deer gutting

[PreglerD]

How do american hunters gut their deers ? Are there special techniques? Or is it done like at any place of the world.

 

[roundball]

How do american hunters gut their deers ? Are there special techniques? Or is it done like at any place of the world.

There are many illustrated articles on the Internet that can be found using Google, and I'd bet they are all about the same all over the world, but two ways that I'm most aware of are:

MOST COMMON:
1) Open the belly hide from stem to stern being carful not to cut into the diaphram;
2) Cut around the anus to free it from the hams and tie off the end of it;
3) Cut upwards through the sternum several inches;
4) Reach up and cut the windpipe as far up as possible;
5) Carefully trim all around the diaphram and roll the entire diaphram sac full of organs our of the body cavity.

NEXT MOST COMMON: (Doesn't involved gutting at all)
1) Lay the deer on it's belly and slice through the hide along the spine from the shoulders all the way back.
2) Following the ribcage, peel the hide down and away on both sides;
3) Remove the backstraps;
4) Separate both hams at the joints and remove;
5) Reach up under and trim of the tenderloins;

 

[PreglerD]

So when I understand it right, it s not common to open the boiler room completely and to cut off the throat area and the base of the mouth area ?

 

[playfarmers]

I do mine a little different. I start by skinning the back legs a bit, and cutting the leg off just below the knee. Then I skin the front legs up to the brisket, and cut the legs off at the knees. I use the lift I have for my truck and crank the animal up back legs first. Then I peal the hide off like a glove. Cut around the anus, cut through the stirnum from the neck up to the belly. Then open the abdomen making sure everything is loose there. Then with a gut hook, I oen it up from the top down to the ribs. Everything just falls out leaving the carcass nice and clean. I wipe it down with a little water and a rag, and wrap it in a sheet. It is ready for hanging in my garage as long as the weather is right.

 

[Goldhunter]

My experience is that the second method roundball stated above is used when quartering an animal. By quartering I mean cutting off the front leg/shoulders and the back legs and backsides. This gives you four "quarters". Then the backstraps and tenderloins are taken. This method is mostly used around here when we have to pack out the animal. Usually many miles to the road and usually when you are dealing with elk (because they are so freakin big!!)

I have even seen a deer completely "boned" and packet out that way. Fits nicely in a large backpack and you don't have to worry about heavy bones, just the ones that were on the deer's head!

The traditional gutting method, for me, is used when I am close to a road where I can get my truck or ATV to it. Gut it and the drag it to the road.

 

[PreglerD]

I agree with you. in GE mostly the traditional way of gutting is used because our hunting grounds are nearly all reachable by car or truck. Only the mountain hunters in the Alpes in southern Bavaria have to walk far distances up and downhill, but they gut in the same way and then carry the deer (roe, chamois) down in a rucksack. Bigger deers like red deer are transported by tractor or truck because the forests in the mountains have a good infrastructure, too.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Usually when I kill a deer with a neck shot or with a heart/lung shot, I use the first method of field dressing the animal, open throat to tail, down the belly and dumping the offal and then taking the field dressed carcass in to cool. However, when close to dark, or when dealing with one that is gutshot, like one I had this year, I never open them up and do not subject the meat to the bacteria from the gut. I just cut off the legs, split them down the back, and pull the shoulders, loins and neck meat, hams, and take the tenderloins out thru the sides, and leave the rest for the coyotes. What is left there, is the backbone, ribs, and in the case of the doe, the head and hide and guts. The inside is never opened and the meat is not subjected to contamination. You might lose 5 pounds of trim meat this way.

I guess I am never too old to learn, I took a shot that I was completly comfortable with, a running shot at 150 yards. She turned just as I shot, and I hit her with an angular shot, the bullet exploding the liver going in but angling back through the paunch on the way out. She dropped like she had been hit with a hammer, I had no problem with that, just messy to dress. Wont take an angle shot again.

 

[chuck-ia]

A running shot at 150 yards? I gotta get out and practice more. When I shoot a deer I gut it right where if fell, when I can I cut from neck to tail and grab the wind pipe and pull and trim along the way. It got dark on me this year and basicaly romoved the guts, was having a hard time cutting through the rib cage in the dark, and didn't want to cut myself, finished the job at home. I hunt on public ground, no motorized vehicles allowed, made a deer cart to haul the deer out. flinch

 

[Bountyhunter]

That shot wasnt with my muzzleloader, but we dont want to talk about that.

 

[Bountyhunter]

I saw a "knife" several years ago that I believe I'm going to make one of. It was for dressing deer and was sorta shaped like an old can opener. It was stout, and had two blades out front, the top one dull, and the bottom one sharp on the inside that you slipped up the breast bone and then just jacked up the handle like an old timey can opener. It cut thru the pelvis and breast bone in seconds. It wouldnt be PC but, when its gettin dark and the temp is plunging, and your hands are wet and bloody, and you dont have any help, PC dont count for much.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Bountyhunter: I carry a Ft. Meigs style replica axe to use for cutting the hip girdle and breastbone. It makes very short work of it. The handle on mine is only about 9 inches long, so I can carry it easily in my bag. The axe is only used, occasionally, for trimming small sticks to make campfire " irons", and tent pegs, and is otherwise limited to doing what I made it to do. I don't like cutting bones, or cartilage with my sharp knife blades, and I have surprised many other men who have watched me use that axe on a deer with how quick it does the work. They are amazed at how small it is, and how light in weight. A squaw axe would do as well. I am thinking of making a loop on the back side of my possibles bag to carry that axe, along with a knife next to it. That would get them off my belt, but would have them with me everywhere I go. I have seen other bags with this kind of arrangement, and it just seems to make more sense the older I get.

 

[roundball]

Yeah, I don't pay any attention to 'HC' when it comes to certain things and this is one of them...I always carry a few pairs of vinyl surgical gloves...both the regular hand size gloves and some arm length gloves to cover my sleeves...get done, peel them off inside out to keep all the mess inside, roll them up and pack them out...this is my main knife for dressing deer:

 

[bigbore442001]

In the past I have never used rubber gloves in handling or gutting deer but here in New England we have issues of Lyme Disease. So now I keep a couple pairs of latex gloves in my hunting bag.

I generally cut around the anus and then made a slit down the sternum to the crotch. I use my two fingers as guides to keep from poking a hole in the stomach.

The last deer my dad shot, the 16 guage slug went into the gut and so that was a moot point.

We like to gut them on a slight incline so all the contents fall out. Then we use an orange plastic ice fishing sled to drag the deer out of the woods. We nicknamed it the canoe and it makes the drag much easier.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

When you have the critter laying on it's side to gut it helps if there is a bush or sapling nearby to use some cord or line to tie the front and rear legs up out of the way, makes it easier for one man to field dress this way. I always carry a 30' length of parachute rigging cord with me in my pack any way. It's as essential as a knife and small hatchet and small saw. I've got a combo knife/saw that works good. 'Kershaw' brand.

 

[davy]

Nothing worser than havin to clean a gut shot deer! Woo wee tha smell! :cursing:

Davy

 

Here in NY we pay such high taxes we are allowed to call the Clintons once a season and Hillary will get in there using just her teeth to clean our deer for us. Of course it taints the meat but its a sight to see!
:rotf:

 

[Catof9tails]

I'm gonna have to go with Roundball's "most common method" pretty much. From reading the comments it sounds like different strokes for different folks. The "most common method" works best for me since I hunt far from roads as possible. It's important to keep the hide on for the long drag out. Sometimes I have to skin, quarter and pack out the meat on a pack frame. For me it just depends on the distance and terrain.
Cat9

 

[ossabaw]

Sorry, but I think cleaning a gut shot hog is worse.

 

[davy]

Sorry, but I think cleaning a gut shot hog is worse.

If so ... then I am glad I have missed that pleasure! :hmm: :nono: :grin:

Davy

 

[GrizzlyBear]

I have just a couple of things to add. I have a terrible terrible time cutting around the anus and pulling it back through the cavity to remove when gutting. I've also tried splitting the pubic bone and hate that too. So my solution is to open up the animal and tie off the colon and then cut 'downstream' so that waste cannot spill into the body cavity. I do the same with the bladder. I leave the last 3" of the 'uretha' and the colon in the deer. Secondly, I'll point the bottom part of the deer downhill, split the cavity open as previously described (all the way to the chin) and cut everything loose then grab the windpipe at the throat and pull it downward, to the hams, and if done properly everything comes out at once, with very little blood and gore on your hands.