hold a leg for balance, tying the two legs together helps a bit. Only use this method if it is a short carry. I carry a Huntec canvas meat bag in my day pack so I can bone out my deer and fit the majority of the deer in the bag which makes for easy carrying.

ive always thought with this method,it would pay to wrap some bright cloth around the deer on your back so you don't look so much like a deers bum when you are walking along.

Another hunter, if on public land, I tie a bit of yellow flagging tape on the back too. Long enough so it flutters about.

I can never really see the point in this type of carry, or in carrying out the whole animal. A large hind fully boned out will yield 15-20kg of meat, and a big stag up to double that. With bone and pelt its probably double that again. Why carry out what you are going to throw away?
I always carry 4 heavy duty, large plastic bags in my pack, and bone the animal out in the bush. The bags roll up into a "rod" 350mm long and about 20mm dia and are easily stowed in your pack.

Advantages:
1. Less weight to carry out [with two buggered knees and a ruptured disc on my back this is a biggie]
1A. With packing out less weight, you can focus on boning out every last gram of meat off the animal, therefore less waste.
2. Easier to keep your meat clean [no hair every where]
3. All butchering done when the meat is warm and easy to separate the muscle groups
4. You don't get covered in blood during the carry
5. No bone/pelt to dispose of when you get home
6. If you get home late, no work to do do, just throw the bags into the fridge and start processing the following day
7. If you are in camp, with the meat in plastic bags, there are no fly issues.

Originally Posted by hotbarrels

I can never really see the point in this type of carry, or in carrying out the whole animal. A large hind fully boned out will yield 15-20kg of meat, and a big stag up to double that. With bone and pelt its probably double that again. Why carry out what you are going to throw away?
I always carry 4 heavy duty, large plastic bags in my pack, and bone the animal out in the bush. The bags roll up into a "rod" 350mm long and about 20mm dia and are easily stowed in your pack.

Advantages:
1. Less weight to carry out [with two buggered knees and a ruptured disc on my back this is a biggie]
1A. With packing out less weight, you can focus on boning out every last gram of meat off the animal, therefore less waste.
2. Easier to keep your meat clean [no hair every where]
3. All butchering done when the meat is warm and easy to separate the muscle groups
4. You don't get covered in blood during the carry
5. No bone/pelt to dispose of when you get home
6. If you get home late, no work to do do, just throw the bags into the fridge and start processing the following day
7. If you are in camp, with the meat in plastic bags, there are no fly issues.

Agree with a lot of those points except the use of plastic bags. The meat will sweat unless cooled completely down and who has time for that in the bush??

Hamish

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

Agree with a lot of those points except the use of plastic bags. The meat will sweat unless cooled completely down and who has time for that in the bush??

Hamish

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

I have never had an issue, but that said my meat is usually into the fridge for aging in a short space of time.
I always open the tops of the bags to let the meat breath once back in camp and to get the meat as cool as possible as quickly as possible. I usually have 4-5 bags per animal, so that's 4-5Kg of meat per bag of a 20kg boned out hind.
If the weather is warm, or access to a chiller is delayed, I transfer the meat to muslin back at camp.