I would hear all the time that once your harvest a deer, it will fill your freezer. I’m skeptical, but let’s see what we come up with. I grew up in the middle of NY State. Most people think of NY as NYC from East-to-West, but we lived in a small rural community like the majority of the State outside the major cities. We had a small farm on 100 acres. There were quite a few dairy operations in our area, so there was a lot of farm land that wildlife benefitted from. Fields of alfalfa and corn were common. Deer hunting was very popular back then (in the 70’s and 80’s). We were even allowed to “have a sick day” from school with our parent’s blessing for opening day of deer season – which I enthusiastically took advantage of. I loved the outdoors (and still do) and have very fond memories of my time with Nature over the years.
Eventually I ended up going to college in Mississippi. Believe it or not, it was not as much of a culture shock as you would think, due to the fact that I befriended those of same ilk as me: country-folk; a.k.a. “Rednecks.” The accents (pronounced “ak-say-ents” down South) were a challenge to interpret for me, just like they would hold their nose and say, “Where y’all from, Wis-kahn-seeein?” Although, they didn’t quite believe me, I explained that there were probably more “Rednecks” in NY than in MS. My one friend was still skeptical until I brought him up to my parent’s place and we went deer hunting there together. He was amazed at all the farm land. I graduated college, moved (and worked) in AL, and after a few more years ended up in middle TN.
Northern versus Southern whitetails.
Northern whitetails (NY). When I hunted deer there, about 45 years ago, unless you had a special permit, you were allowed only one antlered buck per season (that meant, ANY SEASON: kill a buck in archery season, you were done for the year, etc.). We had a Landowner’s permit, so we could get an extra deer of either sex. Current regulations allow you to harvest additional deer if you qualify for the special tags. I didn’t get a clear description of how many tags a typical resident (like we were) can qualify for now, but I would be skeptical if it would be more than 3 or 4 deer total – maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it. NY deer season 2025 in the “Southern Zone” (where we lived) is 15 NOV to 7 DEC (23 days). The typical practice of harvesting deer in our (NY) area was as follows:
- Once killed, you would field dress (gut) the deer, tag it, and transport it home and then typically hang it in from a tree limb or rafter. Some would take it to a deer processing place, a lot would butcher it themselves like we did.
- Hanging the deer. Two methods used. Skin-on or skin-off. Also, head-up (with skin-on), or head-down (both ways). The “skin-on” crowd would say it was the best way because the meat will not dry out as much. They are correct about that, HOWEVER, leaving the skin on the deer will leave it with a stronger, “gamey” taste. Some will say that’s not true, but I have had it both ways and will have to go with the notion of the stronger taste. Taking the skin off will air the meat out more and minimize the wild taste, but, it will dry the meat out somewhat. Head-up or head-down. The hair on the neck is more dense than the rest of the body. Cutting through the hide at the neck and working your way down the deer will increase the chance of more hair on your meat: dense area of hair cut loose with a knife + gravity = meat covered with hair. A common theme of why people do not like venison is that there was hair on the meat when they (tried to) eat it. Another would be the taste was too strong (“gamey”). Head-down method: once you get past the hind quarters and skin around the front legs to the point where your split the skin from field dressing, then you pull the skin down as you go with a little knife-work along the way. You will not cut the hide at the neck, you’ll pull the hide down to the place where you separate the head from the body, hence, less hair, typically. I have seen where people get the initial part started on the hind quarters, then place a ball (like a baseball) on the inside of the hide around start of separating the hide from the back, close to the tail, to make an external “ball” in the hide to wrap a rope around and pull the skin off the deer with a tractor. It’s wise to make sure you have a good solid anchoring of the deer on the rafter before attempting this. We were not that adventurous, so we just did it with the (hand) pull-and-knife method. When complete, it will look just like the beef you see hanging in the meat lockers being aged. We hung ours off a rafter in the back of the barn. The cold temperatures up North allowed us to do this (we would hang for a week or two).
Northern (NY) whitetail deer average size:
o Buck @ 175 lbs. live wt.
o Doe @ 135 lbs. live wt.
Southern whitetails (TN).
A lot more deer down here in TN. You can take 2 antlered bucks (total) and 3 does per day for the whole (gun) season in TN Unit 3. TN gun season runs from 22 NOV – 4 JAN. If my math is right, that’s 43 days. I guess technically you could take 131 deer total (2 bucks + 129 does) – I’m sure there might be a person or two that has done that, but I don’t personally know of any.
- The temperatures down South are too warm to hang the deer outside, so you have a few different options instead:
o Take the deer to a deer processor. They will have a walk-in cooler so they can hang there and will process it for you after aging (for a price).
o Some will field dress, then hang somewhere, skin the deer, then take the meat and typically de-bone it, and get it in a cooler with ice. The meat can sit in the ice bath for a few days and be fine. I don’t like the look of the pale outside meat, but people have tested it immersed in an ice bath versus keeping the meat dry (in a plastic bag) but in a cooler with ice. Apparently, the water-logged meat came out very tender and juicy. I probably should try it someday that way, but, I have a different method that is a slight variation of what we did in NY by hanging the whole carcass, allowing it to freeze and (somewhat) thaw during ageing, then cut up the semi-frozen pieces and package them.
o I will de-bone the deer without gutting (field dressing) it in the field and put all the meat in a heavy trash bag and walk out with it over my shoulder. Once home, I will spread out the meat in the freezer for a day or so until completely frozen. I will then take the pieces out and put them in the sink. Once they just begin to thaw on the outside, I will use a thick-spined knife to work into the muscle seams and pry the muscle groups apart along the seams. Once done, you can shave (with a different knife) the outside layer of fat, sinew, and/or that film on the muscle without taking hardly any meat with it. It is much more difficult when the meat is completely thawed since the muscle will wiggle around while trying to trim and won’t allow you to “shave” the un-edible pieces like you can with a firm (semi-frozen) piece. Most people don’t care, but I am really picky about only having pure red meat without the film, fat, or sinew. My method won’t be aged, either, but it works well enough for me.
Southern (TN) whitetail deer average size:
o Buck @ 140 lbs live wt.
o Doe @ 100 lbs. live wt.
So, back to the opening statement. Shoot one deer and it will fill your freezer. Let’s compare.
NY average buck is 175 lbs. live wt. Assuming no damaged meat from the bullet, boneless edible meat is said to be about 45% of the live weight. This would be 78.75 lbs. That’s almost 40 – 2 lb. packages. Not bad. I would say you can fit that in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator/freezer and about fill it, so maybe that’s what everyone meant. My version of “freezer” is a full upright or chest freezer, so we would probably only get about one shelf-worth (if that). The biggest deer I took in NY was about 300 lbs. live weight – which would be 135 lbs, or roughly 68 – 2 lb. packages. You’re probably still around one shelf of a full-size freezer, but you might be hard-pressed to fit it all in the little compartment of a refrigerator/freezer.
TN average buck is 140 lbs. live weight. Same parameters as above and you get 63 lbs. or about 32 – 2 lb. packages. Significantly less, for sure. My granddaughter just shot a nice buck (see pictures) that was about 180 lbs. live weight. I didn’t weigh everything out so I don’t know what we ended up with (weight of edible meat), but we did get some nice meat out of it (and we are mounting her buck as well).
So, a single average NY buck will generally have more potential to fill a (refrigerator/freezer) freezer than the smaller TN cousin. Fair enough. I should be stated though, if you are ambitious, you can harvest 131 deer in just the TN gun season alone – not including archery and muzzleloader seasons, compared to a total of maybe a half dozen (being generous) in NY.
My granddaughter took a buck and doe (first year hunting) and I took 8 does last year – 10 deer between us. We had jerky, steaks, shanks (for slow cooking), and plenty of hamburger. We gave some to friends and family too. The TN deer are definitely smaller, but we make up for it in volume.
