dressing game bird question

G

gps4

Active member
last year was my first pheasant hunting experience. on our way up to SD from MS, i watched several videos on the most efficient way to dress a pheasant, which seemed to be, stand on the wings and firmly pull on the feet, and the feathers/skin, legs, head and entrails would pull right out of the chest cavity.

does anyone know whether this would work with waterfowl?
 
It does not work with waterfowl. Ducks dont have the legs that pheasants do. The legs rip right off. I eat the legs on a pheasant usually so I just cut the backbone out, leave it attached a little up by the top of the breast and neck. When you pull the spine out, the guts come out with it. Pretty quick process if you are keeping it all.
 
PheasantWhisperer said:
It does not work with waterfowl. Ducks dont have the legs that pheasants do. The legs rip right off. I eat the legs on a pheasant usually so I just cut the backbone out, leave it attached a little up by the top of the breast and neck. When you pull the spine out, the guts come out with it. Pretty quick process if you are keeping it all.
Click to expand...
I do something similar.

I eat the legs too, great for soup. Plus we leave one of the legs totally intact for identification.
 
I always skin the entire bird. Leave the head on for I.D.

Everything but the wing tips go into the freezer. Legs, breast, and the small portions of the back meat are all consumed/put on the table. All good eating. Waterfowl too.;)
 
My wife uses the hearts, livers, gizzards, and legs for giblet gravy. She takes the time to get the tendons out where its just little chunks of leg meat. Not much goes to waste. Last year I had 11 pheasant, 18 quail, and 1 prairie chicken in one wal-mart sack. Pretty much all wings.
 
gps4 said:
last year was my first pheasant hunting experience. on our way up to SD from MS, i watched several videos on the most efficient way to dress a pheasant, which seemed to be, stand on the wings and firmly pull on the feet, and the feathers/skin, legs, head and entrails would pull right out of the chest cavity.

does anyone know whether this would work with waterfowl?
Click to expand...

In my experience this only works well if the birds are still warm. If you do this after they have cooled down you will rip part of the breast out. This is a great method if you're not worried about taking pictures of the birds. I'll do this as soon as I get back to the truck sometimes, makes the end of the day much easier as you don't have to worry about cleaning a pile of birds.
 
Be careful using some of those quick breasting methods. Some states have laws that make you also save the legs and thighs off of birds larger then quail.
If you have traveled to SD and do not have a wing, head or leg attached to the carcass when you are traveling around you are just asking for a ticket.

And the boned out thighs are the best meat on a pheasant. They shouldn't be left behind.

Tim
 
Yep. There is some dark meat in there too, which is my favorite. When you get a bite of the leg in the gravy it melts in your mouth. Not a bit of toughness
 
TimJ said:
Be careful using some of those quick breasting methods. Some states have laws that make you also save the legs and thighs off of birds larger then quail.
If you have traveled to SD and do not have a wing, head or leg attached to the carcass when you are traveling around you are just asking for a ticket.

And the boned out thighs are the best meat on a pheasant. They shouldn't be left behind.

Tim
Click to expand...

This method leaves both wings attached to the intact breasts. It also makes it fairly easy to get the legs skinned separately.
 
TimJ said:
Be careful using some of those quick breasting methods. Some states have laws that make you also save the legs and thighs off of birds larger then quail.
Click to expand...

That's a good point Tim.
 
Most people that I have hunted with just cut out the breasts.

I like to keep as much of it as possible. I also like to be able to eat pheasant year round, so I try to be full in the freezer on both my SD and MN possessions at the end of the season. I like a variety in the freezer, depending on how I like to make them. Some birds I keep whole. Some birds I take out the breasts, but keep them boned. Most birds I cut out the breast meat for a boneless breasts. I keep all leg/thigh meat and like to make some soups in the crockpot with those. Great for a winter day! The tendons and such can be a little much, and I usually sort through the entire crockpot with a strainer and pull apart the meat, to get it all out.

A few years ago I had one land owner in SD say to me at the end of the day when we were cleaning birds, "you keep the leg meat? I wouldn't even feed those things to the farm cats out here."
 
I pluck all my game birds. Lots of work....but worth it. Keeps them moist...well as moist as a pheasant can be...and the skin browns up nicely and looks great on the table.

Try it first with Quail, and you will pluck them all.
 
Bird-man said:
I pluck all my game birds. Lots of work....but worth it. Keeps them moist...well as moist as a pheasant can be...and the skin browns up nicely and looks great on the table.

Try it first with Quail, and you will pluck them all.
Click to expand...

Quail are excellent plucked. My mom used to make me pluck em. But when done this way they swell up when cooked and look like a little cornish game hen. And yes, the moisture they retain is worth it. 8 quail take me about 8 minutes to clean and have em in a bowl in the fridge. Plucking 8 quail and putting them in the fridge takes me about an hour and a half. But like Birdman said, "well worth it!"
 
Cleaning

They had a contraption at the house I just
stayed in out in SD. Never seen anything like it before. You shove the bird in
neck first and step on a foot peddle while pulling the legs downward and
you get a breasted pheasant in seconds. I found it
On pheasantbreaster.com. Not sure i would go this route because of waste
But we cleaned 15 phsasants in a few minutes. The stuff people come up with is incredible. The homemade one we used had about 10
Bucks worth of material. 200 bucks on line. Sportsmen are some of the most prolific inventers I think. Ha
 
David03

mgorvi said:
They had a contraption at the house I just
stayed in out in SD. Never seen anything like it before. You shove the bird in
neck first and step on a foot peddle while pulling the legs downward and
you get a breasted pheasant in seconds. I found it
On pheasantbreaster.com. Not sure i would go this route because of waste
But we cleaned 15 phsasants in a few minutes. The stuff people come up with is incredible. The homemade one we used had about 10
Bucks worth of material. 200 bucks on line. Sportsmen are some of the most prolific inventers I think. Ha
Click to expand...

Unless done at your residence--or by a licensed processor--game farm--

In most states --including South Dakota--there is no way to transport birds cleaned in this manner legally

Great idea and method for them however--

Intend to show to lodges I guide for-who are licensed processors :cheers:
 
I just gut them. Will clean them that night on a one day trip or throw them in a cooler on ice and clean them in a day or two when I get home. Some times I skin them. Some time I breast them. Often depends upon where the bird was hit and how hard it was hit.

If the birds are kept cool they will not spoil. Leaving the skin on keeps the meat from drying out.
 
Breasting machine

We left a fully feathered wing on each bird that we processed
Im pretty sure this made them legal to transport. The video shows the guy cutting off both wings. Im not a proponent of this device,
I just had never seen it before.
 
David0311

mgorvi said:
We left a fully feathered wing on each bird that we processed
Im pretty sure this made them legal to transport. The video shows the guy cutting off both wings. Im not a proponent of this device,
I just had never seen it before.
Click to expand...

I was not trying to accuse you of any thing on your part at all--

I'm pleased you posted it---very interesting--the wings on using this method would be a great and as you did it 100 percent legal--

I'M going to look into it for my own use--

Thanks again--
 
Rules

No , I didn't take it that way. Always interesting
to read the rules, tho. Like the email on road hunting
That just got sent out from SD fish and game. I've never road hunted,
But a lot in that emai; doors open, doors closed, engine running, engine turned off, 50 yards from the truck, closer than 50 yards, geez, glad I never
Bothered to hunt that way. I'm even getting out of the ditches too, for the most part. Dog steps on glass or on a nail and my hunt is over. Might as well go home.
 
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