How many of you do this?

[Tahquamenon]

Does not bother me unless I help field dress one that is gut shot. What a nasty mess. Helps if the deer have been eating corn, beans and crops. If it's been on the wild graze, then get ready for a rough task.

I take those little foam ear plugs for not only my ears for shooting but I stuff them in my nose if I have to dive into a improperly shot deer.

If not gut shot, then if you are careful you can get all the entrails from the carcass without nicking the stomach or bowels and trim the ligaments and tissue that holds everthing in and literally "dump" everything outside the carcass.

Gut shots are the worst though. :redface:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I figure any man that can change a diaper can dress a deer. Ugh.

When I was working on call as a lifter for a mortition (how's that for a wierd college summer job) he suggested wiping Vicks under your nose and in each nostril before a "wet" pick-up. If it really bothers you you can carry some in a well sealed container and apply it before beginning.

I guess many years of cleaning fish before taking up hunting got me past the smell & texture factor. It's destinctive, but has never much bothered me.

I once forgot and left 50 nightcrawlers in my car trunk during the summer. Now that one was an eye-crosser when I tossed something in the trunk on top of the container and broke it open after a week. :shocking:

 

[Tahquamenon]

I figure any man that can change a diaper can dress a deer. Ugh.

When I was working on call as a lifter for a mortition (how's that for a wierd college summer job) he suggested wiping Vicks under your nose and in each nostril before a "wet" pick-up. If it really bothers you you can carry some in a well sealed container and apply it before beginning.

I guess many years of cleaning fish before taking up hunting got me past the smell & texture factor. It's destinctive, but has never much bothered me.

I once forgot and left 50 nightcrawlers in my car trunk during the summer. Now that one was an eye-crosser when I tossed something in the trunk on top of the container and broke it open after a week. :shocking:

ugggh! Nightcrawlers are the king of funk!!!! :redface: :redface:

 

[roundball]

OPTION #1
Study and learn how to remove the entire diaphram as a unit with everything still pretty much intact inside it...after taking care of the back end, and with the deer on it's side, you can cut all around the diaphram, snip the wind pipe, and roll the whole sack (diaphram) right out of the deer...pick it up like a suitcase and set it aside out of the way...

Sounds great, but wait a minute...didn't you just discard the heart and liver??? OK, maybe I could do without the heart, but the LIVER?? :shocking: Fresh venison liver is pretty hard to beat!

Yeah, never been a big fan of eating "organs"...
::

 

[Stumpkiller]

Fill the heart with stuffing and roast it. Serve with gravy and mashed potatoes. Mmmmmmmmm. That's fine eatin.

The liver? Well, just can't throw away five or six pounds of meat! I've evolved enough from my recent ancestors that I at least pass on the stomach, lungs and kidneys. :: Though I used to have a cat that would follow me into the woods to get squirrel kidneys. That liver isn't too awful. Fried with enough onions and Marsala wine and you can get it down. That and the heart hold us over until the real meat is ready. ::

 

[No Deer]

This past deer season we made a fire (with flint and steel) in the woods and roasted the heart before we came out of the woods.
Sliced it and stuck the pieces on a stick and held it over the fire. Was very good.

 

[Halftail]

Stumpkiller,
I ate my first Deer heart this fall.I can't believe I haden't had one before!!!It was Awsome!!! :redthumb:

I won't be passin up on another one,I'll tell ya that!
We just boiled it up with salty water for a few hours and ate it Cold with some fried Deer liver ,Onions and Mushrooms and Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.
That's how I like giving thanks for a deer kill.

 

[DRC]

If you didn't give thanks and fell somewhat together with the animal. I would say something is wrong. Your feelings are fine.

 

[Finnwolf]

DC,
Don't worry - the whole process isn't that bad, especially if you do your job right before you squeeze the trigger. You'll be surprised by how little blood is involved. The whole process really only takes about 20-30 minutes. If you don't hit the digestive tract, you'll be OK. I actually sit down and have a bite to eat before I start - I find it calms the shakes a little so that I don't cut myself. The only time I got a little green was on a gut shot deer my little brother put down. On that one, I learned to put a handi-wipe inside a handkerchief and wear it bandit style. The fragrance from the wipe was enough to keep me going while my brother was barking in the brush.

First time you go hunting, try to have an experienced friend to show you or talk you through. There are also tons of field dressing guides around in magazines, especially in Sep-Oct. You can probably locate one on the web somewhere - read it over until you understand the process. There are even some videos out there if you learn better by seeing.

Finnwolf

 

[brushbuster]

dc i sent you a pm but since ther were so many responses ,heres how i do it
stay up wind of the animal so the smell dont reach your nostrils
i never have anything im my mouth because for me anyway the smell transfers to taste .
carry some latex gloves with you ,blood dosent bother me but i know it can bother others
if you gut shoot a deer ...all bets are off .quarter the deer out i.e shoulders hams and back strap and leave.trust me the first time you deal with a gut shot deer you will do anything to keep that from happening again.

if you accidentally nick the paunch ,hurry up and gitter dun

 

[Eric Krewson]

My wife hunted with me for 15 years and although she had numerous opportunities to kill deer she never pulled the trigger. I always told her shooting an animal was optional on a hunt. She loved the woods and the hunt and watching deer. She always said she would shoot a huge buck if one appeared but never saw one she wanted to kill. She was a wonderful hunting partner and often held the flashlight while I field dressed a deer I had killed late in the evening. What I am getting at is that hunting deer, learning their habits and being part of their environment is what it is all about. I have never felt like I was hunting if I carried a camera, my wife felt the same way and always carried her M/L.

As for gutting deer, I had the weakest stomach on the planet when I started hunting 35 years ago.I didn't get nauseous when I gutted my first deer, I felt faint and almost passed out. Real embarrassing but I realized if I was going to hunt deer I had to overcome this reaction. Fifty or so deer later, I can dive into any gut shot deer now without a second thought, just part of the process.

 

[dchawken]

Once again you all have come up with some pretty helpful advice. I'm afraid my offhand comment took this thread off-topic, but what I think this proves is that I ought to persuade one of my neighbors to come along. I think a bourbon-bribe will work pretty well.

Thanks again.

 

Our grandpas must of known each other, I do the exact same thing, I even taught my wife the same thing, your no wuss. There's just too many people who enjoy killing, there's a big difference between hunting and killing. Any chump with money can buy a trophy hunt to kill stuff.To me thats the wuss, :RO: a man without a consense.Slob hunters, and killers they give the anti's all the fuel they need to attack us. It's real sad to measure sucess by how much or how many critters you kill. Carry on brother you got it right.

 

[noahmercy]

Once again, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all who have replied. The sheer number of replies and views expressed makes it clear that I'm certainly not in a minority as far as this crowd goes. I've also had a chance to talk to a couple experienced hunters face to face while this thread has been rolling along, one of them an experienced guide. And to a man, they feel empathy for the animals they hunt and engage in "fair chase" practices. And every one of them, while exulting in the kill, also give respect to the animal in some way. So I guess that fella' I mentioned initially who intimated I was less than a man for feeling sadness at the taking of an animal's life is one of the minority, and I pity him. It's strange, but I had just never thought to ask about the subject before. I guess I just assumed most hunters felt the same as I, and that has proven to be the case. I'm just awed by how many different ways there are to salute a successful hunt that I never imagined. I understand some of you feel this is an extremely personal topic, and I agree, and that makes your replies all the more impressive. :thumbsup:

 

[bezoar]

Nothing wrong at all for feeling some empathy for the deer/goat you have just killed. I admit i started out feeling little empathy at all for the deer my family hunted, i was the one doing most of the field dressing and dragging of bodies in dense wood.
But once the herd sire died, i have been feeling empathy to deer and especially goats. Nothing "wussie" at allabout it. it just shows ethics.

And poachers? they never get punished. in the state of michigan in the latest DNR sports newspaper thing, they tell us about a few poachers that got nabbed. One killed a turkey and got 1700 in fines. A guy illegally poached 2 or 3 BOBCATS in an area offlimits to all bobcat hunting, and only got 1200 in fines. so the real poachers get off free because its just a "cat" but oh no, a damned turkey is worth more then 3 bobcats.

 

Twisted_1in66, brother you need to take that heart clean it out so it's like a pouch, fill it with a good bread stuffin and cook it in a crock pot about 6 hours on low, you'll change your mind about keeping the heart> :m2c:

 

I agree with ya Noah, to me the most offensive smell in the world, is the smell of all that darned perfume all them elderly ladies wear in church, some of the young ones too. Sometimes it gives me such a bad headache, my wife has to drive us home after the service. I was going to fight back and cover myself with buck wee, but my wife started saying bobit things, so now I try to sit way in the back, and scoot out the door soon as the service is over. :crackup:

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Twisted_1in66, brother you need to take that heart clean it out so it's like a pouch, fill it with a good bread stuffin and cook it in a crock pot about 6 hours on low, you'll change your mind about keeping the heart> :m2c:

:crackup: :crackup: Gotta laugh. I keep 'em both, but I really love fresh venison liver. Gonna have to try your crock pot method. Sounds pretty good.

Are you cooking it in any type of broth, or just stuffing it and dropping it in?

 

[Slamfire]

I agree with ya Noah, to me the most offensive smell in the world, is the smell of all that darned perfume all them elderly ladies wear in church, some of the young ones too. Sometimes it gives me such a bad headache, my wife has to drive us home after the service. I was going to fight back and cover myself with buck wee, but my wife started saying bobit things, so now I try to sit way in the back, and scoot out the door soon as the service is over. :crackup:

My wife has that same problem with cheap perfumes. She gets so choked up she actually has to leave. As a consequence she can't attend church, and I'm permitted to worship in God's greatest cathedral, the outdoors. :thumbsup: :redthumb:

 

WOW did this thread ever get off track.
From honoring the dead animal to food to perfume. Go figure

Woody