After harvesting and dressing out their deer, some folks hang their deer with the head up (more so in the east?), while others hang their deer with the head down (more so in the west?).
Just two different theories on blood drainage I suppose?

Which way do you hang your deer?
Any particular reason for hanging it head up or head down?

Guess I've always hung them head down. Never thought about it, but that's the way grandpa and dad did it.

Seems to me if you are capeing an animal it would be lots more difficult head up. After pulling the hide off, splitting the chest and removing the windpipe any blood going down ends up on the floor anyway.

When not saving the cape on elk or deer I hang them head down. It seems like they're much easier to skin thatta way. Just my 2 cents worth :cool:

RJ

Heads up for me. I usually don't have to worry about caping a buck. I'm all about meat. I also don.t see much bleeding after the deer is dead. Q

Head down. Not worried about the blood draining out issue, but because God was nice enough to provide those nice strong tie points on the tendon/joint of the....uhm...."knees", on the back legs of the deer. This area gets skinned out while laying on the ground, then (with at least two people participating, 3 are better), hoisted up one leg at a time to a tree branch. Then, skin/peel the rest of it down. If caping, peel it down around the head as far as can be, then cut the head off, then cape out the rest on the ground.

Elk get skinned and parted out on the ground, because we usually don't have a football team with the height of a basketball team with us to hoist it up!:p

If your not near a vehicle when skinning or have a horse or four wheeler available you folks ought to go over to our tech section and read "skinning your buck with a pickup". so much easier. After it's skinned you can hang it any way you please, but once you 've used this method there's no simpler way to skin a big game animal.

Head down, for all the reasons that Shawn listed, plus I would think that having the head and neck would get in the way hanging head up

A friend and his brother was on a guided elk hunt. His brother got a bull down in some really rough terrian. The guide showed 'em how to quarter it without removing the hide. Sounded like the guts stayed in the carcass and even the tenders was removed.

A method used by Indians harvesting bison (buffalo), back in the 1700-1800's quite often would position the dead buff' on its stomach, with the legs stretched out to their sides. In this way, the hide could be cut down the back bone, skinned off/down the side of the animal and laid out from the carcass on the ground, outwards from the animal, yet still the hide would be unskinned/attached to the stomach area (that would be taken care of later on). With the hide laid outwards in this fashion, the meat from the main carcass could be removed and placed on the hide (the hide acting as what we'd call today a ground cloth). It protected the meat from getting dirty. The carcass could also have its quarters and back straps removed, without ever removing the entrails/gutting the animal out. Once enough meat was removed to allow the carcass to be handled more easily, then they would proceed with the butchering of the rest of the meat and innards. Boudin, small grass filled intestines being the treat of the day, roasted on sticks over an open fire...

On a caribou hunt lonnnng ago, I had a Shiloh Sharps military carbine in .45-70 with me. The others in the hunting party had their .300 and 7mm mangle-ums. We were about 40 miles out, using snow machines, and wandered down in to a low valley area.
It was cold enough -35 below zero, but down in that lower elevation, there was a cold spot, and the temp had dropped to around -45 below zero. Now that puts the ice on the old whiskers for sure!

Well wouldn't ya know it. Me hunting partners, upon spotting 'bou, immediately begin firing with their modern rifles. Just pushed them 'bou out beyond the 250 yard range, further than I felt comfortable using the military carbine at. So, I borrowed a 7mm mag from one of the guys, and went off after a 'bou of my own.

The others already had their 'bou down and were beginning to field dress them. I then shot my 'bou, and went out to retrieve it. When I reached my downed 'bou, I cut down the center of the back, from the head to the tail. Then removed the hide to each side of the 'bou. Cuts with the knife allowed each quarter to be removed, and the back straps as well. The neck came off next. I did not gut out the 'bou, and only lost some rib meat and what was inside of the body cavity.

My hunting partners by then had arrived to lend a hand field dressing my 'bou. They were some surprised to find I was finished and the meat and quarters were being tied off on the sled behind the snow machine.
Before I was 50 feet away from the carcass, the eagles were already sharing of the hunt. Nothing went to waste.

This is the only time I'd used this method in the field, and if it hadn't been soooo cold, would have field dressed it the regular way. Again, we're talking about -45 below zero temps here. Just a bit nippy!

Head up is better if the carcass is to be washed so the water does not accumulate in the front of the chest area.

Head down is better if the animal is to be caped. A cut can be made around the animal behind the shoulders and the rear half of the skin then removed to that point. A cut can then be made along the back and the cape skinned down to the dead and the head removed.

Boning an animal on the ground by cutting up along the back rather than gutting was described a few years ago in one of the hunting magazines. It is the method I used this year on my Colorado deer before backpacking the meat out to the trailhead.

Unfortunately Pennsylvania has a regulation (idiotic?) that big game animals must be removed from the woods in one piece.