Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Field Dressing Game?

How many of ya'll field dress some/all of the game you take?

Do you think field dressing is a regional thing or just how you grew up doing it?

I hunt on private land, in a defined area. I do so at least once a month, and more than that during Turkey, Dove, and Deer seasons. I can take dove, quail, turkey, squirrels, rabbits, hogs, sheep, white-tail and exotic deer as edible game species.

I have a camp out of which I base my activities. When at that camp I almost never field dress game. We have a custom made skinning rack with lighting.



Perhaps its because most of the game I take is under 250 lbs. or that I'm not a way out in the wilderness on pack animals, or mabye its the time of day I take a lot of game, I find it much easier to bring the whole animal back , gut, skin, quarter, and/or de-bone and get the animal on ice. I usually have that done within two hours of the time I take the particular game animal.
Two weeks ago temps were in the 80�s. I took a hog one morning, and another Saturday night at dark-thirty. It�s not unusual from May through October for temps to range from the high 80�s to 110 plus. I never leave the hide on more than a couple hours. If it�s going to be in the 40�s or below I may let skinned game hang overnight, but most of the time its in the cooler within 30 minutes of the time the hide is removed.


pig ready for skinning


pig, skinned, ready to be opened up, entrails removed, quartered and put in the cooler.


five more waiting





although they can be excellent table fare, hogs are vermin in Texas. Rangy, smelly, tick and flea infested boars. Sometime I don�t bother opening them up. I just take the back-straps and hinds.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e129/glenn1221/DSCN3912.jpg[/img]
on a nice eating sized sow, I�ll do the whole thing.


[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e129/glenn1221/may2010onward/DSC02107.jpg[/img]

I�ll keep a sharp eye pealed, should you choose to respond. LOL

Best

GWB

GW,

Like you I'm in Texas and everywhere I hunt I can drive within a quarter mile at least of where I shoot a critter. Plus, I can carry out most of the animals whole.

I do hunt out of state a lot and am planning another Alaska trip for moose and caribou. I watched a cool video by Larry Bartlett called Project Blood trails which went into great detail on how to field dress a moose and keep it edible.

Good post and nice pics. What county are you hunting?

G W -

I used to field dress every animal myself. Some in the field, some at camp or my house depending on circumstances.

A few yrs back one of our 'fire' members from Kansas posted and maybe had pics, that they did NOT gut deer. I read, studied, and meditated his thread. It made a lot of sense for some circumstances for me.

If the animal is for my consumption, NOW I skin and then cut off the 1/4s and back strap. While the deer/whatever is hanging UPSIDE down I carefully open the body cavity JUST ENUFF to reach in and remove the TENDERLOIN.

I don't mess with the ribs so I haul the rest of the carcass somewhere to feed the buzzards, coyotes, etc.


OTOH, this past yr. I gave several deer to family/friends. Those I skinned, gutted, and washed OFF & OUT thoroughly and they came and took them. That was convenient. ( I had plenty of venison, thankfully)

Most of my hunting is within a mile of the house and in areas where I can get to with truck, tractor or 4 wheeler. It's been a lot of years since I gutted anything in the field, easier to hang them in the old implement shed.

Gwb

That's a large set of ivories on the boar laying on the tail gate.
Is that as large as they get?

Hal

Almost all my hunting now is on public land so it's away from roads and trails because hunting near roads/trails is a losing proposition. So I not only field dress, but most of the time bone it out in the field to save weight in my pack.

The few times I've been invited to hunt on ranches in S. Texas no one field dressed, that would've been bad form to leave a gut pile near a blind that someone else would be using. Especially when you can drive right up to the animal, load it, and haul it back to camp where there's a tripod, winch, and garden hose.

That is the same exact method I use. I used to field dress them until some guys in my hunting club taught me this method.

Gutless method is the way to go imo. Very easy and effective. Keeps everything clean also.

Yes Indeedy:

IF you've paid attention to video Pack In/Out hunts, they skin large animals on the ground, cut off 1/4s and other important parts of meat, and pack out, leaving the INNARDS in the animal and on the ground.

That's the same method w/o hanging up. MUCH, MUCH quicker, easier & CLEANER.

I do this EVERY time it's feasible for myself.

Gutless on the ground.

Currently I'm on one of Dolph Briscoe's ranches, say sixteen miles north of Uvalde on Hwy 83, and six miles in on the Reagan Wells side. The opposite side of HWY 83 has the Frio and all the Axis. This would be Uvalde County. I've also hunted Edwards and Real quite a bit.




No, he had fair tushes but not great tushes. It's hard to tell but that boar weighted 190 lbs. We killed two others that weekend that were bigger but did not have better tushes.

Here are three that IMHO were better







Best

GWB

The only time I've gutted animals in the field at home was just to lighten the animal so it could be loaded easier on a ATV.

The first deer hanging in my newly built skinning shed.

This^^ But I don't hunt anywhere with 4 wheelers, I go in and out on foot. This method also eliminates the need to get rid of the carcass which, in my case, would necessitate loading it up and driving it somewhere to dump.

I hunt too close to the house to bother with field dressing. Got a place set up with all the necessaries out by the barn. Won't hardly be an hour pass between a kill and hanging on the pole.

In 50 years of hunting, I've never NOT field dressed an animal. The gut pile stays at the point of kill. With larger animals, I use the gutless method and the skeleton and hide stay there, too.

There's a big difference between hunting in the east and the west. Here in the west, we usually have to drive farther to hunt. We have infinitely larger areas to hunt, but the arid land of the west doesn't support anywhere near the amount of game that the forested east will support.

Gutless method for the last 10+ years. Much easier to me. Question for you guys that bring the entire animal home to dress it, what do you do with the gut pile? I've just never considered it before. Thanks.

Bob

I haul the guts, when there are any, out in the pasture and the coyotes do the rest. Rarely do I see buzzards, the coyotes do a GOOD job.

Last fall I spooked 3 golden eagles off of a gutpile.

Boning it in the field is my only option.

Haul it about 1/2 mile away from camp to the "boneyard".

Can make for some interesting night sniping of varmints.

Best

GWB