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

 

[Harvey_NW]

I'm super picky about meat care in the field, my preference is to skin from the backline down so you have plenty of skin side hide to pull on when you get near the hock. The tarsal gland is on the inside of that joint and if you grab hide or run your knife through it accidentally, anything else you cut or touch can smell like a rutty bull/buck. I try to transition my cut line to the outside, and grab the skin side of hide in that area best I can to avoid it. Then bust the joint last, and pull the quarter.

 

[butcherboy]

I always skin out first before breaking the joint. I like to straighten that leg out, step over and hold it between my legs and use two hands to skin. Make your skinning pattern down the back of the leg and back of the tendon. No need to cut the hide around the leg. Just skin out the whole leg and you can cut the hide around the leg from the flesh side. Easier to see where exactly to cut the joint. I just score around it and a little pressure and breaks easily. I did this a lot on WG in the back of trucks when customers would drop off their animals. They were usually quarters with the hide left on the hocks and lower legs attached. I would quickly skin off the hide and break that joint. I impressed a lot of people with that. I always skinned the hocks even if they brought them in with the legs off. I absolutely hated animals hanging in the cooler with hide still on them.