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Joined: May 2014
Posts: 10,484 Likes: 12
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 10,484 Likes: 12 |
I never move them further than necessary to gut my deer.
I prefer classic. Semper Fi I used to run with the hare. Now I'm envious of the tortoise and I do my own stunts but rarely intentionally
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,499
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,499 |
I dont even know if it is just a southern thing.
Have hunted deer in WA, WY, AZ, KS, TX, KY, TN, AL and FL.
SE corner of AL, around the Ft Rucker area, is the only place I have ever seen it. Other Army friends said the same thing.
I asked alot of folks around there about it. My neighbor was a big-time archery guy, had his own TV show, he said that almost no one around there guts them before hauling them out. Right after I moved there, he went bowhunting in KS and shortly thereafter, he went to WY to bowhunt antelope. He said it was odd to see the guides dress the animals where they fell.
I wrote it up to just a local thing. Who knows.
There is no way to coexist no matter how many bumper stickers there are on Subaru bumpers!
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Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 1,184
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 1,184 |
Never met a single local in SE AL that would clean their own deer.
I used to quarter mine where they fell. Locals on the lease would get so upset, bitching about the gutpile scaring other deer off.
I finally explained to them, that taking one of these deer in still intact, you are looking at $50 just to have them skin and gut it. Big buck or little doe, you are in for 50 as soon as it hits their door. Honestly I’m not surprised about the lack of AL guys dressing their own deer. The more expensive the club, the greater the chances they aren’t dressing their own game. It’s fairly common just to take them to processor shortly after they are killed. I’d say 90% of deer dropped off at the processors around here aren’t field dressed.
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 19,285 Likes: 22
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 19,285 Likes: 22 |
Never met a single local in SE AL that would clean their own deer.
I used to quarter mine where they fell. Locals on the lease would get so upset, bitching about the gutpile scaring other deer off.
I finally explained to them, that taking one of these deer in still intact, you are looking at $50 just to have them skin and gut it. Big buck or little doe, you are in for 50 as soon as it hits their door. Honestly I’m not surprised about the lack of AL guys dressing their own deer. The more expensive the club, the greater the chances they aren’t dressing their own game. It’s fairly common just to take them to processor shortly after they are killed. I’d say 90% of deer dropped off at the processors around here aren’t field dressed. That is weird. I don't know anybody around here that doesn't dress them in the woods immediately. The majority process it themselves too.
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 4,276
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 4,276 |
In my 60+ years of hunting, I have never dragged a deer or elk or antelope anywhere with the guts in them. I never knew anybody that did either! I just assumed everybody guts em where they shoot em! A few years ago, I shot a cow elk sniffing a fresh gut pile!
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 37,219 Likes: 9
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 37,219 Likes: 9 |
Where I hunt, we can haul a kill to the skinning shed quickly with AVT and small trailer.
Kill a deer, get on the cell phone, let'em know and soon there's transportation.
Works well for us.
DF
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Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,381
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,381 |
One of my all time favorite deer hunting memories was when I dropped a buck on opening day, gutted it and hauled it out. Then since we can legally hunt for each other here and we weren’t filled up, I went back to that same stand the next day and had a mother bobcat and her three mostly grown kits come in and eat at that gut pile.
I’m not real sure about a gut pile scaring off other deer either. Reason being I‘d shot a buck early on opening day, gutted it and went back up in my tree stand. A couple hours later I shot another one and it ran over to where that first one with the gut pile was and lay down right there not 20’ away.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,267 Likes: 7
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 4,267 Likes: 7 |
I bone them where they hit the ground. I'm not packing out hide, head, bones or feet. And I sure as heck ain't gonna haul out guts. And it does not spook game. I remember a time back in CO when my father shot a bull elk. We pieced it down on the mountain and just took out edible meat and the antlers. The very next day I shot another bull less than 30 yards from where we worked on Dad's bull the day before.
You get out of life what you are willing to accept. If you ain't happy, do something about it!
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 29,383
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 29,383 |
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? That has been disproven so many times it is not funny. Nowadays they are weighed back at camp and gutted, in the past it was a long drag back to the car/truck and it was gutted a short distance from where it dropped.
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 17,250 Likes: 1
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 17,250 Likes: 1 |
I just load them up on an ATV, SxS, or truck bed and drive the 5 minutes back to camp, where there's a skinning shed. Dump guts and scraps in a cut down plastic drum to haul off to the dump-hole. If somebody else wants the deer (or hog), I'll run it to the game processor right up the road (10 minutes). If the weather is hot, I'll gut them before heading to the processor.
Now with even more aplomb
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 8,645
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 8,645 |
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. Any Zombie tags available with coyote tags? OTC or draw? Asking for a friend. Thanks
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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 24,664 Likes: 6
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 24,664 Likes: 6 |
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. Any Zombie tags available with coyote tags? OTC or draw? Asking for a friend. Thanks Just gotta scroll down the page on the website to procure - zombie is betwixed the oppossum and armadillo tags.
WWP53D
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Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 401
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 401 |
The only reason I load them up and field dress them on the other side of the farm, is because several neighbors dogs show up on the gut piles while I’m hunting the area for a few days. I don’t think dogs or coyotes spook them permanently, but I damn sure don’t want them promenading through while I’m waiting on another deer.
On public hunts, I gut them where they fall.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,968 Likes: 10
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,968 Likes: 10 |
Gut them where they fall. Sometimes 4 or 5 miles to the nearest road, and one is not allowed to do cross country runs with ATV's. If an early evening take, one might hang pieces and do a workup next AM.
I've seen elk grazing within yards of a gut pile 1 and 2 days after the deposit.
Last edited by 1minute; 07/27/20.
1Minute
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575 |
Done it a lot of ways, but on average gut in the woods where they die. If long ways away, use the gutless boning method. If it's easy and will get me to a proper gambrel, I'll gut later. But usually in the woods.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. -- Col. Stonehill
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575 |
Hard to argue with an instant 20 - 25% weight loss.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. -- Col. Stonehill
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 10,653
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 10,653 |
I am not afeered to drag a deer to a more suitable spot to gut, cut up or load into an ATV, trailer, truck, boat, canoe, etc.. Don't like to leave camp, vehicle or watercraft without a drag rope or drag. harness.
You're Welcome At My Fire Anytime
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 7,370
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 7,370 |
55+ years chasing whitetails here in PA and I’ve never seen (or heard of) anyone taking a deer out whole.
I have seen people dragging gutted deer backwards a few times over the years.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Hunter S. Thompson
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 46,274 Likes: 2
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 46,274 Likes: 2 |
Gut em where they hit the ground, have killed other deer within 5 gut piles in the same area the same last week of hunting cleaning up and using available tags before seasons end, also pissed down a tree four or five times one day, had a doe come by two different times and take a poop where I pissed, she had to back up to the tree to leave it that close. They know it's piss, but don't know it's people piss, let er fly men!
Trump Won!
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,282 Likes: 15
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,282 Likes: 15 |
All I know is, I'm not dragging one of these beasts very far across the sandhills. Unless I have some help i gut 'em where they lay.......
It is irrelevant what you think. What matters is the TRUTH.
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