Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Field dressing

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.