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

Quarter up a deer, antelope ect. and put it in a big igloo type "cheap" cooler.......yeti coolers......hell no

Add 3 or 4 bags of ice with a pound of salt......soak

Sounds interesting. I will give it a try next season. I have a 150 qt cooler from when I guided for antelope. HOT weather!! I never used salt, but why not?

Unless you plan on hanging a deer and aging it, why would you ever gut it? Almost all my deer are cut up in the ice chest within 1hr of shooting and I never gut them. Elk, moose, caribou, bear, deer, mnt goat, antelope, none of them gutted. About the last thing I want to do is play with guts, then start cutting up meat.

Well I've put this off long enough, I guess. When I shoot a deer on my own property, which I mostly hunt now, I let the deer lay until I quit hunting for the morning/evening and my hunting partner does. I do not want to mess Him up by piddling around until we are through for the morning/evening. I then go to the house, get the my ATV trailer and go back and get the deer, haul it to the house and hang, gut and wash it using the garden hose. Sometimes skin, sometimes not, depending on the weather. If warm I cut into pieces and put into an old Refrigerator, that I keep for that purpose. I like the meat to stay on the bone except for the back straps and tenderloin, for a few days until I cut it up. I did cut the backbone with the backstraps on in one piece this year to see if I thought it worth while. Sometimes the deer will lay for a couple of hours, in fairly warm weather, with the guts in and you would never know the difference unless I told you. Everybody that has ever eaten meat that I give them, remarks about the quality of it. Even the fairly old bucks. I gave a neighbor a piece of backstrap from a buck that smelled pretty rank before dressing (during the rut). I told Him that it might not be as good as usual because He had already lost some weight, but still fat, from chasing does. A few days later He told me that the meat was very good, and tender. I was kinda surprised on the tender. This was the buck that I left the backstrap on the bone for about a week. I gut for several reasons, one of which is that all of the bones, backbone, ribs, leg bones are frozen to dole out to the dogs throughout the year. I also keep the liver from time to time, after a good looking over. Sometimes to eat, sometimes for catfish bait. I also like to look thought the gut pile at bullet damage. Anyway, it does not make my way right or wrong, but it is my way, and I will continue. At any rate gutting right away does not ensure good meat, but the rest of the handling is as important. Just saying that if you can't gut right away, don't throw the meat away. miles

It's too easy not to do. Our processor charges 20 bucks to do it, I guess some folks are too lazy or have too much money. And especially when its busy at the processor, a deer may lay there for hours before it gets tended too. I took a coworker who had been hunting for years, big old guy 6'3, 270...you'd think a mans man....but he wanted no part of gutting the deer he shot with me. I did it for him. Took all of 5 minutes.

We gut ours after most of the meat is removed, then soak in salted ice water for a few days. No gamey taste at all. I really don't see why this bothers some, blood quits moving at the moment the heart stops and the only good meat touching the guts are the inner loins(unless you like the ribs, we just take the outer layer of rib meat for grind). Guts will not and can not effect the flavor of the meat in cooler weather pending the animal isn't gut shot.

I don't even gut some of mine for up to an hour or two in cold weather and the inner loins are fantastic every time. I don't even brine the inner loins, they are often just cleaned, refrigerated, and cooked within days and they taste great. My wife will be the first person to point out gamey flavor, she flat doesn't like it, but she never mentions it on the deer I bring in.

If you like gutting them on site, go for it, but don't tell rumors about how it ruins meat right away because it's simply not true.

Have a great day,

loder

Yep.

"Happiness is a warm gut pile"

Sometimes it's just nice to warm up the hands.

Done it both ways . . . it all depends.

Out here in 100 degree heat we gut them right away or in thirty minutes or so they will begin to spoil.

10 days on ice in a cooler will alleviate that problem. Generally 7-10 days on ice for any deer we shoot anyway. Often we wont' disturb our area after the shot, or we have to wait some before we go to camp to clean the deer. Preferred to clean all at camp, as its easier and cleaner on the deer.

Regardless they get the ice treatment, though this year its stayed in the 50s or less for a week or more twice and I've just let em hang gutted with skin on at home until cutting em.

As far as draining blood from vessels, thats generally what killed the deer to start with before we got close to em.

I am my own processer. miles

All that proves is that you made a lousy shot. miles

It seems to be a southern thing and because they have lots warmer weather than we do up here in the north, that seems counter intuitive to me why they wouldn't want to get the animal cooling faster? Any packing house will stun the animals and kill them hanging upside down by cutting the arteries in the neck. Once the hide comes off those animals, they are gutted, washed, cut in half, shrouded and in the cooler all in a matter of minutes. I've always thought that my arrow shot deer tasted better than my rifle shot deer and I've chalked that up to the fact that an arrow kills more from blood loss than bullet shot deer. Anyway, most deer that I shoot are bigger than I am and guts add between 21 and 23% to the weight of the deer and I'm not willing to pull out extra dead weight for something that I'll just need to discard anyway..

That is not a bad thing, but it is not necessary to have good meat. There is a limit on how long that you can wait, but it is not as fast as most seem to think.


I like to shoot them in the lungs, does the same thing.


If I had a big room with a concrete floor and a walk in cooler, rails and hoists, that is how I would do it too.


Double lung shot will do the same thing.


I either pull my ATV trailer right up to the animal, or pull the animal out to where I have the cart, using the ATV.

Yep Miles, it really is that simple !!

Around here they get gutted in the woods where they lay. We are not allowed ATV, and no one uses horses, so dragging is the way to get them out. Easier when they are lighter, and they get tangled up less in the laurel when lighter.
I shot a big deer 2 miles from the road last year. I had a new back pack, and I could not find my knife. So I dragged it a mile with the guts in. When I was resting, I found the knife in a back pack compartment, and when those guts were out, it seemed a lot easier. I had a migraine, so it was a miserable drag. I was so pissed that I could not find that knife.

It seems we have gutters and non-gutters!

I'd pay someone $25 bucks all day long to gut one for me. And I'd throw another $25 to 'em back at the truck for the drag.

I get it - if I could drive right up to one, I could see not gutting it in the field. Deer pics definitely look better before they are gutted. If I were packing one out, the gutless method makes a lot of sense to me.

I'd be rich if I got paid to gut other people's animals

I'd gut deer all day long for $25. I know it doesn't take me 5 minutes.