Skinning a Deer with a Golf Ball

I read this in a magazine, I don't remember which one now, but it claimed to be the cleanest way to skin a deer. We decided to 'road test' this one! It sounded lame, but what the h*ll we all learn by our mistakes right?

From the magazine:

Lay the deer belly-up on a sheet of plastic or plywood. Make an incision through the skin all the way around the deer's neck about 6 inches below the ears. Make another incision from the neck cut down to a point between the front legs. Continue this incision out the inside of each front leg as far down as you want to skin the carcass.

Working from the top of the deer, free about 6 inches of skin between the top of the shoulder blades, and insert a golf ball or golf ball-size rock.

Tie the head off to a sturdy pole or tree. Make a slipknot in one end of another rope and cinch it over the golf ball, making sure it holds the deer's hide firmly. Attach the other end of this rope to your vehicle's tow hook.

Now just strip the hide from the deer by easing the vehicle slowly away.

Ok. we followed the instructions. Figuring that worst comes to worst, we end up losing a perfectly good hide for tanning and have to drag the whole carcass back up on the tarp where we were working.

When we first got the golf ball under the skin, and tied it off it looked pretty good. We tied the head to the bumper of my 4WD Ford 150 and tied the skin off to the trailer hitch on the Chevy S10 Blazer and made sure everything was snug.

As soon as the Blazer started to creep off, the deer caught tension and started dragging off the tarp behind the blazer till the ropes caught. The rope tied off around the golf ball slipped off and the deer hit the ground and the golf ball rolled away.

We retrieved the golf ball and tried it again, this time tying off a bit more 'hide' under the golf ball. When the Blazer pulled off the second time, I stood and watched the carcass come up off the ground and the hide being stripped from the deer as if by magic.

To say the least, I was surprised. Pleasantly so. The hide came of as clean as a whistle, completely intact and with very little meat on it, leaving little to flesh off for tanning.

Believe it or not, this one worked and worked well.  I wish I could remember who wrote it or where I tore the article from so that I could thank them!