rabbit skinning dressing procedures
 

working on a few things for a friend of mine who has a farm. He's got quite a crop of huge fat rabbits he breeds as meat animals.

Calling on hunters here who have hunted and prepped rabbit for any tips. If I want a giant rabbit for the dinner table, I have to kill and dress it on premesis, then throw it in a cooler to take home. (about 30 minutes drive from home)

My friend advises immediately prepping it, and not waiting till I get home to skin it, as it will stiffen up and be hard to do he says (especially with the current weather). Or he suggests throwing it live in the trunk of my 240, which I guess would work as well, and making a fresh kill at home.

The Mrs may object to this process though, so id like to take care of it at his place.

Anyone prepped a rabbit have any tips?

EDIT- hes the type of guy who will say nothing about how he does it, preferring the entertainment value of someone making a botch of it, and I don't want to ruin or waste what should be a delicious meal screwing it up too bad. He wants to see what I come up with as far as interweb research on how I kill the rabbit by hand, then how I prep it

Not sure about domestic rabbits, but I'm pretty sure that with wild rabbits you have to be careful how you gut them and wear latex gloves because you can contract tulerimia (sp?) from them. It's been a long time since I've gutted a rabbit but it wasn't difficult.

Interesting point, good to know.

Ive been thinking about just bringing a live one home and doing it here out of sight of Mrs JB3.

The guy with the farm is rebuilding a run down house and living in a trailer while he does it at the same time as running a farm, and his property does not have running water or facilities of any kind on top of winter weather going on. He just rigged up electricity the other day. Hes been living there with no electricity for several months now, on top of no water.

The level of technology is approximately 200 years ago. If I want to wash my hands, Id building a fire and heating some water up I pulled out of a nearby pond or collected rainwater.

Thinking about it, id rather do the deed in my yard with available water to wash down the carcass

i use to all my rabbits like this guy
How to Quarter or Disjoint A Rabbit. Butchering Rabbit - YouTube

i watched this video a couple years ago and i do about half and half, maybe a little more, like this guy
deboning a rabbit - YouTube

We raised rabbits to eat when i was a kid, after i had a heart attach 12/09, i started raising them again because the lean meat is better than chicken for your heart

thanks for the links! these are great. Ive been thinking about building a hutch for the same lean meat reasons, we have almost the ideal space in our garage or our basement actually

You guys are married now?

yup, 2 weeks out of sin.

If I grow and eat rabbits, in 15 years I might actually pay off the cost of the wedding. :D

I have sold a bunch or rabbits to people that think they want to raise them to eat and then they want me to kill and dress them for them.......................... AAAAA NO that's not a service i provide, there is however a guy that will do that for them, also anything else you may have that needs to be processed. When they figure out how much it is going to cost per lb for food, processing, time to raise them it's like i just put them out on lease..... that is i get a lot of rabbits back along with their babies because people give up, THEN i process them and put them in the freezer. LOL

I need to make videos of this stuff, i need to add that with 3 kids i make a bunch of jerky with the meat and it's so lean it makes really good jerky, make sure you pull the skin and all the fat you can.

He said a similar thing, "you walk out with a rabbit, don't come back here after feeling sorry for it expecting me to process it for you". :D

I used to be an excellent fish cutter working in the cape fish industry near here, so im no strange to hacking up a creature, but Ive never done any kind of game before.

What ive been told is that a monkfish is the closest you can come to game in prep. You skin a monkfish instead of scaling it, apparently just like a deer according to my boss at the time. (imagine a sock dipped in phlegm being removed from someones foot, thats the process of pulling a monkfish skin off)

Im kinda looking forward to the job, cutting fish involves dealing with a degree of fish slime as a cost of doing business that makes quite a mess.


Id love to see a rabbit jerky video! that already sounds delicious

Congrats, my friend!!

As for the rabbit.. I just cut 'em down the middle with a set of shears, pull out all the guts and peel the meat away from the bones.
They are much easier than a deer, almost like a little ziploc bag full of meat...;)

Congrats, man!

Nothing to add though, I've only dressed feathered critters.

Larry predicted it was going to happen.

never thought about it like that but not far off

Lets see. Its been more than 50 years since I cleaned a rabbit but I would start by slitting the accilies tendon and hanging the bunny on a bush with sticks through the tendon space. I'd gut it, cut off the head and feet and slit the skin up the inside of the theighs then pull the skin down over the neck, then cut up as you would a chicken or cook whole.

Pulling the skin off is about like pulling full length pj's off a grandchild.;)