Tough First Butcher

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ReiLossefalme

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I butchered my first rabbit tonight and had a bit of a tough time of it, made a couple mistakes. The first mistake was likely that I chose a 3 year old buck as my first try instead of a nice young fryer. He was large, heavy, and had an insanely thick pelt which stuck to him like glue. My second mistake was being a bit too tentative on the first swing. He didn't struggle much after the first hit to the back of the neck, but he was still blinking and breathing. A second hit in the same spot produced the proper death twitches and limpness, but I felt bad to have not got it right on the first try. I'm big on humane and painless, as opposed to whack it til it's dead. The third mistake was not having a sharp enough knife. I felt really DUMB to have to leave the rabbit lying in the grass so I could go inside to get a different knife to bleed him out. And even that knife took some hacking. Tomorrow I go to the sporting store and get a proper hunting knife.
Thirty minutes in, I was still struggling to get the hide off the back legs. I managed to rip meat off with the pelt in several places, but I seem to have massacred the legs. Forty Five minutes in I was realizing I had forgotten to take off the front feet...as I was failing to tug the entire pelt off over them. Went a bit smoother from there, a few "Hey what's that?" and "Was that supposed to happen?" moments, but the rabbit was cleaned, bagged, and weighed around the hour mark, and only in a moderately mangled condition. I forgot to weigh him live or hanging, but he was 3lbs 7.5oz fully processed. :cool: Hopefully my first litter will be less trouble!
 
Young rabbits are a lot easier to skin but the hides of older rabbits are much better if you want to tan them. Fryers have skin that is paper thin and too fragile for tanning.
Butchering is like any other skill. It takes some time to learn the right way.
On an older rabbit as you pull the hide down you will see a membrane stretching between the meat and the skin. Your knife should be razor sharp. If you keep pressure on the hide and then just sort of stroke your knife across this membrane it will seperate the hide and flesh neatly without tearing any meat.
 
First of all. Good for you. ...YOu did the hardest rabbit that you are going to do. A older buck are the hardest. The skin will hang on there really good. It must have something to do with fighting. The females dont do that. Being your first and a older male at that you did very well. As goes for the killing that takes practise to get. And i use large scissors . Unless you are skinning a male like you did. Then you need a flay knive. That you use for cleaning fish. It works great for that.
 
Find yourself a gambrel, or make one. It's pretty simple to construct. It's that triangular thingy up near the hoist. I've used this for years on critters I've taken off of my trapline. I can set on a chair and raise or lower the rabbit to whatever height I need. I've got a real bad back.
BTW: an old buck is the toughest to skin. They'll wear you out!!
Photo0029-1.jpg


As for a sharp knife...this is the only one I've used for years. It keeps a good sharp, razor's edge and is easy to handle.
http://www.minntrapprod.com/catalog/pro ... cts_id=976

Hope this helps.

Grumpy.
 
You might want to look into the rabbit wringer:

http://rabbitwringer.com/

Very quick, humane, and easy to use. They also sell a processing station. I've used both with another member here, and I will be getting my own as soon as I have a place to mount them.
 
It sounds like you did pretty well overall! We still have the occasional rabbit that we need to whack more than once, and it always makes us feel bad.

I use pruning shears to cut the heads off, snip the tail, and cut through the pelvis. I use a fish fillet knife from Walmart to do the rest. It even cuts through the rib cage.

The last batch we did we had a production line going. Hubs and the kids dispatched them, removed the heads, and skinned them. They then brought them to me in the kitchen where I rinsed them, gutted, rinsed again, and bagged for "resting" in the fridge. I worked next to the sink and used a baking sheet with a raised lip to do the gutting on. It worked great to contain any fluids, and could be spun around to make working on each end of the rabbit easier.

I cut the belly flaps off and put in a teriyaki marinade for jerky, and bagged some whole and others cut up. The rib sections went in bags to be used for soups and stews.
 
Butchering is challenging.
Being able to do it well is an art form of it's own.
Humane kills, efficient cleaning and separation of the meat from the waste is easily learned, but takes a lifetime to perfect.
My first deer took me 5 hours. Now, it takes me about 45 minutes.
With experience comes confidence, and the quality of your methods will improve dramatically.
My suggestion, if possible, is to do 5 or more in quick succession, meaning, one after another.
You'll learn faster, gain a ton of experience in short order, and your quality will jump immensely.
Is the same principles I use to train my people in assembly work.
I break down the process into smaller bites, and have them do a bunch all at once.
Once they have each step, then I put them all together into the entire process, and they develop their own system that works best for them.
 
Just about everyone that butchers for the first time no matter what they watch or read will find troubles. Remember watching or reading is NEVER the same as YOU doing it for the first time. I use a bat on them to kill, but I am a rather large male and have always had a natural eye for accurate swings whether playing baseball or killing rabbits. I like the idea of a pellet gun if you can't dispatch with a bat. I have shown people how to hit them.....here is the problem most generally have....they won't swing the bat with authority the first time which results in something similar to what you describe. (have to hit more than one time) Good job though you have to start somewhere. :) How do you people eat those old bucks....yuck :x

Brian
 
Crossman pellet pistol, shoots 600 fps, more than enough to dispatch rabbits. I use one and can't think of a more humane, or easier way to dispatch a rabbit.

You're not holding an excited, or scared animal, with a pellet gun and it's far less personnal. I put my rabbits in a portable dog pen in the yard and they happily eat grass and never know what happened. Instant kill.

Joe
 
We hang our rabbits like grumpy does. We tried the broomstick method for killing them but Greg prefers the head whack. He uses one knife specifically for processing all this game and sharpens it between each animal. A wringer is a good tool too.
 
I made the "redneck wringer" someone posted in a thread. If the rabbit wringer is anything like it, I'd rather wack. That seems less personal to me, I still have to pull and hear the neck snap.
 
Joe n TN":886h74u1 said:
Crossman pellet pistol, shoots 600 fps, more than enough to dispatch rabbits. I use one and can't think of a more humane, or easier way to dispatch a rabbit.
Click to expand...

When we used a pellet gun, the rabbits flopped around and kicked for a bit. When we whack them on the head there might be a little twitching, but they don't react as strongly as when we shot them.
 
I made a table top dispatcher for my kills. It has a hinged bar that fits into a slot so I just put the rabbit on my dispatcher with its neck over the slot and press down firmly with the bar.

Even rabbits we have never handled stand on it without fear and then crunch, dead rabbit.

Good job skinning such a tough old buck, they are SUCH a hard job to do!

Did you fry the liver? That and the heart and kidneys are our butcher day treat. Mmmmmmmm yummy!
 
GBov":kkqzvzu1 said:
I made a table top dispatcher for my kills. It has a hinged bar that fits into a slot so I just put the rabbit on my dispatcher with its neck over the slot and press down firmly with the bar.
Click to expand...

We need to see a picture of that.

Does it damage the tissue much at the neck? Meaning lots of bruising? And how much kicking or twitching after the "crunch"?

We initially used a pellet rifle, but now use Bowbuild's method of whacking the back of the head while holding the rabbit by the hind legs. When we shot them, sometimes they would kick a lot- the new method seems quicker and more humane.
 
I have bad aim when whacking anything. We use a pellet gun. Yes, there is a lot of kicking and twitching, but as long as the head and front legs are not moving on their own (just moving because they're being pushed by the back legs), the rabbit is dead.

We use a fish and bone knife. Very, very sharp.

We have an assembly-line thing going like MSD. Our daughter shoots and hangs, I skin, my mom takes them inside, my husband cleans, my mom packages. It works very well and quickly.

Our first rabbits, though, took us forever, so don't feel bad. You did just fine, and it will only get better. If you still find that you can't hit hard enough the first time, you do need to find another way of dispatching. :)
MamaSheepdog":2hracd5m said:
GBov wrote:
I made a table top dispatcher for my kills. It has a hinged bar that fits into a slot so I just put the rabbit on my dispatcher with its neck over the slot and press down firmly with the bar.


We need to see a picture of that.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree! We are always looking for more methods of dispatching humanely! It would be good if you could make a new thread with pictures and explanation. :)
 
While I do about a thousand things, I shall do that too :lol:

But I really will as its the best way ever! I can kill and process in my kitchen so not only am I out of the mosquitoes, I am in the air conditioner too. :cool:
 
coffeenutdesigns":1t9jkbwn said:
Does anybody just hang the rabbit upside down and cut the jugular? Is there any reason not to?
Click to expand...

I supose some folks do but rabbits are too strong for me to try it, I like them relaxed and happy when they go.
 
Mary Ann's Rabbitry":3q17fbyh said:
coffeenutdesigns":3q17fbyh said:
Does anybody just hang the rabbit upside down and cut the jugular? Is there any reason not to?
Click to expand...
I really dont think that is a good idea.. They like to scream when they are put upside down. Then they fight like the dickens too. I couldnt do that. To a chicken yes... Not a rabbit.
Click to expand...

Being upside down does not affect a rabbit like it does a chicken. A fast cervical dislocation and THEN hang upside down and slit the neck works well....
 

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