Cleaning your birds....

[belu0501]

This may be a dumb question...
I was wondering how everyone cleans their birds...
Do you just breast them, with the thing that goes in your hitch on the truck? Do you clean the entire bird? Then what do you do with the "leftovers"? I am just trying to decide if it is worth the time to clean the whole bird this season...

[Nick Bury]

For big geese I breast and take the legs out. For little geese I just breast them I dont think there is enough meat on the legs. For ducks ifI shoot a good big mallard I will pluck it but if they are teal and wigeon and other smaller ducks I usually just breast them.

[WIHUNTER]

breast both ducks and geese.

[Jexx]

I also just breast both ducks and geese.

I've heard of that hitch thing that goes in your truck for quick breasting, but I've never seen one used in person.

[Wingman]

I'll pluck some birds but most times I will cut off as much eatable meat as I can not just breast meat.

cheers,

Adam

[ruger2506]

I just breast them. Both Ducks and Geese.

[Aaron Hitchins]

We actually pluck a lot of our ducks, lots of work but with the right birds it is totally worth it!

[chevyman_2000]

whats this hitch ting for breasting birds?

[TheGooseCommander]

chevyman, i saw it in mack's catalog a couple days ago, idk how the hell it works. from the pic in the catalog it looks like a big blade of some sort. idk!!

[i_willie12]

Breast out both

[Josh Carda]

Usually just breast both out

[duckaholic22]

Pretty sure this is what you guys are thinking of!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ECLptUnAQ

[TheGooseCommander]

NO WAY!!!!! does that really work like that?!?!?! have trouble wih a goose i bet

[duckin82]

depends on what i wanna do with em, a lot of times if i shoot puddle ducks like mallards or woodies 9 times out of ten i will pick the whole bird, if they are divers, just breast em out, if they are geese it just depends really on whether i wanna roast a bird or grill em

[Kyle Boyd]

We breast out all of ours

[Weatherby]

we just throw ours in the ditch, rotten SOB'S! lol jk we breast out everything...here are a few snows with a few beers to get us through

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7958/09goose48.jpg

[Garrett]

NO WAY!!!!! does that really work like that?!?!?! have trouble wih a goose i bet

I have used it to clean snows, specks, and lesser candas and it works great. It is really nice if you have to leave one wing attached for transportation.

[CluckmeMN]

We used it in AR and it worked good on mallards, if the wings are busted pretty good, or they are really shot up like our wood ducks we shot it can be tough to use, but i too think a big honker would be tough...

[tornadochaser]

i breast out most of my waterfowl, except for the occasional fat mallard, wood duck, or resident honker for roasting if they dont have any pinfeathers, or arent shot up.

that hitch blade thing is pretty cool, but with most birds you can do the same thing with your hands. i had a guy show me how to do 50 snows in about 5 minutes this spring. it can go even faster if you have a cooking shears.

[calling4life]

I let the woodchipper clean'em

[MIgoosekiller]

breast em and feed the coyotes with the rest

[Lybeck]

normally I just breast them out but this last season I started skinning them out and saving the skins for taxidermy practice.

[portahunter]

Normally breast them out and take the legs. If they are head shot and there aren't any pellets in the body I'll pluck them sometimes.

[Evan Masters]

My uncle has been plucking all of the ducks he's shot since he was a kid so we pluck all of the ducks we shoot but we usually just breast the geese.

[MDL32]

Pluck the teal so you roast em in the oven, pretty much breast out the rest.

[vital_kill]

for a roast, I pluck. For the grill, I breast. Pan searing, I just pluck the breast and have a skin-on breast. Specks, I pluck only, too good to waste. Spoonies goes to the cats.

[Ray St. John]

NO WAY!!!!! does that really work like that?!?!?! have trouble wih a goose i bet

I called the guy who sells them. He told me that they are working on a model that will accomodate big geese. Looks pretty simple on youtube.