How old to clean a deer

[999]

At what age did you let your kids clean the deer? I’m not specifically talking about helping, holding the quarters and packing the meat in the coolers, but the actual knife work?

I imagine it’s somewhat like them being old enough to shoot them, it will greatly depend on the individual kid and their maturity level.

[droebuck]

Around 12 is when I started getting to do more than than just hold this or that.

[Outback]

I was 12. My grandad handed me a knife and said "you shot her, you clean her" he laughed hard when I plunged the knife into her stomach and started gutting her. I almost threw up. Learned a great lesson that day and still have the knife and the .300 Savage model 99

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[junkmanhunter]

I had my kids helping around 8 or 9 and cut them loose around 12 or 13. I still helped and gave advice to them on their first couple.

A lot depends on maturity and how many they have been around and watched.

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[gatorgar]

I was 7 or 8 when I was first handed a knife to skin one. 10 before I was allowed to dress one out. Then again, my gramps and dad were butchers so I'd been around it all my life. Did my first one completely alone at 12.
It depends on the kid.

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[BrandonH]

I was around 10 when I cleaned my first deer all alone. My Dad was standing by watching, and for the last 30 years I've cleaned nearly all of them with him watching.

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[MUZZYSLINGR]

“You killed it you get to clean it.”
I was 12 when I finally got one on my own.

But like others have already said, I was in on the helping to clean them when my dad or uncles got one so I wasn’t to bad at it when it was my turn up to bat.


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[tps7742]

I was around 10 when I cleaned my first deer all alone. My Dad was standing by watching, and for the last 30 years I've cleaned nearly all of them with him watching.

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I love to hear of stories like this about enjoying the hunting with their fathers.

[curtintex]

My dad completely stopped cleaning deer when I was 13. Not just my deer....he stopped cleaning his too. He’s still glad to stand there and tell me how to do it. Looks like beetles got to it when I’m through because God forbid I leave an ounce of meat on those bones. Old guys are finicky![emoji849][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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[catslayer]

Very kid dependent... 14? But I didnt get to deer hunt until 12

[sharpstick35]

my 5 year old daughter likes to watch every time. shes got a few more years though. she even shoots at the foam block with her toy bow

[BTLowry]

I think I was 12 or 13 the first time I gutted one with instruction from an adult

[big_smith]

Started helping as early as I can remember. My grand dad was a deer killer so we cleaned a bunch. Helped skin most of them and would pitch in to help gut on the easy parts. Probably 10 when I got cut loose to do it on my own and by 12 they didn’t even assist.

[twosixteens]

12 13 if they have seen it done and helped a few times

[glen]

My kids started early. Around 8 or nine. I’d gut them and help hang then sit and watch. No major hospital visits. My kid cleaned the deer in my avatar. He shot it he cleaned it. He cut the gut on that one bad