Fun Survey

[Keith Zimmerman]

How do u guys hang your critters, by the hind legs or around the neck?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Head up, 100%. Doesn't do much good for all that to drain and stay in the head/neck area. Makes me cringe every time I see them hanged back legs up. That's where stink comes from!

[Danny Rowan]

If I am cleaning right away and boning out if not field dressed, hind legs, if I am letting it hang, head.

[Blackhawk]

Head down.

I always field dress in the woods, so nothing left to drain or stink up.  Besides, Larry Benoit (probably greatest deer hunter of all time) said,

"we don't hang a buck by his neck,that's degrading to the buck,he's too majestic of an animal even in death,to humiliate that way".

[4dogs]

Hang em up by the quarter or bag. I cant remember the last animal we brought out whole.

[Bladepeek]

Head down. I learned to field dress in Germany, where the throat is slit, windpipe cut and the esophagus tied off. Both are then removed through the chest opening, leaving the neck free to drain through the mouth and nose. The femoral artery is also slit so the hind legs drain out. Really very little blood left in them.

[Fritz]

Head down on a buck to be caped. Everything else is head up.

[Sockrsblur]

Head down, somewhere in my mind I never cared for the look of head up but never till now said it out loud. Either way they look dead. be respectful and process the deer to the freezer and any way is good with me.

[mlsthmpsn]

I did both ways this year, side by side....similar size deer, hung in the same amount of time after kill.

Both pools were the same size on the cardboard I laid under them.

[ChuckC]

Head down.  They don't hang long enough to matter much.  Also, upon my arrival home, no matter the time, I take the garden hose out and thoroughly wash and trim the inner cavity while the critter is on a fairly steep slope.  Most drains thru the rear before I even hang it up.  It is clean as it is gonna get once I am done and can dry quickly.
ChuckC

[Guss]

Head down..

[medic77]

Head down and I agree with Sockrsblur, I never liked the way it looked either

[Stump73]

To be honest head down is the only way ive ever hung one. I guess thats because that the way I was taught.

[maineac]

Head down.  I still get a lot of draining out mouth and nose when I cut esophagus off high. My buddy hangs opposite, but I never liked it. I feel I am a lynching

[Tim]

Head down.  I get the hide off immediately, debone the hind quarters, pull the tenderloins, remove the front shoulders and get everything in the fridge for 10 days.

[jamesh76]

Mostly head down.  Occasionally head up if I still gotta gut it but I usually do that in the field.

[stagetek]

Hang it from the head and let it drain and cool. When I butcher it I turn it head down.

[mwosborn]

Both ways work.  Usually head up unless I am caping one out.  I am not sure hanging by the legs upside down is any less "degrading" than by the head...but each of us have to decide that for ourselves I guess.

[Doug_K]

Head down. Easier to fillet the cuts off the deer for me.

[monterey]

Mine are dressed in the field and hung in camp head down and the skin comes off straight away.  Often it's too warm to leave the skin on.  If fly's are a problem it has to be quartered or debone and put in a cooler.  Or sometimes taken straight to town to the processor.

I never gave much thought to the aesthetics of hanging head up, but upon thinking about it, it does seem a bit ignoble.