Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Gut em in the woods or back at camp?

What’s the consensus. We have a bunch of ol goobers in a club who think if you gut a deer in the woods, it’s gonna spook the deer or establish coyotes in the area and drive off deer? Consequently, they “encourage” you to bring the deer back to camp and gut it there (no meat pole) or just take it straight to the processor. Just seems so much more inconvenient to me (I process my own deer) rather than just gutting it where it falls (unless it’s in a green field-then I would move it a couple hundred yard away). If you gut em back at camp, then you gotta go dump it somewhere. Anyone else run into these debates?

Why would anyone want a gut pile near their camp?

Proper field dressing is paramount, especially in warmer weather. I like getting all the crud out of the animal as soon as possible. That meat can get tainted very quickly,imo!

We gut back at camp for the most part, but we're set up for it.

First off, let me say that if we have a deer that's down in a ravine and there's going to be any delay it getting it out, we gut in place before transport. That is maybe 10% of our deer.

The overwhelming majority are dropped where we can get to them easily with the truck. We radio for a pickup and somebody drives out with the deer wagon. We have the deer back to the meat pole in under 30 minutes. We have a hoist and lift the deer out of the truck, head up, and gut. Some folks say this is backward, but I learned how to gut from a guy from Alabama. From what I've discovered, this is a Deep-South thing. If you need to empty out a carcass in a hurry, this is the way. Everything goes into a washtub and then the carcass is dropped back into the truck for transport to the processor.

The big consideration is speed. We have a processor that fills up quickly on The Opener. It's a half-hour drive to get there. Therefore, we need to be quick about it. We have been able to get 2 down after sunset and have both out to the processor before they close for the evening with 45 minutes to spare. It keeps the interior cavity spotless.
The other benefit is that we have the meat pole lit and the gutting tools are all right there.

Yes, we do have gut buckets to deal with, but that's fairly easy as well. There is a hillside a few hundred yards from the house. We take the bucket out and dump it on that hillside.

Depends on how far from camp. Temp and location of deer.

I gut em where they fall. Gut piles don't scare deer. Have shot several that were sniffing a fresh gut pile.

I always gut in the woods. I'm not dragging an extra 50 lbs. of schit out of the woods so that I can try to find a place to dump it. It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't spook the deer. Matter of fact, it's gone by the next morning. The coyotes are there anyway, but in a lot of cases, the foxes will beat them to the punch. There's a lot more of them. Plus, if there are any remnants left, it might serve as bait in order to shoot a coyote.

Bingo. Gut them where they fall unless it's right in the trail or creek. Start them cooling right away, and don't need to drag or lift the extra weight of the gut pile. The scavengers gotta eat too.

No camp, I hunt my own place and can haul deer to the house very easy. I have a trailer that I pull behind my ATV, a home made one, not the rattling metal things that they sell for ATV's. I have a winch fastened to a tree, with the cable through a pulley on a limb, in fact 2 of them on the same tree. In reach of a water hose, and a tub for the guts. If warm it is quartered and put in a fridge, in my shop. Back when I was a kid, all of the magazines said not to get water inside a deer, but that is pure
BS. Did not know better when reading that, as we had on deer here. Or at least very few. miles

Had to add-head down. The way I learned on beef and hogs.

In a single year, I may dress on the spot, cut-up on the spot, move deer a couple hundred yards before dressing or get out whole via cart, quad or truck.
So, I guess the answer is, "it depends".

If I can get them out whole (with innards) I like the added benefit of placing entrails prezactly where I want in hopes of filling bonus coyote tags.

i leave the guts in the woods. it doesn't scare them. i've hunted over gut piles before and had deer walk right up to them.

I too gut them where they fall.

Right where they lay on my side of the fence. My neighbor who lets us hunt on their property prefers that we don't leave gut piles on their place.

Their land, their rules. I respect that.

In the woods, for the reasons given above. Can't think of a good one for doing it later or elsewhere.

Since I hunt alone for the most part, and getting up there, I'm thinking about going gutless, though that may impact meat quality by cooling it too quickly and removing it from the bones before the rigor cycle is complete. I have game bags, and a packframe, but I also lucked into a free, very nice game cart which I can chain in the woods near my stands so I can bring them out whole. If my seasons go well, I may try both ways to see what works best for me for the near future. Unless I uncover the Fountain of Youth back in the bushes, sooner or later I'm gonna have to come up with "Plan C".

We hunt our own place and have for decades and I've always gutted them where they fell. A gut pile won't spook deer...have no idea where that comes from. Besides, I like to shoot the yodel dogs off the gut piles. Gut piles won't establish coyotes...they do and have done just fine establishing themselves about everywhere without the benefit of gut piles. If gut piles established coyotes then every rancher in the US would have to be out gathering the placenta of cows calving to prevent their establishment...and that ain't gonna happen. Same goes for deer and every creature that births on the ground. Gut piles establishing coyotes is a crock of hooey.

Camp is never too far an ATV ride from anywhere on our property. Why gut in the field where you can get debris inside!

We always have a nice skinning rack and water at camp.

I’m just amazed folks still gut deer for reasons other than lightening the load on a drag or if it’s real hot and you can’t dress them in an hour or so.

I haven’t gutted any of the 150 or so I’ve killed in the last 15 years and the ones I’ve eaten have tasted just fine and nobody else has complained either that I’ve given them away to. Of course I don’t gut shoot them either.

If cleaning them myself, I just leave the guts in the body cavity. If taking to a processor, let them deal with the guts.

I bet some of you still cut the tarsal glands off too as soon as they hit the ground.

I'm not inclined to leave a deer hanging to age for a week or more with the guts in said deer. YMMV

The above could also be used my Merriam's as the definition of provincialism.

You've apparently never shot one that you can't get to an ATV. It the thought of a twig and leaves getting inside causes you so much anguish, completely breaking one down in the field to a pile of meat will likely snap you.