Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting why do people not gut deer right away?

There is probably truth there. All I can say is that most fellows report that 2-3 hours is a safe window for normal fall conditions, say under 55F. Of course, nothing we do is going to be passing USDA inspection, and nobody should eat the stuff without proper cooking.

Have never seen or heard of this phenomenon here in PA....

Laziness or dont know how.
Hahaha.
Takes a few minutes and the deer weighs less for the drag out.
Silliness...

I ain't hanging a deer for a week with the guts in.

if you want to hang them for awhile…….do you leave the guts in?...….bob

I think GregW is using the gutless method out west, in that situation I totally agree.
Out east where we bring the deer out while I cannot agree with his statement of “any situation”

lots of people out west bring them out whole...…..I am with SH......not going to hang anything with guts in...….bob

We never gutted them in the field. Mainly because we hunted with in 1-3 miles of home. Loaded them up, hung them up and gutted them. We had water available too, to wash up and flush the cavity. Besides who wants to gut a deer in negative degree weather, when you don't have not.

Out west where you could be miles from any road and packing in and out there is absolutely no reason to bring out anything whole...1/4 it up and through it in your backpack and hike out.

Pretty easy to tell who has hunted out west and who hasn’t.

Gutting or not gutting , field dressing or not field dressing depends on your hunting situation, geography, timing, temps , method of removal from the woods and facility's. There is no one right way. Only the best way for the situation. This is not directed at anyone on this threadbut I I notice some on the Fire fail to see the sense in some things as they fail to take into consideration that hunters find themselves in many different situations.

I for one go one two very different hunts with in two weeks of each other. One hunt you can drive right up and snatch your deer with an atv and have it back to camp in 15 minutes the other is walk in on National forest and your draggin your deer by hand back to the truck over hill and dale where it lays
In a trailer for four days until its transported back to a cooler and a barn where its processed. Temps matter in both cases as to how a deer is handled after the shot.

We all seem to agree that the deer needs to be cooled down with in a reasonable time.

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tom …….bobmt…...bob is my name.....mt stands for montana…...have only hunted out west......az..born there.....wy...lived there....nv...lived there....ak...hunted there.....mt...going on 29 years.

I have packed out.... and loaded them up....just shot late season cow elk.....b tag.....Friday, on my little 20 acres, out my back door...its hanging now....no guts...…….I have to throw this out there....like you did....pretty easy to tell who has hunted out west and who hasn't......have a good one...…..bob

Did you backpack them out or drive them out on a side by side/quad?

We usually gut our deer within an hour of shooting. This past season opening afternoon, i shot a nice wide, white tined 8 pointer at 320 PM and Hope was still out there hunting on the front part of the property. Because she has started sometimes using the trophy pics on our Christmas cards we send out, she doesn't like them to be gutted before she can get the pics taken. So I waited until she got back to our cabin and we got some pics taken and it was a little past 6 PM before we started gutting the deer. It was fairly cold that day here in Mid-MO, probably mid 30s, but I was starting to get a little nervous. I hung him up afterwards and we skinned him out on Monday along with a dandy 10 pointer Hope took Sunday morning. We've only eaten the tenderloins so far on these guys, but they were fabulous as always, So there doesn't appear to have been any detrimental impact from the delay. Might start hanging them up by the head'/neck to field dress them, looks like it could be easier and less messy.



Hope's 10 pointer,.

Today's suburban hunter finds such a behavior distasteful.




And I find it a bit unethical.

Always like shooting one where I can gut it out in about 3 minutes and then toss it in the truck whole. If I can do that, I can hang it for a few days if weather permits. Lot of the time that is not possible so you gutless method it and roll. I do think a lot of wusses who are used to unwrapping shrinkwrapped chicken breasts, would struggle to gut an animal. Kind of pathetic really.

Totally agreed. And you just described the provincial thread originator to a tee.

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tom......as I said in my post.....I have packed out( on my back) and loaded up whole.....no guts, by atv….trucks... and quartered up with horses.

I have packed ….on my back....quartered and have boned them out...…….I am actually agreeing with you when you said.....that you don't agree with the statement of....any situation.....bob

I prefer not to have to trim so much red crust so I do prefer to gut a critter if it can be brought out whole.

If it is even mildly difficult to get out in one piece then I fully agree-no reason at all to gut unless some weird state has regulations requiring animals get brought out whole.

I just always shoot my stuff miles from a road. Getting it out whole is not an option.

Always have field dressed them where they fell or close by, no need to be dragging extra weight, having innards contents in contact with the meat and finally field dressing allows more rapid cooling of the meat. Never saw any reason to do differently, it has been working for me for 56 yrs. now.