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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.