# Butcher day



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

At this point in time we are planning a butchering day next Tuesday. If I can find someone to hold a camera would anyone be interested in a few pics of what we do. Our setup is very basic and very ummmm rough but easy to replicate anywhere. We will probably kill 3 pigs and two sheep. I'm not planning on making it a how to guide as we will be pretty busy with that many animals to do, just a few pics and you can ask questions.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Wellrounded said:


> At this point in time we are planning a butchering day next Tuesday. If I can find someone to hold a camera would anyone be interested in a few pics of what we do. Our setup is very basic and very ummmm rough but easy to replicate anywhere. We will probably kill 3 pigs and two sheep. I'm not planning on making it a how to guide as we will be pretty busy with that many animals to do, just a few pics and you can ask questions.


Count me as interested. The more detailed the better. Even after the fact. My suggestion is to take lots and lots of photos even if you don't use them all in a post in that if a specific point comes up weeks later then one of the unused photos might be suited to illustrate the point.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Oooooo! Please share! This would be great info for the rest of us.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Count me in Wellrounded.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Hey, didn't NaeKid and Austin announce some kind of special reward for those of us who write how-to articles? You might want to tailor this forthcoming post to meet what those condition require.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> Hey, didn't NaeKid and Austin announce some kind of special reward for those of us who write how-to articles? You might want to tailor this forthcoming post to meet what those condition require.


Hahaha might not be a 'how to article', lol. Knowing my luck it'll be one of those, 'Oh for goodness sake how did that happen' kind of days. I seem to have a lot of them when there is a camera around. 
We had someone do a sound recording of a kill day here a year ago, I'm pretty sure he had a few editing challenges :teehee:


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Bobbb said:


> Count me as interested. The more detailed the better. Even after the fact. My suggestion is to take lots and lots of photos even if you don't use them all in a post in that if a specific point comes up weeks later then one of the unused photos might be suited to illustrate the point.


This could be helpful to even those of us that butcher. I'm thinking there might be an "ahah" moment where I would see things being done differently, or easier. It's nice to see how other people do things and we can ask questions later.


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## talob (Sep 16, 2009)

Am interested, have butcherd befor but allways ready to learn from others.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

We only did pigs, not pigs and sheep. Weather was turning and we wanted to finish before it rained. Took a pile of pics, I'll go through them and post a few tomorrow if I get time. If I can I'll take a few pics of the butchering tomorrow. We did have a few problems, first pig would not scud and will need a lot of cleaning up in the kitchen..... These things happen (when there are cameras, lol). The third pig was one we sold to a friend so I was teaching him to dress it. He did a great job for his first pig.


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## talob (Sep 16, 2009)

Looking forward to learning your process.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

me too! cant wait to see them. I've only field dressed deer and elk before, well as big game. So I'm definitely interested in others, especially pigs because as soon as the new hunting licenses go on sale I'm going pig hunting.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Wellrounded said:


> We only did pigs, not pigs and sheep. Weather was turning and we wanted to finish before it rained. Took a pile of pics, I'll go through them and post a few tomorrow if I get time. If I can I'll take a few pics of the butchering tomorrow. We did have a few problems, first pig would not scud and will need a lot of cleaning up in the kitchen..... These things happen (when there are cameras, lol). The third pig was one we sold to a friend so I was teaching him to dress it. He did a great job for his first pig.


You got me. I had to google it and googled it a couple of different ways. What the heck is scud please? And why wouldn't the pig do it?


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

jeff47041 said:


> You got me. I had to google it and googled it a couple of different ways. What the heck is scud please? And why wouldn't the pig do it?


Removing the hair and top dermal layer. I'll explain it all when I post the picks. Taking longer than I was hoping to butcher today as I'm also teaching.... Might not get the pics up until tomorrow.
The first pig was hard to scud, I think the water temp was a little high and the hair/skin set and would not scrap off easily.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Oh Okay. Just never heard it called scud. When I was little, we used to dip the pigs in a 55 gallon drum of water that was slanted at the end of a big table with the fire right under the barrel. Then pull them up on the table and scrape them. My job, when young was to cut up the lard.

I don't know why we stopped butchering when I was young. We started again when I was a teen. But we skin them as opposed to scudding them. I'll have to ask my brothers why we started skinning them.

We're not going anywhere. Take your time with the pics. We can learn next week or the week after that!


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

jeff47041 said:


> We're not going anywhere. Take your time with the pics. We can learn next week or the week after that!


I agree. I'd hate to see this thread abandoned because of a feeling that there is too much to cover in too short a time.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

I'll be posting a few pics at a time over the next few days. 
We didn't take any where near enough pics to make this a guide but enough to give you an idea of what we do. 

There are a few images here of me.... These are rare, there wouldn't be more than 30 photos of me in existence that I know of (hate cameras...), so consider yourselves privileged :laugh:


First image is the chip heater, second shows the bath, chip heater and you can see the propane tank attached to one of two gas rings under the bath, third is the old table we scud on and fourth my DH taking the temp of water as it leaves the chip heater. We are aiming for about 65 deg c (150 f)in the bath before we put the pig in.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

In my mind I imagined a 55 gallon drum being used and the pig being dunked in that, but I can see how an old tub, with it's wider opening, would probably be a better idea. Thanks.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> In my mind I imagined a 55 gallon drum being used and the pig being dunked in that, but I can see how an old tub, with it's wider opening, would probably be a better idea. Thanks.


With a bath you can start removing hair and skin before you take them out too. We can use a block and tackle for really heavy pigs but with smaller ones you can get 2-4 people around the bath and just muscle them in and out.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Sorry double post.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

We shoot the pig in the yard to minimize stress and bleed it out there. Then into the wheelbarrow and up to our work area.

Into the bath and left until the skin and hair falls off easily. The test area is base of the neck and under the legs as these areas can be the most difficult. Another indicator that it is ready is if the toe nails pull off easily. 

We had a lot of problems with scudding on this day, a combination of water temperature and cold air temperature I think. 

We use hide cleaning tools, back of knives and garden hand tools to scrape the pig. If you get the soaking right anything will do to scrap the hair/skin off. Pouring a bit of bathwater over the pig will help keep it warm. If we have less people working on the pig we'll cover some of it with wet/hot hessian bags to keep warm.

Last pic is some of the crew. My daughter, her daughter, her hubby and me.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Where do you aim with the kill shot? Is it worth getting one of those bolt pistols which stun the animal into unconsciousness to allow you to bleed it out or is a bullet to the noggin the better way to go? What is too small a caliber to do the job and what is overkill, pardon the pun?


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

DH uses 22 long rifle. One inch from the muzzle, high on the forehead between the eyes/ears. For sticking (bleeding) a ten inch homemade stiletto into the heart. Bullet to the brain, then stick as quick as possible as only a few seconds after shooting the pig will begin to thrash and kick and getting close with a knife can be dangerous at that point. This thrashing and kicking helps a good bleed out. If you're not confident with sticking into the heart you can do a long cut up the up the throat (not across) first, plenty of pics of this on the net.
22 is more than adequate at that range. If you were standing back and a good shot 22 magnum or 22 center fire would do the job. Anything bigger is overkill. Use whatever you've got but anything bigger will do more damage, not a problem really unless you want the brains.
In Australia we can own a captive bolt (spike of about 2 inches or so) without a gun license, these still kill not just stun. Stunning is by electric shock. We don't see any point in owning one when hubby is a licensed rifle owner. If we didn't have a rifle license we'd definitely buy one.


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