Dealing with a hairy crotch

So normally when I shoot an animal I fully bone it out in the field where it fell so that I am not carrying anything out that I don't eat.
On my last two hunts, I shot one deer and 5 goats and due to bad weather and having my quad so close, I took the back steaks, and all the legs, leaving the skin on. I discovered that the best way to do this was to first take the lower leg sections off at the first joint, than cut the legs off the body and place them in large rubbish bags. Once back at base, I used a S-hook through the top of the leg (so that it is hanging pointy end down) which made is really easy to skin since all the hair is pointing down hill (same direction as your cuts) and any loose hair is falling away from the exposed meat where the legs were removed from the body.

My issue is, when cutting the legs off the body in the field, there is a huge amount of hair getting onto the freshly exposed cut around the joint (a hairy crotch) which is very annoying and time consuming to deal with later. I don't have this issue when I fully bone out as I am very particular with my cuts.

So what does everyone else do to prevent the hairy crotch syndrome?

The way you cut through the skin can determine how much hair gets on the meat. I try to cut from in to out rather than out to in. This help reduce the amount of actual hair I am cutting.

I don't worry about it. Keep as clean as possible and then rinse with water and pat dry just prior to cooking. If freezing just bag it up and rinse/dry just before cooking.

Good god I was worried that you had personal issues.

That’s how we dress the deer but don’t have any issues, I assume you start on the inside leg and cut down towards the tail?

Maybe you need to take some shaving cream and a razor into the bush with you. Give the goats a brazilian before you get to work.

... Just don't get seen doing it else you'll raise a few eyebrows.

Shave before you go hunting

Veet for Men

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Originally Posted by canuck hunter

Good god I was worried that you had personal issues.

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And I was going to offer a free wax'n shave...

Must be the way you cutting the legs off. I normally bone them out in the bush.
I always cut them off and hang them in a tree then skin them and bone them out from there.Tthat way you have hair free meat .
Normally dont have any big issue cutting them off and having hair as a problem. Always cut from the inside out

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Originally Posted by mimms2

Do you need the skin on or just use it as a convenient container?
As chur bay, get the knife under the skin, blade facing you, open them up, peel skin back on the off-side if you need to, then get to cutting the meat/detaching limbs.

Depending how much meat and what animal, I may hang it, skin it, spread the skin on the ground, then chuck all the meat cuts on the skin and roll it up to pack out.
Hope it's well cooled before you're chucking it in plastic.

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Better still never use plastic and use pillowcases or something similar

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Originally Posted by deer243

Better still never use plastic and use pillowcases or something similar

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Yup pillow cases are perfect. A few in the pack can hold a lot of meat.

look at your hand...fingers pointing away from you...when you poke knife tip into skin and cut it from inside to out,blade towards outside,the knife slides between the hairs,like poking one finger from other hand from palm,to finger tips,it parts the others...just like your fingers,BUT if you cut into skin blade towards flesh..its like slicing across fingers and each hair gets sliced and falls wherever.

I don't mind a bit of hair caught between my teeth, its when you cough up a fur ball that you realise something is not quite right.

What do you call a Roman with a pubic hair in his teeth?
Gladiator:thumbsup:

I really hate dealing with the hair and dirt that sticks to the exposed leg meat. I usually end up just cutting off those exposed dirty hairy bits at home but it is a waste of good meat. When I have several pieces of animal in my pack, each piece has it’s own pillowcase or cheesecloth so the hide of one piece doesn’t taint the exposed meat of another piece. Another solution is to to debone in the field, but that takes a lot of extra time and need to be careful with hygiene. I bring a lot of baby and disinfectant wipes for those trips. Others have already mentioned the cutting technique to reduce amount of hair flying around and that helps.

So no magic blue pills out there ...... :)

As I said in the original post, I normally bone out on the spot and am very particular at keeping the meat clean from hair and other debris. In that situation, all openings of the hide are done from inside out and in the direction of hair lay. I skin it such that the hide becomes a natural barrier for any ground debris. I never wash my meat - never needed to.

On the whole leg removals in the last two hunts I have just cut through the hide from the outside in, which goes against all my learning and experience, but that's how I've seen others do it.
I will definitely go back to standard of cutting inside to out.

In my kids days, the regularly had bush fires as their parties, woof and it’s gone

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Originally Posted by Chur Bay

What do you call a Roman with a pubic hair in his teeth?
Gladiator:thumbsup:

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Took me while that one :D

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Originally Posted by hotbarrels

So normally when I shoot an animal I fully bone it out in the field where it fell so that I am not carrying anything out that I don't eat.
On my last two hunts, I shot one deer and 5 goats and due to bad weather and having my quad so close, I took the back steaks, and all the legs, leaving the skin on. I discovered that the best way to do this was to first take the lower leg sections off at the first joint, than cut the legs off the body and place them in large rubbish bags. Once back at base, I used a S-hook through the top of the leg (so that it is hanging pointy end down) which made is really easy to skin since all the hair is pointing down hill (same direction as your cuts) and any loose hair is falling away from the exposed meat where the legs were removed from the body.

My issue is, when cutting the legs off the body in the field, there is a huge amount of hair getting onto the freshly exposed cut around the joint (a hairy crotch) which is very annoying and time consuming to deal with later. I don't have this issue when I fully bone out as I am very particular with my cuts.

So what does everyone else do to prevent the hairy crotch syndrome?

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Ok here are some tips you may want to consider mate:

1. Hock the legs AFTER you have taken the legs off the animal and the meat is set. You need to use the legs as a handle and so you can pull on them so that the legs pull away and seperate nice and easy from the ball joints. You should be able to take a leg off with bugger all hair on the meat.

2. Are you skinning the area around the hairy crotch BEFORE you remove your legs? You take this skin off first so that there actually using any hair there to get on your meat.

3. Hang all your legs and backsteaks to allow them to cook BEFORE you put in plastic. Warm venison in plastic is a fuck up. Ideally use actual meat bags or pillow cases instead. I always set and chill meat before I put it in anything as once it’s all packed in together it generally heats up again.

4. Never wash venison it’s a fuck up. Whatever traces of hair left can be removed with a damp paper towel.

5. Skinning the hind quarters is usually where the hair gets involved. As some have said when you are making your cuts in the skin to get started always cut outwards never inwards this makes a massive difference. Take care when peeling the skin down and hold it so that it’s not touching the meat.

6. Your obviously getting yourself a lot of hind quarters so I’d expect you to be an expert at all of the above in no time at all!!

7. Nice shooting.