In depth tutorial on removing lower leg (butcher joint?) on Elk/Deer?

[shmcleod]

It's the FINDING the joint that's hard. I like Cliff Gray's 90° angle idea

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[shmcleod]

Thanks all. Now I just have to get another elk on the ground and put it to use!

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[ThorM465]

I just had youtube suggest a field dressing video from hoyt that's really good and covers exactly the joint you've asked about.

 

[shmcleod]

I just had youtube suggest a field dressing video from hoyt that's really good and covers exactly the joint you've asked about.

I'll check it out. Thanks!

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[Larry Bartlett]

Here ya go, example on a Dall sheep.

Here's one for a moose, scroll to the 2nd feature until you find hind removal.

 

[Pony Soldier]

It gets even more complicated when they freeze. I pull that lower leg off when I gut them as well as skin the first foot up to the meat when I have to leave them over night in freezing weather. I then replace the skin to cover the bone. It saves me a lot of cussing the next day.

 

[shmcleod]

I just had youtube suggest a field dressing video from hoyt that's really good and covers exactly the joint you've asked about.

"if you know where to cut"

therein lies the problem. I find it eventually, but dull a lot of knives in the process. So was looking for instruction on how to find it...

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[TaperPin]

This is a great post - it has every one who read it thinking hard how to explain it. The fall I was skinning animals part time at a game processor after school and on weekends you’d think repetition would make hitting that joint easy, but until the very end I literally set the knife where my brain was convinced it was, then went 1/2” farther down towards the hooves. I cut the offside of the joint first and make sure it’s going to break ok before finishing the cut around the nearest side. If I missed the joint then I’d make the second attempt from the near side where the hide was intact.

I don’t know that skinning the leg first is helpful. It’s kind of nice to just get them all out of the way and not diddle with a flap of hide and the leg trying to shed hair everywhere while figuring out the cut. Then that cut is the starting point to run the tip of a knife under the hide to quickly unzip the legs and finish skinning.

The two big takeaways from that experience was the importance of a smooth properly shaped point to unzip the legs, and how much more durable a blade is if the microscopic burr is removed from the blade. Cutting through hide and into leg joints all day only required three very light strokes on a diamond sharpening rod or two on a white ceramic in between each animal to keep it shaving sharp, but if the burr isn’t fully removed the knife seemed to dull on the first leg.

 

[shmcleod]

I think the 90° trick is what I'll try next. That, and paying a lot of attention to the calloused spot all elk have on their leg there from bedding down. I think that'll be a useful reference. Looks like the cut is just above that. I attached a Pic

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[TaperPin]

I think the 90° trick is what I'll try next. That, and paying a lot of attention to the calloused spot all elk have on their leg there from bedding down. I think that'll be a useful reference. Looks like the cut is just above that. I attached a Pic

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From that angle you’re too high. Just a few moments later in that video you can see more clearly exactly where he’s cutting into the joint when bent 90 degrees. It’s always lower than most people guess.

 

[TaperPin]

Also, if the hide is removed it makes the distance seem even further down the leg. It might help to remember when the leg is bent 90 degrees you need to go a ball width further down the leg. Lol