Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer field dressing?

Entirely different things. miles

Yep.

We have come back the next day, gut pile completely gone and a large pile carnivore crap in the red snow.

Also, on a decent run it hasn't been unusual to take or see other deer near the kill site or gut pile a day or two later...

Our coyotes must be picky. Maybe they're filling up on quail and rabbits. Anyways, more times than not(in most of the ones I've paid attention to), that liver lays there till it rots.

Nothing left here but bones.

Whitetails most certainly do. If it happens to be empty you have to look carefully for it. But if it's full it's that green ping pong ball right up close to the liver. Easy to nick trying to cut around it.

deer facts

Look at number 16. miles

I didn't find a source on the Internet that I had confidence in either way (if it's on the Innanet it must be true ) so I went down and talked with my vet. He said other ruminants have gall bladders and didn't know why deer wouldn't too. So I described what I took to be the gall bladder and he said I described a gall bladder exactly.

In any event, if you see a little greenish sac closely attached to the liver don't nick it, the contents are intensely bitter.

Well, I have gutted lots of deer and have never seen one with a gall bladder plus all of the info that I can come up with says they do not have one. I have seen them on rabbits, squirrels, cows, hogs, and chickens. Makes me not trust your vet. miles

So then what's that little greenish sac that contains a vile dark green fluid that's attached to the liver so closely that it's hard to cut around it when removing the major vessels?

On some deer I see it but more often I don't notice it. Gall bladders fill and empty to aid digestion and when empty are collapsed and hard to spot, particularly when you're more interested in getting the job done instead of studying anatomy.

Thing is, I usually save the liver, which means that if a gall bladder were there, I would have to remove it. I have never had to remove one from a deer. I have taken them off beef, pork, chickens, rabbits, squirrels, but never from a deer. miles

No gall bladder in deer.

Then what the heck am I looking at? Seriously, if it's not a gall bladder I'd like to know what it is. Possibly a regional genetic difference since ruminants and apparently at least some ungulates have gall bladders?

Haven't used one of those tools, but did wind up getting a "Sling Blade" as a present one year. It actually works very well and is still only one tool/knife. Actually holds an edge as well which was a bit of a surprise.

Damn if I know. Are you sure that you are looking at a deer? miles

Think so, none of the farmers whose land I hunt on is mad at me anyway.

Its a bladder, but its not a gall bladder. and its not attached to the liver. Its not full of bile,...its full of piss.it looks like a pink walnut shell...

Nope, definitely not pink and when you nick one nasty looking dark green fluid comes out. I retrieve the liver after field dressing the usual way so it's all out in the open and free it when cutting the vessels between the lobes and that's near where the little bugger sits.

Looks pretty much like this drawing but looked significantly smaller relative to the liver though I can't say I paid that much attention to it. Suggests it's become vestigial in some regional groups but still functional in others? Don't know, wild-ass speculation. Would be an advantage for the digestion of corn and soybeans which are high in lipids and which is a big part of the diet around here.

Deer season starts mid-November here, I'll have to try to remember to get a picture.

just a good sharp knife

here is video of a guy cutting out the bladder I'm talking about (interesting enough the link even refrences "gall" bladder ). It is just inside the pelvic cavity, nowhere near the liver that hangs just to the back of the lungs. Its just the very first of the video, the rest is somekind of promo or something.
I have cut out hundreds+ livers from whitetails and never seen what your refering to. I would be interested in seein a pic of what your talking about the next time you gut one if you have a chance. thanks

http://www.zimbio.com/Gallbladder/articles/SfXLsFhCjMQ/Deer+Gall+Bladder+Removal+Highland+Hill+Farm

other than my first deer I have never pay attention to any thing inside of them when i gut

now i am going to have to look for this thing