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Curious as to what’s more popular, cutting out the pelvis bone or cutting around the anus and inside the pelvis and pulling things back through that way?

Favorite knives or other tools that you’ve found make your preferred method easier?

Any gutless fans here?

I just tie a knot in the gut on the inside till I get the deer hung, then break the aitch bone.

Small Gerber hatchet in my pack splits the pelvis so I can get everything out. That hatchet might be 10" long.

I gutless most everything, but on the rare occassion I get an animal out whole I use a wire saw to split the pelvis.

I never could get the hang of cutting the bladder out with the pelvis bone still intact. Popping that bladder pisses me off. No pun intended.

Skin the [bleep], tie a string around it, break the connective tissues around it loose from the inside of the pelvis, and pull it back inside 'n' out with the guts.

For some reason, gutless still flusters me. I wind up with way more hair on the meat than I find acceptable. When that starts to go wrong, I revert back to traditional gut, skin, then quarter. Must be something I'm missing -or- there are a lot of people out there a lot more accepting of hair on the meat than I am. Or both.

T_Inman ... we generally roll the critter on its back, open it up, then roll it to the side and squeeze the bladder so the piss goes across the hide and off onto the ground before rolling the guts out of the cavity. Don't know if this is what you mean or not. I can't figure how you'd do that without opening the cavity first, gutless or not. Might be a way. I haven't found it.

Tom

Knife to cut skin, Sagen Saw to split the pelvis and ribs, open critter from Adam's apple to anus.

Grab esophagus and start pulling toward rear end, loosening everything as we go. It all comes out in one large mass of guts. Nice, clean insides left behind.

When splitting the pelvis, do you guys like one cut down the middle for a true split or two cuts, one to each side so the whole top portion of the pelvis bone gets removed?

A friend has a dedicated electric winch on his meat rack. He uses this to pull the hide off with almost no knife work needed, he then quarters the deer without touching the guts. He removes the tenderloins from the back side after the back straps are removed. He can have a deer in the ice chest in about 15 minutes and they are usually so clean they don't even need to get rinsed. Me it can take up to an hour doing things the conventional way, this includes beverage breaks.

When in camp I use large loppers for the pelvis, sternum and sometimes the legs if I am saving the shanks. Loppers are cleaner than a saw and more precise than an ax or machete. I have never ruptured the bladder when using loppers, can't say that about the other methods.

*There* might be a difference in what is possible. Most of my hunting is in wilderness miles from roads. In earlier times, I would gut the critter, cross the diagonal legs and connect them to make a sort of "pack" out of a buck, climb in, get my feet under me somehow, and walk down out of the mountains with the deer on my back, usually rifle in one hand, antler in the other so the swinging head didn't horn me in the leg tooooo bad. Always some concern about getting shot but there just wasn't a better way to do it. Packs have evolved to the point that breaking a critter down into bagged quarters is a viable option, but we still can't use anything with a motor in designated wilderness. The few times we road-hunted, we could do what you are talking about and it is certainly cleaner and easier.

Tom

The Butt Out Tool

I've been using the gutless method for a couple decades+. Wilderness and roaded areas. Practice makes it such that I am usually very efficient. No need for saws, axes, large knives etc. I can cut up most anything up to Moose (with a buddy helping) with a SAK (albeit, mine has a great mini-saw) and a Gerber or Havalon knife ( I have both, large and small depending on the situation) with extra blades.

Gutless method here. No worry about pi$$,guts or blood to work in. I start by skinning one side from the belly up to the back bone, and front and rear leg. I remove the front quarter, then back strap from the front of the pelvis bone all the way up to the neck, then follow the back side of the pelvis down along it to the hip joint , removing the entire quarter. Push in the paunch and cut fore and aft of the tenderloin on that side and pull it out.

Keep that hide that you skinned out on that side laid out to help keep hair out.

Flip the carcass over and repeat.

I pack a 4-6 mil plastic painter's drop cloth that Walmart sells for about a $1 and it is10' x10'. As I cut the quarters and such off I have that spread out to lay them on to keep grass,dirt, etc off it. I end up with very little hair or dirt on the mea.
Besides a regular skinning knife I use a Havalon folder that has replaceable blades about like along scalpel. I have a lot more control cutting the meat with that.

Gutless method here too. I will sometimes chain the head to a tree and pull the skin off with a golf ball around the neck skin (with opened skin from legs to neck ring and front legs cut off)

Gutless on the mountain where I might have to deal with bears. Cut around the anus and pull through towards the inside about everywhere else.

Gutless if it looks like a drag of more than about 50yds. Cut from between the ears down to the tail. Skin from the spine down to the brisket and leg joints. Make an equatorial cut just behind the back of the ribs if we're keeping the cape.

If I can drive right to it I make a wide swath around the chili-ring and pull back through leaving the pelvic bone intact. If I'm keeping the cape either for myself or as a spare for my taxidermist friend, I only split up to the sternum. If I'm not keeping the cape I'll go all the way through the brisket.

Two cuts, just take my time and try not to monkey things up.

I go gutless in a neighboring state because I can only cross the state line with meat, no bone. Drag it down the mountain to truck, put it on the tailgate, and follow the same basic procedure as saddlesore mentioned except I drop the meat right into a cooler.

If I'm gutting one I use a small bone saw to split the pelvis. I especially prefer splitting the pelvis if the weather is warm. If I don't have the bone saw I'll donut it and pull through.

I go gutless now, but I always split the pelvis with my Buck knife when I used to gut them.

Gutless debone and quarter and I dont miss opening up that cavity.

Cut around the anus, then split the pelvis to pull everything out. I found a small sheath knife with a sturdy blade and using my wooden buck rattle sticks as a hammer, I can get through the pelvis easily.

Are we talking deer or elk?Splitting the elk pelvis is tad more difficult than some of these replies indicate.

I haven't touched guts for 25+ years....

Gutless here, always. All you need is a small bladed knife...

Absolutely no reason to split the pelvis or the brisket. All it does is allow the meat to get dirty.

Temperature.....it can be a reason. We may be in the 20's/upper teens like today or we may be in the 70's like last week. Splitting the brisket and pelvis can help cool it quicker.

Splitting the pelvis only MAY open it up 1", same with the brisket.

I do up to 10 deer a year and 2-4 elk along with antelope and have never had an issue. If its warm enough to spoil the critter needs boned out and cooled

opening up the pelvis or brisket an inch does nothing.

having never tried the gutless method,how hard is it to get to the tenderloins ?pardon my ignorance.

Doing more and more of that these days....

rong, Getting the tenderloins out is a tad tricky, but very possible even on a bull elk. I could explain it, but it's something that has to be seen to really understand. I definitely needed help the first time I tried it. BTW I seldom go gutless on deer or antelope, just elk.

I don't dote on way or the other. A lot of times If I put a bullet into the boiler room, I like to examine bullet performance.

With young hunters in camp we gut a lot to give them a anatomical lesson.

Then there is the primal experience of opening the body cavity on a cold crisp day, steam exiting and plunging your cold hands in to remove the warm offal. A essence of a hunter and being thankful for the animal.

You might be over thinking it...

Too much Empire Strikes Back.

No.

Happiness is a warm gut pile . . . .

I believe it was last year on this forum that I was told I was wasting too much meat by doing elk gutless. I’ve done a couple since then and still haven’t found out what meat you get by mucking around in a bunch of blood and guts. Guess I’ll just carry on like I have been

Can you get the rib meat off an elk using the gutless method ? Never killed an elk myself .

Gutless method on deer and hogs .

Wear Nitril gloves while skinning .

Gutless. No gut piles in 20 years.



I don't seem to have problems with hair.

One way to reduce hair is cut with the grain instead of against it. You could carry a couple pair of gloves if you wind up with too much hair on your skinning pair(s).

If I am gutting, I never split the pelvis, always cut around pelvic canal and pull through. Gutted a deer this morning already. Hanging in the garage ready to be skinned, quartered, bagged and into the refrigerator after coffee is finished.

If I am "off grid" so to speak, always gutless and packed out.

The deciding factor on gutless/gutting is distance, and/or ability to get whole critter to a motor vehicle, be it a truck or utv.

I have packed out critters that might have been easier to drag, and drug critters that should have been packed.

If packing any distance, gutless/quartered.

If on private property where truck/tractor/4-wheeler can get to it, gutted and then taken out whole. When gutting, I don't break the pelvis down, just cut the tissue around the outside and pull everything inside during gutting.

Sure, start at the front or back and roll it off the ribs as you go. When you get done roll up the whole sheet and bag it.

Depends on where I'm at. On our club land. We drag to an area we can get to with truck or ATV. If I'm up state forests on the mountains. Bone and quarter

To answer two questions above:

When doing gutless you can get the tenderloins fairly easily. After you skin the side of the animal the tenderloin is up inside behind the last rib. You dont have to go between the ribs to find them.

As for rib meat, you skin that half cut off the flank steaks and there lies the rib meat. Just debone the rib meat, leaving the guts inside, unaltered.

When I hunt public land here the biologists expect it to be field dressed because all their weight data is based on it.
I use a wire saw like this one to split the pelvis:
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1015603555?pid=834765

Saw or hatchet one side, there is less bone than down the center, then push rear quarters apart til the pelvic bone cracks. Cut both sides if working in daylight and not in a hurry.

I used to back and forth between the methods UNTIL I FOUND THIS.


https://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Vital-Pack-Saw-31-002741/dp/B00I9Y75NY

Smaller than any hatchet, safer than cutting around the bung hole in the pelvis... I love using this little sucker.
Just hold the guts down and saw through the pelvis, then finish gutting the nether regions like the pelvis was never there.

Like most folks it depends.

I prefer butchering deer from a complete carcass, I think we lose less meat to 'air crust" and "browning" when the carcass is kept whole. I could be full of defecation but cutting from the complete carcass makes me happy so that's what I/we prefer to do.

Years past longer than a 1.5 -2 mile drag (we drag our deer in a thin roll up kids sled called a crazy carpet with a few grommets added, really reduces friction and is small and light enough when rolled to be easily and unobtrusively carried with you while you are hunting) I would do the gutless and pack them out.

Post back surgery everything gets dragged out in the crazy carpet. If it is too far back or ground is "bad" the deer is gutless quartered and dragged out in game bags inside "air" bags (I think that is what my mountaineering buddy calls them).

When gutting deer the single tool I use is the Buck 119. We split the ribs just off the side of the xyphoid process through the cartilage beside the sternum. The aitch bone is split on the sides of the central pelvic ridge. The tip of the 119 is put into the "eye" of the aitch bone and levered down through the bone. Repeat other side and then use the 119 to chop through the bone ridge that forms the top of the eye. Relive the area around the anus and relieve connective tissue holding the pelvic arch.

Do not pull the pelvic arch as the edges where the knife went through and jagged and sharp and as my one buddy always says "he who pulls pays".

Beasts bigger than deer come out in pieces.

The 119 is "too big" for a game knife I have been told many times but once I got used to it (about 5 minutes) I have never found it awkward. The steel in the made in USA Buck knives is? / was tough enough that it handles this kind of abuse with no problem at all.

For the gutless method any pocketknife with a good edge works just fine. I have used a good number of different knives to do the gutless thing from a little single blade swiss folder to my beloved Buck 119.

It is interesting to see the varied and common approaches. Lots of different methods all of which get the meat into the freezer.

I hope this Sunday morning finds everyone well and happy.

All the best.

GRF

Aagaardsporter,

One trick I learned from an outfitter I guided for 30-some years ago was, after splitting the pelvis, to stand with each of my boots on a hind leg and pull up on the animal's tail. That cracks the pelvis wide open, and pulling the innards out becomes much easier.

Interesting! I've done close to the same after using a small bone saw to spit the pelvis. I'm usually kneeling and put the drag rope behind one leg/under the back/in front of the other leg....both knees on hind legs or one knee and one foot and pull. Then reverse the rope to the other behind/in front and pull. Standing and pulling the tail would be simpler and more efficient. Thanks!

You're welcome! I thought it was a pretty handy trick.

Have hunted quite a few places around the world with a lot of different hunters, and seen just about every method of "field dressing" used, and adopted quite a few of them for certain circumstances. One of the most interesting was demonstrated by my Inuit guide, Anthony Oogak, on my first caribou hunt almost 30 years ago. After skinning the bull, we did the gutless boning method, since the hike back to the lakeshore and boat was around 2 miles. But we didn't have a packframe, so I assumed we'd come back with one.

Instead, he placed all the meat on the hairless side of the hide, then rolled it up in a cylinder about 2-1/2 feet long, tying it tightly with a piece of rope from his daypack. He then also pulled a wide duffel-bag strap from his pack, attaching it to the rope on either end of the cylinder, and had me help load the hide-meat package on his back, with the duffel-strap over the top of his head as a tumpline . We then hiked to the boat, and even though Anthony only weighed maybe 140 pounds, he just chugged along.

I used the same technique a year or two later on a mule deer, and of course it worked. But I was younger and tougher then....

Field dress? Just throw them on the back of the cart, transfer to back of truck, drive straight to processor. Kind of sucks when I get blood on my boots or pants though... but

ShortMagFan,

As I mentioned in my first post above, I've hunted more than a few places here and there, with a wide variety of people.

So I've also occasionally done the straight to the processor deal too--which seems to be a particular favorite in the South.

First time I saw a guy with an “non-filed dressed deer” in his trunk of his car I thought... yeah that’s smart- YUCK !!

Does my trunk smell funny to you ?

Yeah, that and wiping your ass are skills your pa never taught you. 😛😎

I've always field dressed at the site of the kill without splitting the pelvis. It's not easy getting the bladder out intact with the piss but it's possible. Then age the deer with the hide on for a few days in a cooler before cutting up. I think I'll get me one of those saws for the splitting of the pelvis, that looks mighty handy.

For many years I have field-dressed all my deer (and other deer-sized game) with a pocket-sized Swiss Army knife that has a very sharp saw blade. It zips right through the pelvis, when sawing just to one side of the center--as some others have already mentioned. That way I don't have to carry an extra tool for the job.

I'm so lazy I'd rather not dress a deer. But I'm even more tight and will NOT pay someone else for the processing. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

I don’t like gutless. I hatchet the pelvis and sternum. On a whitetail, the great big tail allows me to step on both rear legs then pull up on the tail, really splitting the cavity open nicely.

Gonna try gutless on the next one. I've dragged two does out so far this year, about 3/4 mile each, and it's getting tougher, especially in the dark. Have game bags in my pack, and a deer sled parked under my stand. If I get one elsewhere, I'll pack out what I can, then go back with the packframe in my trunk.

I dragged out a small buck last year on that sled, and it was better than nothing, but leaving half the weight behind seems like the smart idea.

Used to split, now I tie off and core it out.

For the win.
This is simple stuff, why do people make a big deal out of it.


Guy at work ask me to sharpen his Buck 110.
Ugh-oh! Good chance this will be a fuster-cluck.

Yep.

That thing had more chips than a back road.

Worked on it for an hour, still had nicks.

Screw it, he is too stupid to notice.

He ask if I would sharpen it after deer season!
Not if you do that again!

He still couldnt understand how to squeeze the turds out and tie it.

Good thing we were at work.
At least I got paid for the cramped hands.

A few general comments:

It takes me less than a minute to saw through one side of the pelvis, then lift the tail and break it wide open. In fact, have been timed doing the complete gut-job from throat to split pelvis and everything out in 2-3 minutes, just because my wife was curious, after having seen me do quite a few animals.

While the gutless method sure saves weight, it also can result in tough meat, because of contraction of the major muscle groups if they're separated from the bone while warm. Which is why we prefer either taking most of the carcass out, field-dressed, or at most taking off the hindquarters off at the hip joint, slicing off the shoulders whole, etc, if we have to break one down.

The worst thing you can do is slice the meat from the bone while the muscles are still in rigor mortis. Yet have seen numerous hunters do that with the "filets" under the rear spine, as soon as they get the deer back to camp--and then slice them thin and fry them too much, resulting in VERY tough meat.

But the main point is that it depends on the specific animal (they are not standard products, like 2-year-old cornfed steers), plus temperature, state of rigor mortis, aging etc.

John; is there a proper / common term for the contraction of meat taken warm off the bone? My youngest son's mule deer buck this year was done gutless due to the distance from the road and the nature of the terrain, the spinae erector / backstrap were very firm when I processed the deer and promised to be very tough meat.

I agree with roundoak. And Mule deer...gutless is cool but I would rather keep meat on bone at least overnight and preferably at least 24 hours

Most all the elk we kill are not in a spot anyone wants to carry bone. The elk immediately get boned out, bagged up and hung as the pack out begins.

That said big bulls or raghorns we have never had a tough one.

I shot a doe in warm weather and worried it would rot hanging outside. I didn’t have a refrigerator I could have used to breakdown the animal before butchering. The retired butcher who offered to cut up my deer told me to leave the meat open 24 hours in the refrigerator before wrapping and freezing. Something about gases building up and if I wrapped it warm it would sour the taste. That doe was butchered within a couple hours of me killing it and tasted great.

Oh I know how to do it. Just choose not to. I used to butcher my own deer when I was in school and would like to again just simply don’t have the time to do it properly

GRF,

The scientific term for what can sometimes toughen boned meat is "shortening," because the muscle cells actually contract when disconnected from the bones. This can also happen even when left on the bone, if the meat cools down too quickly, especially when it goes from warm to freezing in a few hours, which these days is called "thaw shortening." I had this happen to an eating-size mule deer buck here in Montana one Thanksgiving. We hung the field-dressed carcass on a corral gate to cool overnight, and the temperature dropped below zero. The toughest deer I've ever taken! Even hanging the carcass for several days after it thawed didn't tenderize the meat much.

The warm-meat problem is due to rigor mortis, which is also essentially a muscle contraction. If the muscles start to go into rigor before the boning occurs, then the meat can toughen due to the contraction. Oddly enough, this is more likely to happen in warmer weather--which is when many hunters bone out animals, to "cool 'em down." Warm temperatures accelerate the chemical process of rigor, while cooler temperatures slow it down.

The other factor, of course, is the tenderness of the individual animal. Wild animals are not a consistent "product," like domestic meat sold in stores. They vary considerably in age and condition, and younger animals have less of what is called "organized collagen," the protein fiber that makes meat tougher--which is broken down during the chemical process of "hanging" game. Some species develop relatively little organized collagen even as they grow older, such as pronghorns, so "shortening" doesn't affect their meat as much. In fact we've boned out quite a few freshly-killed antelope with no problems.

Other animals can be affected when boned out, depending on their age and how far rigor mortis has progressed. It's better to bone them before rigor even starts, or after it has dissipated--which normally takes at least a day, though again, temperature affects the chemical process.

As a matter of fact, we've been timing the rigor-mortis process with a mule deer doe I took last week, because my wife Eileen writes game cookbooks for most of her living, and wanted to get some precise results. So we put a thermometer out in the garage, and checked the doe (an older, bigger one) periodically, starting two hours after it was killed. Eileen will probably write it up for our on-line magazine, RIFLE LOONY NEWS. We'll probably take one or two more deer this season, and will repeat the "experiment" on them.

We've started doing gutless, did so on 4 antelope, one whitetail was gutted and dragged, once home skinned and taken apart (NOT boned).

In all 5 animals they then went into a cooler with frozen bottles of water, which where rotated about every 24 hours to keep frozen jugs in there. meat never froze, but stayed nice and chilled.

the ONLY tough piece we've had is one set of tenderloins, which were removed as soon as we got it home (the deer) and eaten that night. The rest have ALL been some of the most tender meat we've had. This included tenderloins removed in the field and put in the fridge for a few days.

We've concluded from this (this process is VERY different than past years where we had a MAX of 24 hours til they hit the freezer), that this several days in a cooler , but on the bone (well backstraps, tenderloins and other scrap not on the bone) is this is results in much more tender meat.

On bone/off bone doesn't really matter, age it at a fairly steady temp just above freezing. We've been doing 4-5 days.

I have read that once it freezes, forget it, the aging after freezing is useless.

Years ago when were spitting the spine with two axes or a saw, the backstraps were the most tender part of an elk.Now with the gutless method, the backstrap gets stripped out at the time of field dressing and it has usually turned into the toughest part of the animal, unless I age it in a walk in cooler for two weeks at bout 38 degrees

I was a little worried about the bull I shot a couple weeks ago in CO. He was the stinkingest elk I’ve ever had the pleasure of dressing, smelled like pee badly. We peeled his hide approximately an hour after he hit the deck and gutless quartered him. We sacked all the quarters and loose meat in cotton game bags and hung it on the meat pole. It hung for 7 days in camp, teens to twenties at night and 40’s to 60 during the day but always in the shade. When we got home I put it all in an old CocaCola refrigerator we kept when Dad got out of the store business for another 5 days until I had it all processed.

Thankfully it has been outstanding. No smell or gaminess and the steaks cut from the back straps are fork tender.

John; thank you so very much for your detailed and informative answer.
GRF

Here's a local guy that can clean a deer in under 2 minutes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLXJ5hUeFYk#action=share

Gutless and straight into a pack due to the nature of the hunting I do here. Depending on the distance/time/weather the meat may come off the bones or not. I've never noticed a difference in taste....granted I'm not very picky nor are my ravenous kids.

Y’all wouldn’t believe how many yups haul their whole deer into processors in the Texas heat around here. SUV’s, cars, etc, with tailgaters. Then bitch about how venison is “gamey”. Makes me sick.

Mine hit the ground, then into the cooler within an hour.

On deer I ream around the anus and tie off the gut. Then open the skin and mussel from the bottom of the sternum to the pelvis. Then split the sternum, cut the windpipe, cut the diaphragm, and remove all the innards at once.

There is a problem with old dogs and new tricks, but this works for me.

I played this game as a yunkster. 'Ream around the Rosie'..... pocket fulla posie....

Rosie Palm?

Other than splitting the sternum, when I field dress, that's it exactly! Takes about 10 minutes and sticking my arm up past the diaphram.