# Roadkill deer: First time butchering



## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

I taught myself to skin a possum a month or two ago, and was waiting to find a fresh roadkill deer. Last night was the night, came across a big doe laying in a neighbors yard, who'd just been hit a few hours earlier.

With zero prior experience in the field, and armed with a kitchen knife and some razor blades, I went at it. 

The guts were ruptured from the accident, with most of the innards outside of the body cavity but still contained in the hide.. That made skinning her pretty gross, and some of the meat got nasty.

Some 4 hours later, I've got 20 pounds of bone free meat in the freezer, plus what the dogs got as I was doing it. I feel bad being wasteful, as it could have been twice that if it werent for the ruptured guts. The only meat I took was back/back legs/and shoulders, the ribs and everything else had _____ leaked all over it, so no bones for the pups. I think next time will go 10x better.

And the dogs, they just love the meat, even more than they like bunny.


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## Zeusismydog (Aug 23, 2001)

So are you going to tan the hide? I bet the doggies love the treat.


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## krystyne73 (Oct 13, 2010)

That's a great idea! Man, when we drove from here to Colorado 2 months ago we counted over 25 dead deer on the road. That could have fed a lot of dogs! LOL


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Nice...we've picked up 2, one was intact inside and we were able to use just about all of the meat. The second we picked up wasn't so pretty. Before we got to him, someone had sawed his head off...he must have had a big rack...he was a big buck. But his stomach had exploded so we were only able to salvage the meat around the outside.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

I know nothing about the subject, but isn't that illegal?


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

No; the law probably varies by location, but here, you have to take the deer to a local police station. They'll verify that the deer was hit by a car (and not shot) and will give you a tag for it.


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## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

Yes, you can get a tag for it from the police as road kill. My dog loves venison too. I just have to be sure not to give too much or she gets loose stools, even when she is on raw all the time. I too feel it is wasteful to just let it rot at the side of the road. Some do get eaten a bit by wildlife.


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## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

Jax's Mom said:


> I know nothing about the subject, but isn't that illegal?


All states are different. I'm fairly certain it's legal here... I wouldn't be too concerned about it, as long as you remember the third S.. SHUT UP! If anyone comes to ask, I have no idea what they're talking about.  If I hadn't taken it, someone else would have, and if they didn't, DOT takes them to rot in the city dump.

As for the hide, I don't know the first thing about tanning, though I would love to learn on a future deer.

How to Skin a Deer for Raw Dog Food

This person says his dog eats the entire head, teeth and all. The dogs really wanted it, but the thought of them trying to munch down a whole skull scared me. Thoughts?


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## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

Not sure what nutritional value would be in the skull besides the brain, maybe tongue. Just recreational bone chewing maybe. I see antlers for sale for dog chews too, but I wouldnt want to encourage my dog to chew the antlers I have on display in my house  We are getting part of an old swing set, the heavy duty kind at parks. Going to use it to hang the deer from. Do you have the hanger and pulley?


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

Ok now for my next question... How do you get it home? :rofl: 
(I had a moment of silence for the deer a minute ago)

Up near my parents' house deer get hit all the time... Wheels are turning...


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## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

Throw it in the back of your pick up truck. We have also put a tarp down in the mini van and put it in there, they will fit on the roof of any vehicle too.


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## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

dawnandjr said:


> Not sure what nutritional value would be in the skull besides the brain, maybe tongue. Just recreational bone chewing maybe. I see antlers for sale for dog chews too, but I wouldnt want to encourage my dog to chew the antlers I have on display in my house  We are getting part of an old swing set, the heavy duty kind at parks. Going to use it to hang the deer from. Do you have the hanger and pulley?


Next time I may let them go at the skull. As for a pulley system, HA! I used a rope, a tree limb and an F350  I'm already preparing for next time.. better hanging set up, looking for a bone saw, "gut hook" and more appropriate cutlery.



Jax's Mom said:


> Ok now for my next question... How do you get it home? :rofl:
> (I had a moment of silence for the deer a minute ago)
> 
> Up near my parents' house deer get hit all the time... Wheels are turning...


To get her home, I wiggled her onto a tarp, rolled the tarp up real tight so I had hand holds, and deadlifted (no pun intended) her into the trunk. Two people would have been much easier. 

My parents see deer on their road every week or two. They drive the road often enough they can tell when a fresh one pops up, and have agreed to call me next time.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

We have a minivan and an SUV and throw a tarp in the back to put the deer on. If the deer is really messy or if it's not really fresh I won't bring it home. 
I haven't fed a deer head, but have fed a goat head which is about the same size. It took a while but all that was left was the bottom part of the jawbone and some teeth. There is the brain, eyes, tongue, and some meat but the rest is mostly bone.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

my dogs get sheep heads about twice a month , including the pups -- everything there but the skin . Only thing remaining is usually the very back of the lower jaw and a few teeth. 
Carmen


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

southforsunshine said:


> This person says his dog eats the entire head, teeth and all. The dogs really wanted it, but the thought of them trying to munch down a whole skull scared me. Thoughts?


Do the deer in your state carry the wasting disease (similar to Creutzfelt-Jacob's disease)? If they do, avoid feeding spine/skull/lymph nodes.

--http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/disease/cwdinformation.asp


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

We are on a list from the LEO's for roadkill. If it is freshly hit, they call, and whoever on the list wants it first gets it. Better than rotting on the side of the road(we have no funds to remove roadkill in this area) I would not feed it fresh, I would freeze first due to parasites. I fed the dogs a fresh deer heart a few years ago and Kacie came down with a digestive bug, Onyx didn't however...


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

southforsunshine said:


> came across a big doe laying in a neighbors yard... ...Some 4 hours later, I've got 20 pounds of bone free meat in the freezer



Really good idea, but I have to ask- you found a "big doe" but only got 20 pounds of meat?? That's not much at all... Still- free is free, I suppose.


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## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

onyx'girl said:


> We are on a list from the LEO's for roadkill. If it is freshly hit, they call, and whoever on the list wants it first gets it. Better than rotting on the side of the road(we have no funds to remove roadkill in this area) I would not feed it fresh, I would freeze first due to parasites. I fed the dogs a fresh deer heart a few years ago and Kacie came down with a digestive bug, Onyx didn't however...


Everyone has told me the same thing, and when I asked the sheriff they looked at me like I was stupid... "We call the DOT and they pick it up". I've seen them around here, dedicated trucks that pick up road kill and take it to the dump. I'm going to make some more calls to the city, local PD, highway patrol (state police), and DOT to see if anyone runs a roadkill list.

No chronic wasting disease here. Has there ever been a case of CWD being transmitted to another non-deer animal? 

Probably a good call to avoid feeding it fresh. I'm going to let the meat sit in the freezer for 30 days before giving them anymore. I've heard this is even more important for rabbits and the parasites they carry.


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## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

wildo said:


> Really good idea, but I have to ask- you found a "big doe" but only got 20 pounds of meat?? That's not much at all... Still- free is free, I suppose.


-From what I read, does around here sometimes only yield 30 pounds of meat. 

-Most of it was really gross from the crap sack busting open and ejecting from the ribcage, so I took what I could get.

-It was my first time, at 3 AM, with no guidance

I've got a list of excuses, seeee?  Next time will be less wasteful.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Hey you did good! I don't know if I would deal with it spur of the moment, what we do for the pups!


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

Haha... works for me! Must have some tiny doe. We usually get about 60 to 65lbs for our decent sized doe around here.


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## southforsunshine (Mar 8, 2011)

wildo said:


> Haha... works for me! Must have some tiny doe. We usually get about 60 to 65lbs for our decent sized doe around here.


What do you include in that 65 pounds? All I cut off was the strips of muscle along the spine, the butt meat and the shoulders. Wish I could have got the ribs and some of the meaty areas on her torso but it was pretty nasty. I'm guessing if I would have salvaged everything, it would have been closer to 45-50 lb. 

I literally have zero experience butchering animals (been vegan for 7 years, you couldn't be more right when you said "what we do for the pups!")

What else should I look for next time? Someone said tenderloin and kidney loin, whatever that is? I pretty much just cut along bones and removed any meat that I saw. Guess I'll learn a little more each time.

Should I cut along the obvious "white lines" (white lines of fat/tendons/something that gave each muscle a visible separation). For example, the back muscles were super easy.. Just slid the knife down along the spine, and then along the visible edge of the muscle and it came right out.

What do you do when you get to ribs and stuff? Remove them with a butcher knife or something?


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## Greydusk (Mar 26, 2010)

Wow, here in Arizona you can't touch roadkill (or a lot of live animals) without a special permit. Even then, to harvest anything the animal had to have died of natural causes and be inspected by game and fish.


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

I'm not sure what all is taken, other than we don't keep any of the bones or organs (don't keep the ribs either). I've not yet harvested a deer (thinking about hunting this season), but my brother and stepdad do every year. Two years ago my bro took a really big doe- about 155 to 160 pounds. I helped him with the butcher just a bit, but not much to speak of- mostly just in feeding the grinder as he cut off muscle portions from the legs. We ended up with about 65 pounds from that kill. Last year my stepdad got two yearlings around 85 pounds or so. We ended up with about 25 pounds from each.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

My hubby does most of the butchering, I don't have the stomach to do it...but he usually will just use a hatchet or meat cleaver and hack along the top of the ribs to separate them from the spine. We don't have any fancy tools other than a sharp knife. 
For the deer with the busted stomach we also only salvaged 30 lbs or so...off the shoulders, back, and butt. With the other deer who was intact, the only thing we threw out was the head, hide, and leg bones. We kept (and fed) just about everything else...didn't weigh how much we got but definitely at least 60-80 lbs or more.


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## 4evrlove (Mar 13, 2011)

Really, you guys are one heck of great dog parents. I would never be able to do any type of butchering or pick up a road kill animal. You guys are brave and amazing!!


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## idahospud49 (Jan 28, 2011)

My dad put in for an elk this season and I think I am going to try and get drawn for one on the 25th. I guess there are some residual drawings. I would love to start feeding raw, and having an elk would help!


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