What are some uses for parts of a deer?

Not a lot of meat on a deer compared to some other animals-just a lean animal (see link). There are some great YouTube posts for field dressing,skinning,butchering and tanning. Some places do take deer hides for leather use-local place use to give a pair of gloves for the hide so they really aren't worth a lot raw. You can tan the hide yourself with the hair retained.put a backer on it and make a bedspread or cover. I know there is a small market for elk Ivory (teeth) for jewelry;not sure for deer,a really good antler set can bring good money (yes you can sell antler) and many people use less impressive antlers for knife handles.Depending on your location there could be local wild pigs that are just begging to get harvested-they cause lots of damage.

http://www.alfredny.biz/sportsmen/Whitetail-yield-...

Hunting is cheap meat only in the long term.

A $500 rifle should last you 100 years, which pans out to $5 a year, but it is expensive getting into it in the first place. There is also a big time investment in learning how to hunt, learning where you can hunt, learning how the individual animals in that area move etc. An experienced hunter can do a few days of scouting good hunting ground and then hunt with a 75% chance of success. A novice hunter would take weeks to gain the same info prior to the hunt, and would have a 10% chance of success.

While attempting to 'use' every portion of the animal is noble, it isn't very realistic. For starters, are you ready to really eat everything on a deer that is edible? Liver? Heart? Lungs? Tongue? Kidneys? Eyeballs? Make sausage or deer trype from the intestines? Do you eat any of that stuff now?

Remember, other animals have to eat too. It's nature's way for the wolf or mountain lion to eat the meat and organs and then the crows and other carrion eaters come and eat what is left, and then the insects and worms eat more, and eventually the plants eat what is left. Nature is the ultimate recycler and you'd probably be more disruptive and damaging in the long run trying to make your soap and rope than leaving the non-meat remains for mother nature to dispose of.

Hoots, Mon....try this!

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fe...

You - are lost. I am all for using 100% of my game animals - but - it took me a very, very long time to learn it.

Cooking deer meat - which is exceptionally lean - is an art. You cant treat it like beef unless you are going to turn the whole animal into hamburger mixed with 18% fat or pot roast. You need to start accumulating recipes and learn to use a smoker (and get smoker) if you want to make jerky, sausage, and other smoked meats and products.

Making soap - is nice - unlike the sop bought in the store that is a petroleum product the stuff made from animal fat does not dry your skin. My wife does it. Yours wont. Why? Because if she doesn't know the difference between fat and tallow - there is a problem. Besides spending all day boiling and rendering the fat - you need a very, very specific recipe to follow 'by the book' and it take 4 days for the fat to cool down slowly and properly. One mistake - the whole batch and all the work is wasted. This - is a labor of love. Your family would be better off having your or your wife working at McDonalds for $6.90hr flipping burgers for several days than spending all that time to make $5.99 worth of soap.

Making organic rope - is not gonna save you money. And what ever you use it on - is gonna fall apart the first time it gets wet or the ants find it. I bet you could find all the rope you want dumpster diving in ten minutes...... so why spend a few days making it?

Even if it was legal in your state to sell the hide - it's worth maybe $3 to a commercial tanner and possibly $15 to $20 to someone who like to home tan that may buy it. You will probably was that much $$ in time trying to find the buyer and then twice that driving to the buyer's place to drop it off.

When it comes to using a deer, moose, bear etc 100% the law of diminishing returns is in full force. When you are down to the hide, bones, and fat - you are not required by law to salvage or use these. If you happen to have the skills - or - know someone that does have the talent to use this material great. If not - it's not a good use of your time. Why? Because by the time you buy all the tools, chemicals, containers, molds etc - you would have spent far, far more money than you saved. You only do stuff like this if you know you will be always hunting, always getting a deer each year - and you know you can pull it off. Someone needs to show you how to do this stuff - or take a class. It's not like making Jello or plug and play - it's allot of time and dirty work.

Sounds like an awfully expensive way to try and feed a family.

As stated cheaper by far to buy food at the market if feeding a family is your real reason for this!

you could probably sell the deer head if your doing badly financially or even better sell the deer to a taxidermest

but as an animal rights activist i wouldn't condone it only if as you say you financially struggling

It's cheaper to buy meat at the market...