Field Dressing a Deer - How Do You Do It?

[KampKool]

agree with SK's advice for the top end, but as I learned it, splitting the pelvis is unnecessary and also opens things up where you have a better chance of getting leaves/dirt/etc. in it when draging. I only carry a small folding knife for cutting around the anus, and the rest is done with a Wyoming knife. The handle/shape really protects the hands when searching for the "radiator hose". Over the years, the cutters (yes, I pay someone to cut it up) I have used have been pleased to get the animal that way....Good luck

BobW

I have a Wyoming Knife and I leave it in the gun cabinet. I forgot it the first deer season I owned it, it was a gift. Second day of PA's buck season I hear a near by set of shots so I headed over to see what was shot. There's this guy shakin' like a leaf; tryin' to open the gut of a nice 6 point. He's lost the little plastic guard from the skining blade & is tryin to yse the gut hook w/ his thumb on the skinning blade...Buck fevor! The ball of his thumb looked like raw ribbons of meat hangin' there.

He wrapped it in a bandana' & borrowed my buck knife to gut it. I wached as he drug it off to his car...

I vowed to never carry mine w/ the skinning blade & I never bought the gut hook only blade so it's been sitting in the gun cabinet ever since.

:m2c:

 

[roundball]

".....splitting the pelvis is unnecessary and also opens things up where you have a better chance of getting leaves/dirt/etc. in it when draging....."

Agree...if you cut the hinge in the woods, both hind legs flop off to the sides, wide open...cut it when ready to quarter and butcher it

 

[Runner]

I process my own deer all the way. I cut no bone at all most of the time except the pelvis. I bone everything except the neck. I save the best roasts and the backstraps. The rest is ground into burger for chili, spaghetti, or other dishes where the fine texture is better than ground beef. I break the pelvis, but I only have to please me!

 

[Hoyt]

I've always done my own from start to finish..used to process one every now and then for others back when I ran a meat market and it wouldn't get the doors boarded up to have a deer in your cooler.
I field dress with as small an opening as possible to keep trash out when dragging. Then skin and quarter when I get it to check station cleaning rack. Lot of people around here use big pruning loppers instead of saws. Ice down for a few days..draining water off and adding ice. Then bone out everything and freeze in portions un-sliced till I get ready to cook.

 

[Rebel]

Those wire survival saws work good for splitting the pelvis. Just loop it through, grab the rings and pull and cut.