I have processed tons of deer legs over the years acquired from hunters who don't want them. Processing in quantity forced me to become fast and understand what is and is not worth doing or keeping. I think the way I was taught to remove sinew is inefficient because it creates extra work and that seems to be the way most people do it. The main sinew cords are best removed separately from the underlying sheathlike tendon below it. The sheath seems to be weaker and does not process as easily. You can shred it if you want to, but it is still easier to remove them separately and that will save time in processing when you inevitably remove the tendon from the dried up sheath.

There is a lot of connective tissue in the whole foot and lower leg, almost no meat and usually not very much fat. This connective tissue can be cooked into glue. See my glue making series for how to cook and dry the glue.    • Quality Hide Glue From Scratch #6 par...   Glue is not made from the actual hoof which is more like hair than skin, so hoof glue is a misnomer. What it should refer to is glue made by cooking the feet and lower legs (sometimes known as trotters) to dissolve the large quantities of connective tissue in the foot into a glue solution. There is a lot of fat inside the foot and leg bones which is where neatsfoot oil comes from, but I'd recommend to start your glue making with materials that are free from fat or meat, like the tendons and tendon sheaths.

The hooves are removed from the legs by cooking briefly in hot water. It doesn't have to be boiling, you can just bring it to a boil and take it off the stove.

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Don't cook the feet too long, just a minute or so and the hooves should pop off pretty easily. To remove hooves from deer legs in a campfire, just roast them in the ashes beneath the coals for a minute or two and pop them off.

Bone will crack like wood when it dries. To season the large bones, remove them, scrape off the fleshy stuff and oil the entire surface before drying slowly. The smaller bones rarely crack. You can bury them for one year and dig them up. I'll show you tricks for cleaning them sometime. Another good reason to subscribe to my channel! In fact, we'll surely be revisiting some of these parts in other projects or how to videos. For now I just wanted to show how to remove the sinew and stuff.

The lower leg skin is often referred to as the hock skin, although I don't think that is anatomically correct. it can be cooked for glue or skinned out with the dew claws (small hooves) and then sewn into bags and such.