As soon as I was done with my morning responsibilities, my grandpa helped me carry the 80 pound plastic bin of iced, unprocessed pronghorn into the kitchen. We had several game bags containing many different chunks of meat. The pronghorn was basically filleted, but I still had to de-bone it and cut it into pieces that were small enough to be wrapped up.
I began with the hind legs first, which were stuffed into game bags completely whole. They barely fit in the kitchen sink, which is where I rinsed off the debris and de-thawed them just enough so my knives wouldn't be cutting through ice. I used several different kinds of knives, from my tiny self-defense knife to my grandpa's largest butcher knife. My grandpa's filet knife worked the best though. My grandpa was my knife sharpener and my wild game packer. He sharpened the knives when they got dull and wrapped/labeled the cuts of wild game.
The legs were pretty hard to handle. They were covered in several layers epimysium, which is a slippery, elastic tissue that surrounds outside muscles and protects them from friction. Pronghorn are super speedy animals, so they have a lot of epimysium protecting their muscles from friction. I used my smallest knife to cut off as many of the layers as possible, before getting to the actual meat. I used the filet knife on the actual meat, and carefully cut off excessive fat and sinew with it as well. It was tedious work that took me three hours to complete, and I wasn't even finished yet.
I kept the bones for bone broth, and moved onto the front neck, shoulder, and leg meat. These were a little easier to deal with. I still had to de-bone the leg meat, but the neck meat had been cut off of the bones back on the dressing rack at camp. Just like before, I kept the bones for bone broth and cut off as much epimysium, sinew, and excessive fat as possible, without taking off any red meat.
Finally, I moved on to the heart and the liver. The liver was partially destroyed, so I carefully cut off the destroyed part, keeping the majority which was good meat. I then moved onto the heart, which was perfectly intact. I cut off the top arteries, left and right atrium, and the aorta since those are about as tough as cartilage, keeping the left and right ventricle, AKA the bulk of the heart, for meat. I then sliced the heart in half, cut out the valves and heart strings, since the valves are also very tough and the heart strings get stuck in my teeth, and packed it away. It took me a total of 6 hours to process and pack the pronghorn meat from start to finish, and I didn't take any sitting breaks.
My legs were basically numb by the time I was done, but I was so satisfied with my work, that I barely noticed. I knew I'd be staying with my grandparents for another week or longer, so I put a few pronghorn cuts in their freezer, and my grandpa drove me to my house to drop off the rest of my pronghorn in my own freezer. We got about 50 pounds of meat off that pronghorn, which is very impressive. That's the benefit of hunting older, larger animals. Some say the younger animals taste better, but I prefer larger, older animals since it means more meat for me, and gives the younger animals a chance to breed.
