field dressing

[madc0w2000]

Think I will stay in the truck and tell her to come get me when you killed the bear!!

 

[Mad Professor]

Where you hunting? I hate having 50 morons nearby so still prefer the deep woods. I'll walk miles off the beaten path, still are some places like that in S. Vt. and W. Ma. (GMB knows the areas :v )

The guts weigh 50-60 lbs on a big deer, want to drag them out too? Really sucks if there is no snow and/or drag is uphill.

All you need is a good sharp 3-4 inch knife and some rope/string. Prop deer in a forked sapling that holds it's head up (easier with a buck) Cut around anus/penis till it's free (e.g. can be pulled inside), tie off both with string (a rope/string holding one leg to aside helps here) . Start at sternum and open gut till you reach the pelvis. Reach inside and cut around diaphram, reach further inside to cut materials holding upper chest cavity (along ribcage near spine) then reach way up and cut off esouphagus. You can now pull out EVERYTHING from chest/abdomen/bowel/genitals. Blood from chest cavity will help wash abdomen, if you have snow/water/clean stream wash out the insides. This will help to cool things too.

Make a cut on the inside of the front legs just behind the ankles to provide a place to slip a rope (ca. 8 ft) behind the tendons. Run the rope through both legs and sucure either around the antlers (buck) or around the neck (doe). Tie the tag end of the rope to a stout stick 2 ft long, this is how you drag it out. :wink:

P.S. This was demostrated and taught by my uncle Andy on a fine 6 pt buck he took; I was a newcomer at a ripe age of 14. The following year I took my first buck (on my own) and put observation/words into practice. God bless you uncle Andy :hatsoff:

P.P.S. take a kid hunting :thumbsup:

P.P.P.S When opening abodmen BE CAREFUL not to puncture entrails. As soon as you reach the inner cavity place your index finger so it rests ca. 1/2 " past the tip of the blade along the BACK of the blade. Angle the blade towards the SKIN side to avoid contacting the guts, move it back and forth to cut until you reach the pelvis . No need to cut pelvis unless you want to. If dragging, splitting chest/pelvis will expose carcass to more dirt/debris.


There is a bunch of ways to butcher things. For me it depends on the weather (warm/cold, rotting/aging) and time (time to make hamburg/sasuage or time to go to work......). Another tread/story.........

GOOD LUCK HUNTING!!!!! POST GAME HAVESTED WITH PRBs!!!!

 

[shmrck1]

nealglen,
IMO,:barf::nono::barf:
Read the responces,and judge for yourself.
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[fw707]

Where you hunting? I hate having 50 morons nearby so still prefer the deep woods. I'll walk miles off the beaten path, still are some places like that in S. Vt. and W. Ma. (GMB knows the areas :v )

The guts weigh 50-60 lbs on a big deer, want to drag them out too? Really sucks if there is no snow and/or drag is uphill.


GOOD LUCK HUNTING!!!!! POST GAME HAVESTED WITH PRBs!!!!

That was just a suggestion for those guys that hunt close to the road! :surrender:
I hunted a buddy's farm last year and we loaded my deer into his truck in an alfalfa field. First one ever that I haven't had the pleasure of field dressing and dragging out. :grin:

 

[Slamfire]

Yeah well I ain't rising to the bait ... you young Penciltucky whippersnapper! :rotf: I was guttin N cleanin deer with my kabar pocketknife 10 years afore you were borned! :blah:

You do not need gimmicks to clean an animal ... just good sense! :thumbsup:

Davy

:thumbsup:
Penciltucky Whippersnapper... :rotf:



Y'all kain't spell worth a darn, as a former Pennsyltuky wippersnapper, I protest. :cursing:

 

[dennis byrd]

Hello folks, im a "newbie" here on this site. It is fantastic. I am not a newbie to hunting however and might toss my two cents worth in on the "anus removal tool" while it may have an application at work, late nite at the bar or in the nickle seats of a Jets Giants game, it is a little silly inside those beautiful handmade buck/elk hide possibles bag's.
I use a bread bag tie to seal off the "anus" of animals I intend on processing for meat. It is cleaner and much smaller. I will stand by my assertion that an "anus" removal tool will always be a needed from time to time.
Good luck hunting and "aim small miss small" Jet90

 

[longcruise]

I will stand by my assertion that an "anus" removal tool will always be a needed from time to time.

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

Ah yes! The only thing worse than an anus is an ignoranus.

When I was a kid, my dad and uncles all showed me and taught me the bung hole cut and tie off system of field dressing and that's what I did for quite a few years.

After moving west and shooting a few mule deer, I got away from that method. Now I carry a bone saw (mine is actually just a hack saw broken down in my pack) and use it to cut carefully through the pelvic bone and open it up completely and then lift the whole anal canal (north west of the erie canal) out and back and then cut it away from the outside. Works good on elk too.

One thing that got me started with that system is that it's hotter out here in the west during the archery and ml seasons in September. The eastern way of cooling a whitetail out doesn't work as well in the heat but when you open em up from pelvic bone and through the brisket and all the way up the throat they cool out a lot better.

 

[roundball]

I've cut the pelvic arch a couple times to do that but the hind legs flop around so much after that that I stopped doing it

 

[BrownBear]

You bring up a good point, Marmotslayer. There are regional differences and traditions involved. Good reasoning behind some, and refusal to doubt the word of gramps on the other.

For example, we do a "30 second gut" here in serious bear country, in order to get up and moving away from the gut pile as soon as possible. Nothing like what we did when I hunted in desert heat. But I'll guarantee that a hungry brown bear will cost you your meat a lot faster than heat if you stick around too long in one spot to take care of niceties like poop schutes, sternums and plevises. But use the 30 second gut on a hot September hunt in the desert or midwest, and you can lose meat almost as fast.

 

[smo]

Brownbear, I agree it is a regional thing ,Heck down South we just let the dawgs run em' towards the truck then shoot em saves alot of draggin :rotf:

 

[Vaino]

In a discussion such as this, there are many variables, eg....game species, locality, ambient temperature and lastly, the knowledge of the hunter. We gun hunt deer in Wisconsin when we usually have snow whereas the archers hunt in much warmer temps and the urgency of processing the animal is a lot more critical. I learned "my gutting technique" and meat care from one of the most notorious poachers { my uncle}in Minnesota and time was of the essence but the field dressing had to be done correctly. Feeding 5 kids demanded that no meat was wasted and I never had a bad piece of venison that my uncle shot. One of the guidelines he used was to expose the least amount of meat thereby lessening the trimming waste. He mainly shot does so the "rearend" cuts were internal and he never went through the pelvic bone which is really unnecessary. This all changed on my first MLer elk which had to be packed out by foot....after gutting in the usual manner, the elk was promptly skinned to dissapate the heat and the carcass was quartered and all the meat was cut off including the sausage meat. Only bone in the front and rear quarters was packed out. The main point to be made is that there are a lot of variables {including "wrong ways"} that dictate how animals are field dressed and processed. Happy gutting....Fred

 

[rabjr]

never went through the pelvic bone which is really unnecessary.

I agree, I never do this all it does is expose and ruin good meat.

 

[longcruise]

I've cut the pelvic arch a couple times to do that but the hind legs flop around so much after that that I stopped doing it

That they do. However, another thing that we typically do is completely debone the meat into very large pieces. You can take most of the meat from a deer or elk hindquarter in two large pieces. Then it goes into high grade game bags and is packed out in plastic lined back packs. This procedure was originally started for elk hunting. If the animal is a cow, there is no need to pack out any bones whatsoever. In the case of a bull where there may be a desire to save the head or a need to prove antler tine count and for legal purposes one may need to take the head out. The hide is another matter and if one wants to save the hide it makes a pretty good load in and of itself from an elk.

For example, we do a "30 second gut" here in serious bear country, in order to get up and moving away from the gut pile as soon as possible.

That's kinda like our antelope procedure where the temps can be very high and often antelope are taken in mid day. We gut em and throw in or on the vehicle and race for shade. Yank the hide off and cut into pieces that will fit a cooler. No other antelope are stalked or shot until the dead one is handled. I hear a lot of complaints from guys who say antelope meat sucks, and whenever I hear that I know how they handled it! :shocked2:

Brownbear, are those stories true about the bears coming to the shot when you kill a deer?

I agree, I never do this all it does is expose and ruin good meat.

Swamp Rat, not sure what you mean by ruining good meat. There is absolutely no meat ruined by cutting the legs apart and then cutting through the pelvic bone.

 

[rabjr]

Every one I've ever seen done that way, ended up with a small exposed piece of meat to the air. That doesn't happen the way I do it.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

Ive always split the pelvic bone too. Do it the way you learned or feel is the easiest i guess.

 

[Mad Professor]

Where you hunting? I hate having 50 morons nearby so still prefer the deep woods. I'll walk miles off the beaten path, still are some places like that in S. Vt. and W. Ma. (GMB knows the areas :v )

The guts weigh 50-60 lbs on a big deer, want to drag them out too? Really sucks if there is no snow and/or drag is uphill.


GOOD LUCK HUNTING!!!!! POST GAME HAVESTED WITH PRBs!!!!

That was just a suggestion for those guys that hunt close to the road! :surrender:
I hunted a buddy's farm last year and we loaded my deer into his truck in an alfalfa field. First one ever that I haven't had the pleasure of field dressing and dragging out. :grin:

I see your point. :v

I've taken a few at my mom's farm that I picked up with the 3pt hitch on the 9N ford before I cleaned them out. Tractor came in handy to hoist them up under a limb when it did come time to gut too.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

I agree with those hunters :grin: Antelope meat tasted like a roasted tire. I hear the younger ones taste better though.

 

[Stumpkiller]

The first time I ever went deer hunting I showed up with a surplus folding entrenching tool on my belt to bury the gut-pile. Much to the delight of the farming family that was "hosting" me.

"Har! Har! Har!"

I suppose I would have had one of them if they were available back then. ;-)

Not everything new is an improvement. Just another gimmic to market and bring in $.

 

[longcruise]

I agree with those hunters Antelope meat tasted like a roasted tire. I hear the younger ones taste better though.

Ha! Some cooks can make anything taste like a roasted tire! :grin:

I've eaten yearlings and old does and bucks all with good eating qualities. OTOH, everybody doesn't like alike. Bein a CO boy I'm sure you have eaten plenty of deer, elk and antelople so you should know what you like of 'em.

Can't wait for ML opener!!!!!

 

[Kentuckywindage]

You and me both. With all the rain we've been having these past couple of days, its been cooling down a lot and reminding me of hunting season in the early mornings. Now that i have my flintlock sighted in im pretty much biting my fingernails off waiting for the days to end. Kind of like waiting for christmas you know lol. Hopefully i can draw a left over bull tag on aug. 8th! Im putting in for white river ntl. forest, up by Meeker.