Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Skinning a Deer with Obsidian
Fergus Clare, primitive skills expert, skinned this fallow deer a few weekends ago with a piece of obsidian. It hadn't even been turned into a proper tool. Just a broken shard of rock. You could also do this with a knife but it wouldn't be nearly as awesome.
I have skinned more deer than I can even remember using the more common modern technique of cutting the hide off with a skinning knife. Yet after watching Fergus use this method a few times I am fully sold on it. The old-fashioned hunter-gatherer method that Fergus favors is quicker, easier, carries less risk of injury and results in a hide that is easier to scrape and tan.
Please be aware that this is an extremely graphic and honest portrayal of cutting and pulling the hide off of an animal that had been alive only about 15 minutes earlier. If this is going to disturb or offend you then please do not watch the video.
I'm the guy holding the camera and assisting. We were in a serious hurry on account of the hot summer weather that risked spoilage of the meat. There was no time to set up the perfect shot but I think that this video will still give you a good idea of how to use this technique on your next deer. The video is in 3 parts. I wish I could edit it down into 6 or 7 minutes to tell the story more succinctly, but I have no software, talent or time for video editing.
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8 comments:
Jack,
You didn't bleep it out for YouTube...
Jim
Where are you? Axis deer have become native to Texas. GREAT eating and the tastiest of the cervids.
I meant to say "prettiest of the cervids". Especially the bucks, with their scimitar horns and long brow tines.
@Anonymous 5:24,
I am in Virginia, though I travel all over to hunt invasive species.
Ok yes, axis deer are in Texas and they are breeding but they have not become native. This would be more a textbook definition of an invasive species. Human beings brought them to Texas and deliberately released them and now they are breeding and expanding their range. Maybe in a few thousand years we can call them 'native.' For now we need to consider them at risk of disrupting the natural ecology.
If they are competing with the native coues deer and javalinas and so forth then in the long run only one of them will make it there. Not that I have any idea as to exactly what axis deer are eating in Texas.
The deer in the video is actually a fallow deer. I agree with you that the axis deer are nicer-looking. Fallow deer taste completely identical to whitetails, I have found. I'm yet to eat an axis deer.
I was going to comment that it's a LOT easier to skin if you hang it head down, but Fergus later mentioned it (he said "a little easier" but I'd say a lot watching this). We're maybe a little spoiled, hunting at a ranch where we can hang them with a gambel. But we always peel like that, it's a lot better than skinning the whole hide, though we're a little less fastidious since we don't keep the hides.
We also start the initial cuts on the legs and chest with the deer in what is basically a sawhorse (kind of like this but with solid sides: http://www.trees2timber.com/Saw%20Horse%2003.jpg), it makes it a lot easier and holds it more solidly than hanging. After the initial cuts and removing the feet, we hang and peel. I highly recommend this if you can do it.
The only thing that concerns me here is that the deer wasn't gutted in the field, especially in 95° weather. From childhood I had it drilled into my head to do that. Maybe it's not necessary, what do you think?
Fifth String,
We didn't gut it in the field because the land owner did not want us to. Her land, her rules. However, we got right on it and moved fast. I think that we started skinning this deer within 15 minutes or so of shooting it. We
I quartered off all of the meat right there very quickly after we skinned it. I had a cooler right there and just wanted to get the meat into it ASAP. Gutting the deer would have delayed putting meat in the cooler.
I wrote up a whole description of the day's events here:
http://rule-303.blogspot.com/2010/07/saturday-morning.html
Ah, understand her land, her rules. And that's a great writeup of the day, thanks for the link.
This reminds me also of a story I read quite some years ago, when an expert in flint tool-making (an archaeologist or paleontologist, IIRC) asked a bear hunter (the writer of the story, it was in one of the outdoor mags) to use one of his flint tools to skin the bear. The writer almost tumbled at the first cut, it was so easy. He said it was like cutting through butter.
if you like eating invasive species, try the nilgai. it's a native of asia and relative of the antelope imported to south texas in the areas formerly known as the king ranch. it has no natural predators but tends to die back during freezes and colder winters, so the population is relatively controlled. as an invasive species, there is no season so you can hunt them all year.
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