[magslinger]

they found two deer and spent three days preparing the carcasses in their campus-area house; the hide from one of them is still hanging in the basement, waiting to be tanned.

Three days? Two of us turn a deer into serving portions in about four hours using a couple of knives, sharpening stone, hacksaw, freezer paper and tape. We could do it in less, but we're fussy about keeeping the fell, tallow and deer hair off the meat.

[Smokin' Joe]

Filet knives (for fishing) work really well for boning the meat, and are relatively cheap as well...

[EagleMamaMT]

"Three days? Two of us turn a deer into serving portions in about four hours using a couple of knives, sharpening stone, hacksaw, freezer paper and tape. We could do it in less, but we're fussy about keeeping the fell, tallow and deer hair off the meat."

Exactly! The last deer I helped my husband process, though, I was 3 weeks postop from a Cesarean section, so I couldn't help with any of the really heavy work - I just cleaned the meat, wrapped it and put it in the freezer. With all the nursing breaks for the youngun, it took us about 8 hours to get it finished.

I know what you mean about being fussy about cleaning the meat well. Nothing worse than hair and debris left on meat! Yuck!