I'm one of those fellow who doesn't gut right away most of the time. I'll attempt to explain.
First off, let me give you some background. We've got 200 acres in the Trans-Bluegrass of Kentucky. I'm about 10 mi south of the Ohio River. Rifle season starts the second weekend in November and runs to about Thanksgiving. Average temps on The Opener are a low of 35 and a high in the low 50's.
The main goal in our case is How fast can we get the deer to the processor? The problems are:
1) The nearest processor is a 1/2 hour away.
2) Historically the processor filled up before Noon and refused carcasses after a certain point.
3) The availability of alternative processors-- I've ridden around the county for hours trying to get a deer taken in.
4) The idea of a 300lb live weight buck is not out of the question, nor a 170 lb+ doe.
The timing is not such a problem anymore in the mornings. However, we have a fairly stiff 8PM cutoff for dropping off deer in the evenings.
The key here is speed. If we can get a deer back to camp in an hour after the shot, we hold off gutting until they're out of the field. That is normally the case. Rather than gut in place, we'll call for somebody to come out with the truck. We have a dedicated deer wagon, an old S-10. It has a winch on it so we can even drag a carcass out of the ravine, and block and tackle and ramps to get deer into the back. I have it set up so that one guy can get any sized deer into the back without assistance. Once they're in the back of the deer wagon, we can run them back to the meat pole, run them up and clean them out in a few minutes.
Spoilage? Given our normal operating temps, and the speed in which we retrieve the carcass, spoilage is just a non-issue. A deer taken before 10 AM is at the processor well before Noon. A deer taken before 6PM is there around 7-7:15 PM.
We also are not tied to the process. If a deer runs down into a nearby ravine, and it's going to be a chore getting them out, the first thing we'll do is gut. That happens about once every 3 years or so. Ditto for delayed retrievals. Once in a while it takes us a while to find a deer-- maybe an extra hour or so. In that case, the guts are coming out right away, no matter what the temp.
We hang head-up. We tie have a short length of chain that slips around the neck that attaches to the block and tackle. For gutting, it's ideal. Gravity pulls most of everthing out with very little assistance.
BTW: I learned all this from a hunter from Alabama who was living in Kentucky and on whose farm I bagged my first deer. He was used to much warmer temps and would hoist a deer, head-up, on the nearest tree and gut him.
