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Joined: Jun 2016
Posts: 387
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Campfire Member
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For me it just depends on the situation. I'm usually only a short ways from my 4 wheeler and if I can drive to the deer, then I usually don't gut it until I get it out. But there is a deep creek that splits the property I hunt the most and sometimes I can't cross it on the 4 wheeler and it takes me an hour or so to go out and back in from the other side. In that case, I usually do gut them, especially if it's a warm day.
I've never quartered and/or deboned one in the field though. I've thought about trying it, but just never have.
”Those who would give up liberty for security, deserve neither.” Ben Franklin
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 926
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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Dead right there. Guts right there.
Grammar is important.
Capitol letters are the difference between "helping your Uncle Jack off a horse" & "helping your uncle jack off a horse".
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,176 Likes: 2
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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We all don’t like to gut deer way down here. Neither do we. Lot of interesting takes on this. I haven't gut one out in ~20 years. I take it whole to the skinning rack and quarter it out. If you left meat on the bone/hide and hung it in the South, the only thing you'll be feeding are the bees, flies and buzzards. Aging the meat in a cooler for 4 days +/- will give the meat the chance to go through rigor and let the bacteria break down the muscle fibers - bones have nothing to do with it. I can understand if you're hanging it in the northern areas where the temps allow the process to occur without freezing the meat solid or spoiling from warmth and bugs, critters, etc., which is really not much different than using a cooler; I can see where the hide would probably help insulate the meat if the temps are too low. I keep my cuts out of water, away from debris and prefer to age them in larger cuts. If I can't get it out whole, it's gutless method time with a backpack. No processor for me, I butcher my own.
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Joined: Dec 2002
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besides not fi eld dressing in the woods means no dirt, leaves grass & twigs get inside the deer. +1
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Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 17
New Member
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New Member
Joined: Oct 2017
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I was taught to field dress the deer in the field. That's the reason. I've usually got somewhat of a drag to get the deer out to the vehicle, so it lightens the load. I've got friends that don't, and it just seems weird to me.
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 19,044 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 19,044 Likes: 2 |
We all don’t like to gut deer way down here. same here. Take it to the skinning shed. Out of the weather, Drink beer. I've just about gone to deboning while hanging. Reach in to the get the sweet meat, closest i get to the guts.
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
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Joined: May 2011
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 56,357 Likes: 9 |
Today I drug a blacktail buck whole 30 yards to a creek, got the Jeep to the creek, and still quartered it so I didn't have to open it up. Nothing hits the dirt if the quarters get dropped in a bag and set in the creek to cool. How did you get the tenderloins inside the lumbar spine without opening it. Buzzards got ta eat, same as worms.
_______________________________________________________
An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
LOL
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Joined: Sep 2017
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OP
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One of the highlights over lots of deer seasons was when I shot a buck on Saturday, gutted it and hauled it back to camp and sat in the same stand on Sunday when a family of four bobcats came and ate at the gut pile. Neat memory. Two years ago I dropped a deer with my crossbow and gutted it at last light, but pretty close to the landowners house. The next morning I went back with a shovel and a big garbage bag to clean up after myself and all that was left was a blood stain. Back in my youth I worked in a packing house and once those cows were knocked, hung, throats cut, hide off, gutted and cleaned, a cow was into the cooler every thirty seconds once the line got moving. Guaranteed those were cleaner kills than any of us can make with a rifle.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
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Joined: Oct 2008
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Drug out a 125 and a 146 in the last 5 days.
Saves a gym day.
Don't skip leg day.
TRUMP- GABBARD 2024
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I have gutted one dear in the last 4 years.
All others were done gutless. The places I hunt are not conducive to dragging a deer out, I hiked 3.5 miles and somewhere around 1900 vertical feet on a deer killed a week ago. Gutless only.
The loins, heart and liver are easy to extract.
Moving forward from hip bone on each side, nick the fascia and reach in, pushing down mesentery. Loin is right there.
Remove one rib, Heart pops right out.
Nick diaphram, liver comes into chest cavity and is pulled out same way you just pulled heart out.
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,009
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2015
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I have gutted one dear in the last 4 years.
All others were done gutless. The places I hunt are not conducive to dragging a deer out, I hiked 3.5 miles and somewhere around 1900 vertical feet on a deer killed a week ago. Gutless only.
The loins, heart and liver are easy to extract.
Moving forward from hip bone on each side, nick the fascia and reach in, pushing down mesentery. Loin is right there.
Remove one rib, Heart pops right out.
Nick diaphram, liver comes into chest cavity and is pulled out same way you just pulled heart out.
+1 - mountains and elk, deer, etc are too far from a vehicle to even consider trying it whole. Gutless method is perfect. One rib sawed, then get the heart and liver. I have to say I'm jealous everytime I see a whole animal in the back of somebody's truck. Around here it usually means that they hunt private land. I'm happy for them, but still keep hoping for an easy elk or deer. The guys with quarters of animals in the back of their truck- always get a knowing nod--- because I know that it took some work to get it out of the woods.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 10,775
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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I have gutted one dear in the last 4 years.
All others were done gutless. The places I hunt are not conducive to dragging a deer out, I hiked 3.5 miles and somewhere around 1900 vertical feet on a deer killed a week ago. Gutless only.
The loins, heart and liver are easy to extract.
Moving forward from hip bone on each side, nick the fascia and reach in, pushing down mesentery. Loin is right there.
Remove one rib, Heart pops right out.
Nick diaphram, liver comes into chest cavity and is pulled out same way you just pulled heart out.
+1 - mountains and elk, deer, etc are too far from a vehicle to even consider trying it whole. Gutless method is perfect. One rib sawed, then get the heart and liver. I have to say I'm jealous everytime I see a whole animal in the back of somebody's truck. Around here it usually means that they hunt private land. I'm happy for them, but still keep hoping for an easy elk or deer. The guys with quarters of animals in the back of their truck- always get a knowing nod--- because I know that it took some work to get it out of the woods. +1 - This year my buck came out in 2 pieces - still not whole, but better than most years where about all I have to do is wrap them up and put em in the freezer because they are already nearly butchered just to get them out!
A true sportsman counts his achievements in proportion to the effort involved and fairness of the sport. - S. Pope
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 7,872
Campfire Outfitter
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I gut'em where they fall. I ain't draggin out all of that extra schit. Based on where my stands are in relation to where I can get my truck to, I usually have a 200 to 400 yard drag. That's enough. Plus, I'm usually alone, so I ain't loading all of that extra schit into the truck either. 99% of the time, the gut pile is gone by the next morning.
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Ronald Reagan
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Joined: Jan 2015
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I spend more time digging out my knife and rolling up my sleeves than it does to unzip one. Same. Taking my time to get it really good, 10 min max. Usually more like 5-6. Yep, 5 minutes max. Just yank it out and go.
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Ronald Reagan
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Joined: Feb 2003
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Joined: Feb 2003
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![[Linked Image]](https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/gallery/80/full/56073.jpg) I had 9 tags, but only used 4, and that filled the freezer. This doe I gutted with a pocket knife and one paper towel. [no saw] I got my hands bloody, but not my sleeves. By the time I got to the 4th deer, I was starting to remember how to gut a deer.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 13,977 Likes: 4
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shaman,
Is that deer-weight tape the one from Pennsylvania, designed by the game biology department at Penn State? I tested one of those, thanks to a reader from Pennsylvania who sent one along. That fall Eileen and I took five whitetails here in Montana, three does and two bucks, and compared the "tape weight" to the actual field-dressed weight according to our freight scale--which had been tested for accuracy with check-weights.
All I can say is the Pennsylvania deer-tape is designed to make hunters feel good, since on every deer it grossly over-estimated the weight. A good example was the whitetail buck my wife took, a pretty heavy one by Montana standards. The tape said it should field-dress 198 pounds, but on the scale it went 154.
Part of the problem, as we discovered, is that tape's estimate is totally based on chest circumference. Two of the does had exactly the same chest circumference, but the body of one was several inches long from chest to butt. It field-dressed quite a bit heavier than the other doe, but neither weighed anywhere what the tape estimated.
Thank you. I've always wondered about those but never used one.
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Joined: Jun 2010
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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It takes what, maybe 2 minutes to unzip one. It's killing, it's supposed to be messy. ^ This.
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Joined: Jun 2010
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Today I drug a blacktail buck whole 30 yards to a creek, got the Jeep to the creek, and still quartered it so I didn't have to open it up. Nothing hits the dirt if the quarters get dropped in a bag and set in the creek to cool. How did you get the tenderloins inside the lumbar spine without opening it. Buzzards got ta eat, same as worms. So you leave behind the best part. 
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 17,849 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2010
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I have done it both ways, field dressed where they fell and brought them back to the barn below the cabin and field dressed there. I don't believe that dressing them near your stand or blind location does any harm, I've killed deer on successive days out of the same stand where I field dressed a deer the previous day.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,652 Likes: 3
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,652 Likes: 3 |
Today I drug a blacktail buck whole 30 yards to a creek, got the Jeep to the creek, and still quartered it so I didn't have to open it up. Nothing hits the dirt if the quarters get dropped in a bag and set in the creek to cool. How did you get the tenderloins inside the lumbar spine without opening it. Buzzards got ta eat, same as worms. So you leave behind the best part. You don't get the tenderloins? Unreal.....
- Greg
Success is found at the intersection of planning, hard work, and stubbornness.
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