It is not necessary to hang a deer up to skin and butcher it; but that is the more cleanly way. One man, unassisted, can hang a pretty heavy animal in the following way: Drag it headforemost to a sapling that is just limber enough to bend near the ground when you climb it. Cut three poles, ten or twelve feet long, with crotches near the ends. Climb the sapling and trim off the top, leaving the stub of one stout branch near the top. Tie your belt, or a stout withe or flexible root, into a loop around the deer's antlers or throat. Bend the sapling down until you can slip the loop over the end of the sapling. The latter, acting as a spring-pole, will lift part of the deer's weight. Then place the crotches of the poles under the fork of the sapling, butts of poles radiating outward, thus forming a tripod. First push on one pole, then on another, and so raise the carcass free from the ground. If you do not intend to butcher it immediately, raise it up out of reach of roving dogs and " varmints".

It is common practice to hang deer by gambrels with the head down; but, when hung head up, the animal is easier to skin and to butcher, drains better, and does not drop blood and juices over the head and neck, which you may want to have mounted for a trophy. Dried blood is very hard to remove from hair or fur. If the skin is stripped off from rear to head it will be hard to grain. And if the animal is not to be skinned for some time it is best hung by the head, because the slope of the hair then sheds rain and snow instead of holding them, and the lung cavity does not collect blood, rain, or snow.

The more common way of skinning a deer, when the head is not wanted for mounting, is to hang it up by one hind leg and begin skinning at the hock, peeling the legs, then the body, and finally the neck, then removing the head with skin on (for baking in a hole), after which the carcass is swung by both legs and is eviscerated.

If there is no time to hang the deer, open it, throw the entrails well off to one side, then cover the carcass with boughs as if it were a trap, or hang a handkerchief, or the blown-up bladder of the animal, over it, to scare away marauders. Place the deer so it will drain downhill. And don't neglect to blaze your way out, so you can find it again.