How to Quarter a Deer

I'm going to show you how to quarter a whitetail deer and break it down into each of the primal cuts. For an in-depth visual demonstration, check out the video above!

Before you start, you need to make sure you have an adequate knife. I like to use a six-to-eight-inch boning knife. Boning knives are made for exactly what the name sounds like: getting the meat off of the bone. The blade is shaped to work around the bones, and also has a little bit of flexibility to it, which is important.

Flank

Step one is to remove some of this flank meat to expose the tenderloins. I start at the intersection of the hind quarter and the body and make a cut through some of the fascia. I am cutting straight down until I hit the rib.

Then I'll flip my knife and run the blade along that rib.

This will need to be cleaned up further, but this meat is great to add to the grind pile. Repeat the same thing on the other side.

Tenderloins

Next, I'll go in for the tenderloins. The tenderloins are located inside the carcass, and they are some of the most tender pieces of meat on the entire deer, so you want to treat these with care! Now that we have opened up our workspace, we can see the tenderloins a lot better, which will make it easier to remove them.

To get started, make a cut on each side of the tenderloin and cut across at the bottom. With my left hand, I peel the meat away while I make cuts with my knife--peel, cut, peel, cut, cutting right along the bone.

It appears as though the tenderloin stops at the top, but it actually goes up quite a bit further, so I cut around it and follow the meat all the way up. It gives you a little bit extra.

Up at the top, I make a cut. This will need to be cleaned up further, but set it aside and repeat on the opposite side.

Shoulders

Next, we're moving onto the shoulders. It's important to remove the shoulders before we remove the backstraps because there's a portion of meat that kind of wraps around and covers some of the backstraps. By removing the shoulders first, you get a better workspace to access the backstraps. The shoulder's really interesting because there's not anything more than meat and some connective tissue holding it together. There's not a ball and socket joint like you experience on the hip, so the shoulder is really easy to remove.

All you need to do is push the leg away from the carcass and make a solid cut where you see a transparent kind of fascia, or connective tissue, in between the shoulder and the rest of the carcass. Repeat the same thing on the opposite side.

Backstraps

Now it's time for the backstraps. The backstraps are the second most tender cuts on the deer behind the tenderloins, and they run from the back right where the hip meets the rest of the body all the way down, and they kind of transform into the neck down at the bottom.

The first thing to do is make a horizontal cut across, right where the hindquarters pinch in and meet the rest of the body. There's a natural pinch point where you'll make your cut all the way until you hit the spine. Then, I'm going to flip my knife so the blade is facing down, and I'm going to draw straight down the spine on the right side.

The backstrap ends about right here (location of 3rd cut shown below), so I will make another little cut, not super deep, but a cut down on the right side just to make it a little bit easier as I go.

With my knife blade pointed towards the spine, I'm cutting straight down using my left hand to peel the meat away, so I have a better view and continuing that cut straight down. I'm pulling with my left hand and cutting where there's tension as I go down.

Once we get down to the neck, there's a certain point where you'll see the back strap becoming smaller than this other muscle that's running against it. That's about where you want to cut it off with a straight cut. Repeat on the other side.

Rib Meat

Next is the rest of the flank meat covering the rib cage down. To remove this meat, I'm going to start here on the corner, and I'm going to peel away with my left hand as I filet the meat off of the ribs. You'll know you're doing it right if your knife runs across the rib bones as you cut this meat off the bone.

I like to go to the same point where we cut off our backstrap. You're just going to cut straight across.

Set that meat aside and repeat the same thing on the opposite side. Next, I will remove all of the meat between the ribs. As long as you do not gut-shot the animal and as long as you don't accidentally get the guts everywhere during the gutting process, the rib meat is fantastic to take and add to your grind pile. To do this, we will stick our knife between the two ribs. Cut in one direction, flip your knife, then cut in the other direction until you have a little strip. Then repeat that all the way down on both sides between each rib.

Neck Meat

Moving on to the neck, I like to grind my neck meat, but you can also keep it as a roast. All we're going to do is continue that same line we created from cutting the back strap off of the spine and continue that all the way down. I use my left hand to pull the meat away from the bone to create some tension and space, and then make a cut and literally just cut the meat away from the bone. It's really as simple as that. Just repeat on both sides.

Separate the Hind Quarters

Next, I'll lower the carcass on the hoist system a bit so I can make a cut with a saw right where the hindquarters meet with the rest of the body at the spine.

Next, I'll lower the hindquarters and move them to the tailgate of a truck or a table or anywhere I have a flat surface to work on getting the hindquarters off the pelvis. Here, I will make a cut down each side of the spine until I hit the tailbone, pulling the meat away from the bone as I cut.

There are a couple of bones that protrude off of the pelvis that you need to work around. Near where I made that cut for the backstrap, a bone comes out at a Y angle on each side. You'll need to work the meat off of that, and all you need to do is rest the bone against the knife and cut the meat away.

Take your time doing this. It's better to be slow and ensure you're not accidentally losing any meat as you cut away the hind quarter. The second protrusion is back off to the side of the anus. It's just a small piece of bone that comes out, and you just need to work your knife around it as you did with the Y bone to ensure you get all that meat off.

After you've cut both sides as far in as you can, flip the pelvis over so you can cut the meat off the pelvis bone from the front. Start at the top and trace the outline of the pelvis all the way down. As I cut, I'm actively pushing the hips down and away to expose the hip joint.

Popping the ball out of the joint makes life much easier for getting in there and carving the meat off the bone. Eventually, the cuts I'm making from the inside will meet up with those I made from the opposite side. Remember up top that annoying Y bony protrusion I had to cut around on the other side? With my knife blade pointed up and the side of my knife resting along part of the ball joint, I'll follow the line of the pelvis up until I hit that bone so I can't go any further.

At that point, I will cut the remaining tissue holding the leg onto the pelvis to remove it.

The last thing to do is cut the leg's bottom portion off each hind quarter. After that, you have successfully quartered your deer. From here, you can clean up each of these cuts and package them, and then you'll have many wonderful meals ahead of you.

--Outdoors Allie