Hit 100 deer on the rail at my shop in Wisconsin and had to rethink how I break down primals
I was breaking down deer for hunters every fall and never counted, then I finally tallied it up this season and hit 100 on the rail. That number made me realize I was wasting time switching between my boning knife and breaker on every carcass, so I started keeping the breaker in hand longer and cut my time per deer by about 8 minutes. Any of you run a dedicated knife setup for high volume wild game, or do you just swap as you go?
There was a guy on a meat cutting forum who posted about this exact thing, running a whole deer through with one knife instead of swapping every five minutes. He said the swap itself is what kills you, not the cutting. Hand goes down, grab new knife, find your spot again, that's dead time on every single animal. At 100 deer that adds up fast. I started doing the same thing on my own breakdowns and the flow feels way better once you stop reaching for the other knife out of habit. Kept my breaker sharp more often too since it's doing more work. Curious if you noticed any wear difference on the edge running it that long per deer.