Take it or leave it - Forest Reindeer Meat

[Labtop 215]

Let's say you do really well during a hunt and you down 4 or more Forest Reindeer's, while marking all of their locations on the map as you go before you finally lose the herd.  They are a little spread out (maybe 40 - 75 or so onsite tiles away from each other).  It is noon when the hunt is over, every reindeer was brought down during late morning.  You woke up early morning, so you should have plenty of energy as well.

In general (and I could be wrong, but I'm speaking from personal experience), skinning the hide off of one reindeer of decent size takes roughly an hour and yields a 10 lb pelt (a cub takes less time to skin, but produces a smaller pelt that may or may not be of the same value as a large one).  Butchering a reindeer on the other hand takes can take 3 hours or more, and is very labor intensive (can potentially leave you dead tired) and may only net you 100 cuts of meat or less.  You also get bones and antlers as well.  I'm playing vanilla, but I could see the bones and antlers being useful if you have mods that use them.

My question here would be, what do you prioritize getting done in this scenario?  Would the time of year change your priorities?  (As in, winter vrs summer)  Would the skills your character has influence your choice?  Lastly, is there an upper limit to the number of large game you would bring down in a day?

I figured I would ask this question here instead of the gameplay questions forum because it's more of a philosophical question, rather than a gameplay one.  Feel free to relocate this thread to the gameplay questions forum if that is more appropriate. 

[JEB Davis]

Since I tend to play wanderers, I just kill one large animal and skin & butcher it. While the hide is tanning I try to take roasted meat to a nearby village for trading if there is one. Then I'm on my merry way again with one more fur, hoping to find foreign traders after I've got a few.

Yes, the skills of my character tend to determine what type of life they live. I rarely try trapping large game unless it's a settled-down character.

I guess if I was in the situation you mention with several deer killed, I would try to process them all if I had a smoke house or could dry the meat. If not, then I would only partially butcher some of the carcasses and use them as bait in deadfall traps. This can help trap wolves, which are my bane.

[PALU]

I kill one animal, process it, and generally don't kill another one until done, with the exception of multiple animals caught in traps at the same time, where I try to do the work as quickly as possible. I tend to smoke or dry meat, but I'm also in the situation that I'm getting fairly large supplies, so I don't really need more reserves, just replace what's consumed.

Winter vs summer makes a very significant different. In winter you can just leave the meat in a cellar for a long time, while in summer you have to process it or have it spoil, and smoking/drying takes a fair bit of time: 2 minutes per cut.
I haven't tried putting hide processing on hold in winter, so I don't know how long you can leave it without proceeding to the next step, but in summer you more or less have to get on with the next step when the previous is done (I think there's a risk of skin degradation for each day tick over, although the first one might possibly be "free").

[Tom H]

With a deer or elk kill, I find that every time, after skinning, butchering, and moving the kill, I've gone into total exhaustion at least twice. I bring back the bones because my dogs will eat them. The thing is, EVERYTHING else stops while this goes on because, if it's not done with immediacy, the meat will be spoiled before I can dry/smoke it, or worse, the season is wrong for either. Slip up and forget the skin and that's wasted.

Btw, I just found today, by accident, that a dog can be loaded by PUSHING the load on it. Maybe all I have to do is ; to load it? I'm pretty new. One thing at a time! heh

[PALU]

An elk kill is basically a three day full time job. Skinning and butchering takes half a day or so, while cleaning the skin and tan the first step takes the rest. The next day the second tanning stage is done with smoking/drying meat taking up the bulk of the time, while the whole third day is spent banging on the skin. Thus, an elk caught in a trap means you will have to reschedule your activities.

And yes, animals and companions can be loaded by pushing stuff onto them. A normal sized dog is capable of carrying 65 cuts of meat, while a big one can take 90 or 95 (I don't remember which). I use my character's dog to carry meat back from a kill.
You can also load a log onto a cow by pushing it, and then unload it by 'G'etting it. A big cow isn't strong enough for a trunk, but a big bull is.

[caius]

Resource gathering objectives also influence prioritization when processing a kill (or multiple kills).  For example, if you're trying to collect hides for trading, then ensure you do the hide before it deteriorates or rots.  Are you in a hard place for food?  Then make sure you smoke/dry the meat first.  Already have a ton of smoked/dried cuts stored in a cellar, then maybe not be in such a rush to process the meat. 

I tend to use multiple cellars to organize the kill processing steps.  I have a first cellar where I place raw or uncooked meat.  It extends the lifespan of the meat by a little and can help give a buffer to meat spoilage.  This first cellar is always adjacent to a wall so I can dry meat cuts in the winter directly in the cellar.  (I make sure I have a stash of cords in this cellar for drying during winter).  I have a second cellar where I store my smoked/dried/salted meat cuts.  This second cellar exists to extends the life of my smoked/dried/salted meat cuts.  I have a third for storing plant stuff (leaves, flowers, grain, roots, and seeds, etc).  I don't know if this vegetable cellar actually affects gameplay, but I like the idea of a "root cellar", so I use it.  These three main food cellars are always near my main cabin/homestead. 

I also have a fourth cellar adjacent to a water tile where I drop my unprocessed hides (and the fat or bark I will use to tan them).  I also think (and I have no objective proof of this), but cellars seem to extend the life of hides so I can tan or preserve them without them rotting.  This tanning cellar might not be adjacent to my homestead, but I will always go to this location to process hides. 

[Andre]

I usually hunt at the same time as I explore, and when I get a kill I skin it and butcher it, tan the skin somewhere central where I can explore in a circle around while waiting for it to finish if I don't have anything else to do, and otherwise cook the meat to trade to villages I find except for a small amount to eat for myself. And I'd probably end up trying to butcher all the carcasses but most likely it would end up being pointless where I won't be able to cook the meat fast enough for the uncooked meat to not start going stale where it is pointless to keep cooking it because it's not worth anything and I won't be able to eat that much anyways. And ofcourse carrying that much meat is impossible. So realistically I might end up butchering two of the carcasses, tanning the hides, keeping maybe two or 3 dozen cuts for me and my two dogs and trading the rest for arrows or hides.

[caethan]

Don't forget you can cure hides to delay the tanning process until later.  Well worth it when you have a temporary abundance.

[Andre]

Curing isn't really worth it unless you plan on turning it into leather. It really doesn't take all that long to tan the hide, even bigger ones only really take a day and a half to finish or so. It just takes a few hours on some of the steps.

[Dungeon Smash]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother to kill 3 or 4 reindeers in the first place... 2 is plenty, a lot is probably going to end up spoiled.  Otherwise, I agree with Caius and PALU.  Having a strong animal helps, as you can transport all the carcasses to a convenient location (cellar near water & smoker) and complete each step in batches.  Wintertime would be best as the meat will not spoil as quickly.  Otherwise, I would just prioritize what I need (hides vs meat) and try to get as much done as possible (using -pipe tea to stay awake as much as possible, if available) with the understanding that at least some of it is probably going to spoil.  In this situation, you could probably get the hides and maybe 1 or 1.5 animals worth of meat.  More with wintertime, animals for hauling, a stockpile of -pipes.