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Field dressing a deer
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Doc Contender
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Experience is the best teacher. What have you field dress before.
Cabela's has a two video set that is pretty good. The first tape is Field Dressing, the second is butchering beyond that. It's pretty good if this is your first time.
Cabelas Video
Cabelas Video
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think "Big Rabbit"......ain't much to it.
Vic
Vic
eat moose meat
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This is my technique. It may not be the best, but it has worked for since my grandad showed me on my first deer when i was 10.
1. Make sure animal is dead. Don't laugh im serious.
2. Roll the deer on its back preferably horizontal on a slope. legs pointing up hill.
3. Make a small cut just big enough to get the point of the knife and your index finger in. Make this right where the 2 bottom ribs come together. above the belly.
4. Now take the small knife and cover the tip with your index finger. This will keep the point of the knife from cutting the intestines.
5. Slice straight down past his hooter, if a Buck. Cooter if it is a doe. NOW carefully cut around his anus without cutting through his lower intestine.
6. Roll the deer legs facing down hill stick your hands in and help the guts run out it may require a little tugging.
7. Be careful not to pop the bladder sack. Now cut on the other side of his hooter remove the whole apparatus urethra bladder and all.
8. After cleaning out abdominal cavity as good as possible cut the diaphram away from its ribs and remove heart and lungs you will have to reach up in there and cut the esophagus pull all of that junk out.
9. Fish around in the junk and find the heart and remove it this is edible. I bury it in the woods thats my way. you may choose to eat it.It is delicious.
10.Find the liver save this too it is much better than beef liver.
11. Now get to work and start dragging.Cool the animal quick as possible. When you get home split his pelvis and ribs put a stick between them open them up and help them cool.
Hope this will help. Good luck, remember you can't eat :thumbsup:antlers
1. Make sure animal is dead. Don't laugh im serious.
2. Roll the deer on its back preferably horizontal on a slope. legs pointing up hill.
3. Make a small cut just big enough to get the point of the knife and your index finger in. Make this right where the 2 bottom ribs come together. above the belly.
4. Now take the small knife and cover the tip with your index finger. This will keep the point of the knife from cutting the intestines.
5. Slice straight down past his hooter, if a Buck. Cooter if it is a doe. NOW carefully cut around his anus without cutting through his lower intestine.
6. Roll the deer legs facing down hill stick your hands in and help the guts run out it may require a little tugging.
7. Be careful not to pop the bladder sack. Now cut on the other side of his hooter remove the whole apparatus urethra bladder and all.
8. After cleaning out abdominal cavity as good as possible cut the diaphram away from its ribs and remove heart and lungs you will have to reach up in there and cut the esophagus pull all of that junk out.
9. Fish around in the junk and find the heart and remove it this is edible. I bury it in the woods thats my way. you may choose to eat it.It is delicious.
10.Find the liver save this too it is much better than beef liver.
11. Now get to work and start dragging.Cool the animal quick as possible. When you get home split his pelvis and ribs put a stick between them open them up and help them cool.
Hope this will help. Good luck, remember you can't eat :thumbsup:antlers
This is a duplication of a post on the In-Line section. :nono: You really shouldn't do that. Click here to see that one:Field Dressing a Deer
But, since it's such a good topic I'll let it live (and because I had such a good reply on that other place. . . ::
But, since it's such a good topic I'll let it live (and because I had such a good reply on that other place. . . ::
One additional tip . At least this is what i do . I hang moose by the back legs to skin 'em . It ain't always possible as most are so heavy you have to roll 'em but deer i hang from the neck to skin 'em . The reason being is the metatarsel gland on the inside of a bucks back legs . If you hang 'em from the neck you skin 'em straight down and you won't be touching the glands . If you hang 'em from the back legs with head down you're gonna get yer hands and yer knife into the tarsel gland and you'll be handlin' meat on the way down as you skin . The secretion from the tarsel gland can make the meat taste bad . It'll usually cook out but not all of the time . Hang bucks from the neck .
The more you think on it, the more tips come to mind.
You don't need a large knife. My favorite has a 2-3/4" blade (a Helle Polar in a snug fitting neck sheath I made for it).
When I use anything larger I "choke-up" on the blade with my thumb on on side, my index finger along the spine and my cruled middle-finger on the other side. Gives a lot more control. This also allows me to open the body cavity with a small slit in the skin at the lower belly and slide the blade (facing upwards) forward just under the skin. My index finger (covering up to the point of the blade along the spine) keeps the tip from catching the entrails and controls the direction. Same principle as a gut-hook skinner. Nothing sharp is exposed INSIDE the body cavity.
I leave my finger along the blade when trimming inside. You can't always see what's going on, and your brain knows where your index finger is (and therefore, the blade). Watch out for the sharp, splintered edges of broken ribs near the bullet wound.
You don't need a large knife. My favorite has a 2-3/4" blade (a Helle Polar in a snug fitting neck sheath I made for it).
When I use anything larger I "choke-up" on the blade with my thumb on on side, my index finger along the spine and my cruled middle-finger on the other side. Gives a lot more control. This also allows me to open the body cavity with a small slit in the skin at the lower belly and slide the blade (facing upwards) forward just under the skin. My index finger (covering up to the point of the blade along the spine) keeps the tip from catching the entrails and controls the direction. Same principle as a gut-hook skinner. Nothing sharp is exposed INSIDE the body cavity.
I leave my finger along the blade when trimming inside. You can't always see what's going on, and your brain knows where your index finger is (and therefore, the blade). Watch out for the sharp, splintered edges of broken ribs near the bullet wound.
eat moose meat
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I agree you dont need a big knife. I have dressed many deer on the side of the road with a pocket knife. Same with moose. smaller knives are easy to control.
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Sounds like Stumpkiller and I learned to handle knives from the same book.
On the broad topic of field dressing, be aware that there are local and regional "right" ways to do it, so any time you dress a deer using techniques from another area, you are likely to be criticized by anyone needing something to complain about.
Specialized techniques evolve to meet very specific local conditions. In fact, some of the things you read about or see on a tape may be entirely wrong for your location. If you can get with three or four old hands from your area, they can probably save you a lot of grief, especially if you can be on hand while a deer is on the ground.
For example, here in Alaska we have rough terrain, flies and bears to deal with. You don't want to hang around dressing a deer any longer than you have to, plus you don't want a big scent trail when you are dragging out a deer. You also don't want to fill the body cavity with grass and dirt while dragging it, any more than you want extra openings in the hide for flies to get in during the early part of the season.
Therefore, we have evolved a very fast dressing technique (2-3 minutes most of the time), with a minimum opening to the body cavity (six inches or so) which we sew up before dragging, and no throat cut. By the same token, when you have several deer hanging at once each year, you develop pretty specific skinning techniques.
As good as our techniques are for local conditions, they are largely unecessary elsewhere (and would raise a whole lot of traditional hackles!) Yet I'll stand by them till C. Heston pries my tiny little dressing knife from my cold dead fingers!
On the broad topic of field dressing, be aware that there are local and regional "right" ways to do it, so any time you dress a deer using techniques from another area, you are likely to be criticized by anyone needing something to complain about.
Specialized techniques evolve to meet very specific local conditions. In fact, some of the things you read about or see on a tape may be entirely wrong for your location. If you can get with three or four old hands from your area, they can probably save you a lot of grief, especially if you can be on hand while a deer is on the ground.
For example, here in Alaska we have rough terrain, flies and bears to deal with. You don't want to hang around dressing a deer any longer than you have to, plus you don't want a big scent trail when you are dragging out a deer. You also don't want to fill the body cavity with grass and dirt while dragging it, any more than you want extra openings in the hide for flies to get in during the early part of the season.
Therefore, we have evolved a very fast dressing technique (2-3 minutes most of the time), with a minimum opening to the body cavity (six inches or so) which we sew up before dragging, and no throat cut. By the same token, when you have several deer hanging at once each year, you develop pretty specific skinning techniques.
As good as our techniques are for local conditions, they are largely unecessary elsewhere (and would raise a whole lot of traditional hackles!) Yet I'll stand by them till C. Heston pries my tiny little dressing knife from my cold dead fingers!
Boy, I know what you mean. Here in California we have to hide from PETA while field dressing. :shake: Very bothersome.
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You would do well to reintroduce the grizzly bear to California. Smear a few PITA's with deer blood, and I bet they would find somewhere else to protest!
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Interesting - the mentor :master: who taught me to gut moose back in '79, used to do the killing for his entire family - it was a big family and he probably gutted well over 100 moose in 15-18 years. That's only 6-7 moose a year - probably about right. Knowing this fellow, they weren't all shot during a season - but only when needed, in a poor community. In the 60's this area was pretty wild & really didn't calm down until the 80's. Everyone it seemed, wanted to hunt with this fellow - he'd ALWAYS get them a moose and generaly did all the shooting as well.
: Anyway, this man taught me to use a big knife & a big rifle - so I've always gone that route. Some people take their time when gutting an animal, especially a big one, but for him, 7 minutes is all. For me, it's a full 12 to 15 minutes for a mature bull and perhaps 7 min for a yearling at 300 lbs. on the hoof, I'd guess.
: I've tried shorter blades over the last 24 years, but always go back to a 5" to 6" blade. Shorter blades just slow me down. My preferred knife is a custom 5" blade by "Little Valley Knives" of Prince George, B.C. My second blade is a large 5 or 5 1/2" Buck with 1/2" broken from the tip and re-ground. I broke the tip off by digging a .69 ball from an Aspen at -40 degrees. It was too long, anyways - but only by 1/2". ::
: These are heavy tools, but tough and well worth mastering. I've found, with a good edge to start with, I can do a moose and 1/2 or sometimes two moose back to back with the Buck before it needs sharpening. Without a diamond stone, sharpening it, is most difficult. The diamond stone makes this an easy chore.
: Best time to try out the blade, is the last week of September or 1st week of October. This is when 90% of the cow moose are fertilized - this is THE RUTT!
: It matters not a whit on the weather - weather will have them in different locations, but not change the dates of the rutt. The calves have to be born in the first or second week of May, to be large enoguh to survive the next winter. That puts their fertilization at the 1st week of OCT or last weeks of SEP. An unbred cow will come into estrus every 28 days after that, but if bred, her calf will not survive.(in this part of the country - maybe in Ontario or Quebec/Lab/New Brunswick)- Not in BC, northern AB, or northern SA. Putting off the birth, even a month, puts them still on the teat and too small to survive.
: Anyway, this man taught me to use a big knife & a big rifle - so I've always gone that route. Some people take their time when gutting an animal, especially a big one, but for him, 7 minutes is all. For me, it's a full 12 to 15 minutes for a mature bull and perhaps 7 min for a yearling at 300 lbs. on the hoof, I'd guess.
: I've tried shorter blades over the last 24 years, but always go back to a 5" to 6" blade. Shorter blades just slow me down. My preferred knife is a custom 5" blade by "Little Valley Knives" of Prince George, B.C. My second blade is a large 5 or 5 1/2" Buck with 1/2" broken from the tip and re-ground. I broke the tip off by digging a .69 ball from an Aspen at -40 degrees. It was too long, anyways - but only by 1/2". ::
: These are heavy tools, but tough and well worth mastering. I've found, with a good edge to start with, I can do a moose and 1/2 or sometimes two moose back to back with the Buck before it needs sharpening. Without a diamond stone, sharpening it, is most difficult. The diamond stone makes this an easy chore.
: Best time to try out the blade, is the last week of September or 1st week of October. This is when 90% of the cow moose are fertilized - this is THE RUTT!
: It matters not a whit on the weather - weather will have them in different locations, but not change the dates of the rutt. The calves have to be born in the first or second week of May, to be large enoguh to survive the next winter. That puts their fertilization at the 1st week of OCT or last weeks of SEP. An unbred cow will come into estrus every 28 days after that, but if bred, her calf will not survive.(in this part of the country - maybe in Ontario or Quebec/Lab/New Brunswick)- Not in BC, northern AB, or northern SA. Putting off the birth, even a month, puts them still on the teat and too small to survive.
Every time a Mountain Lion attacks someone in my home state of California, I just shake my head... "Stupid people", I think to myself.
They continue to pass tougher gun laws so we can't defend ourselves, build communities in predator habitat and then they're outraged when the inevitable happens. :shake:
Just north of where I live this "golf course community" is freaking-out because coyotes are eating their dogs and cats. The people feed their pets on their patios, which attracts the coyotes, skunks, opossum, rats, etc. (It's kind of like chumming) These same people are surprised when an animal larger than their toy poodle is carried off for dinner. HELLO... that's life on planet Earth.
I apologize for going off-topic. If anyone should know better, it's me. ::
Daryl , i'm pretty quick with a blade also . I prefer blades of about 4 inches and i usually carry several of them in my pack so i don't have to stop and sharpen going from field dressing to skinning . I got into that habit when i was running my bear guiding/outfitting service . Did that for 10 years and i've skinned well over 300 bear . Many times my clients would be sitting back having a drink by the fire while i'd be skinning all night . Last years bull moose was a different story . It was the first thing i ever shot that i never cleaned . I looked out into a forest cut and a 3 year old bull was running broadside to me about 75 yards out . I fired and the bull went down and as i cycled my rifle , he got back up . He ran straight into a frozen over pond and when he was in the middle with ice flying in every direction i fired again . What a mistake that was . I should have waited a couple of seconds until he hit high ground again . Anyway , there he is , dead , in the middle of the swamp and both of my brothers and father were watching . We got one of the trucks as close as we could and started extending ropes out . The temp was around 0 degrees and i stripped my clothes off down to my socks , threw the rope over my shoulder and started in . The ice was sharp , the loon [censored] was pulling me down and the water was freezing . I had to get under to get the rope around his neck and had to break ice with my forearms to do that . I was in for probably 10 minutes but it seemed like an hour . When i made my way out i was covered in loon [censored] and shaking uncontrollably . One of my brothers took a look at me naked and frozen and commented that he never knew he had a sister . I started my truck , took my wet socks off and turned the heater on high . Dried myself off with my jacket and as i dried i brushed the loon [censored] off . By the time that i was dry and got dressed and the hypothermic shaking stopped my brothers had the moose out , gutted , quartered and hanging in a tree with a rope and snatchblock . I sat on the tailgate drinking a pail of hot coffee as they skinned it .
[quote
Every time a Mountain Lion attacks someone in my home state of California, I just shake my head... "Stupid people", I think to myself.
They continue to pass tougher gun laws so we can't defend ourselves, build communities in predator habitat and then they're outraged when the inevitable happens. :shake:
Just north of where I live this "golf course community" is freaking-out because coyotes are eating their dogs and cats. The people feed their pets on their patios, which attracts the coyotes, skunks, opossum, rats, etc. (It's kind of like chumming) These same people are surprised when an animal larger than their toy poodle is carried off for dinner. HELLO... that's life on planet Earth. [/quote]
It really is a sign of our times isn't it Claude...for the past half century private farms have disappeared, farm kids have disappeared, and we've ended up with pure generations of people who only know wall to wall carpet, appliances, air conditioning, etc...and know nothing of hunting, helping cows drop calves, feeding newborn piglets with baby bottles under heat lamps cause the sow died giving birth, slaughtering / butchering beef cattle & hogs in a barnyard with white snow on the ground...vivid memories, and lessons...50 years later.
I couldn't wait to get off the farm back in the early 60's and get into the "real world", joined the military so I could "get away"...but as I got older I realized just how valuable those 17 years were, and very few people coming up today are coming up in that environment, missing an awful lot about the basics
Every time a Mountain Lion attacks someone in my home state of California, I just shake my head... "Stupid people", I think to myself.
They continue to pass tougher gun laws so we can't defend ourselves, build communities in predator habitat and then they're outraged when the inevitable happens. :shake:
Just north of where I live this "golf course community" is freaking-out because coyotes are eating their dogs and cats. The people feed their pets on their patios, which attracts the coyotes, skunks, opossum, rats, etc. (It's kind of like chumming) These same people are surprised when an animal larger than their toy poodle is carried off for dinner. HELLO... that's life on planet Earth. [/quote]
It really is a sign of our times isn't it Claude...for the past half century private farms have disappeared, farm kids have disappeared, and we've ended up with pure generations of people who only know wall to wall carpet, appliances, air conditioning, etc...and know nothing of hunting, helping cows drop calves, feeding newborn piglets with baby bottles under heat lamps cause the sow died giving birth, slaughtering / butchering beef cattle & hogs in a barnyard with white snow on the ground...vivid memories, and lessons...50 years later.
I couldn't wait to get off the farm back in the early 60's and get into the "real world", joined the military so I could "get away"...but as I got older I realized just how valuable those 17 years were, and very few people coming up today are coming up in that environment, missing an awful lot about the basics
Charles/NM
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Ditto what "eat moose meat" said with a couple of variations; I lay the deer on it's back with the head uphill. I'm VERY careful to not cut any body cavity sacks - like the stomach. I cut out and discard any blood shot meat and any body innards remains that were opened up by the bullet/ball - it will attract flies and resulting spoilage. I want the body cavity to be as clean as I can get it. I try to carry out the dressed deer WITH AN ORANGE HUNTING VEST TIED OVER IT!!! I try to not look like a deer when carrying a deer out of the woods. Back at camp I hang the deer head up in a tree, spread out the rib cage a stick to aid cooling, cut off the legs at the knees, cover it with a game bag to keep flies away and make sure your hunting tag is attached to it. That's the first thing the Game Warden will look for.
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