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

This perplexes me more than a pete53 paragraph.

Exactly. 👍

That's sounds like a Cajun joke, (Boudreaux and Thibodeaux) or at least an Aggie joke....

DF

I was puzzled as well, after being told a lot of custom knives are being worn as jewelry. Then I saw it, several times.

😎🤷🏽‍♀️

Here in South Carolina it is illegal to leave a gut pile on state game lands. I dont know anybody around here that has ever field dressed a deer. I dont think they know how. I have seen deer laying in the bed of trucks with the innerds still inside for several days before they get to the processor.

Bonus coyote tags? Where in Sam Hell do you need a tag to shoot fuggin coyotes? Amazing....

Et tu, Brute?

Where down Georgia or Pennsylvania? That’s funny actually

The only time I ever drag or carry any game with it's guts still in are the times I have killed them on farmers fields. I think it's rude to leave gut piles on cultivated pastures and fields. So I get them to the edge of the field to feed the coyotes, wolves and birds . But the longest drag I ever had in my life from the center of a field was about 500 yards.

By far, the largest number of animals I have killed were not on farm land. So I gut them right there. I see no reason to move the guts and I see several reasons not to. Cools the out better and faster. Removes the blood from the chest and body cavities before it starts to gel. Simply easier to move them. And of course in the case of elk moose and the occasional Buffalo you are NOT going to move them unless you have a vehicle or horses and/or mules, even if the guts were out, so guts-in makes no sense at all. In 99% of the cases with elk and moose they will not stand next to a road and let you shoot them, so having a vehicle is not likely to happen either. 4Wheelers can be helpful, but more and more you are not allowed to use them, so it usually comes back to a back-pack or a sled.

I bring out most of my antelope and deer in one piece after it's gutted but sometimes I cut them in half.

Elk, moose and the occasional buffalo or bear are always skilled or field quartered and brought out in pieces. Sometimes I have the luxury of horses or mules, but not always, so gutting and field butchering are the way I always bring out game from the wilderness areas and fields ----- other then farm land.

The only time I've ever taken an animal out whole is when I was guiding on a high fence operation and we had a trailer made for loading elk and bison whole. Didn't want a bunch of gut piles in the hunting pasture where animals were harvested. That was the only reason we took them out whole. Otherwise I like to pack them out in pieces when more than a hundred yard drag to the truck. I never heard of people leaving guts in a critter until this forum. Why pack it out just to dispose of later? Bones are bad enough but necessary until rigor sets in. I like to hang as long as weather permits. Tenderloins come out prior to hanging so they don't dry out. Keep the skin on too, provided you can get the critter cooled down quickly. Worked for me the last 28 years of hunting. Never lost any meat from doing it this way. I'd think you southern folks would want to gut ASAP with how warm it is down there, doesn't sound like that's the case though. Ymmv

Why would deer smell in the woods run off deer? I've seen deer near a gut pile before. The only thing that might run them off is if a bunch of coyotes are attracted to it.

Cut up and into a pack. Guts never touched.

An hour or so after you kill a deer is no bIg deal even in the south. However, I would NEVER leave one in the bed of a hot truck like someone said they see.

In fact, unless it is under 45 degrees, we don’t leave one in the woods overnight. We make sure to recover them right away. Besides, if you don’t the coyotes will ruin it.

If it is under 45 degrees we sometimes gut and leaving them hang till morning.

After skinning and quartering, it does the meat good to sit in ice for week. The taste of our deer in the south is as good as anywhere in the country.

right on the spot. gut pile does not last 18 hours in Maine.

The first time I saw this, it was opening day, honcho that ran the place shot a doe and a yearling about 3:30. Put them in the back of his truck, headed to the sign in shack. Sat there, truck in the sun, at least 80 degrees, until we all came back to sign out. Those things were bloated up like road kill. He was all excited about how fat they were.

After I commented on the yearling, he claimed there were 2 species of whitetail deer in SE AL, long bodies and short bodies. He said he got one of each. Dude was serious. When I asked him if he had ever seen a short body with a nice rack, he said short bodies dont grow big racks, thats why they shoot them.

I thought my buddy and I were gonna piss ourselves, we were laughing so hard.

I have always gutted in the woods. Get the stuff out quickly and lighter to drag. The woods critters will soon clean up the gut pile.

Gutless method then onto my back or if snow on ground onto a sled. Dragging a whole critter makes no sense

I always gut in the field. I will take a buck back to camp and butcher after a few days. I generally butcher the does in the field.

Generally gut them or gutless process them right where they die. There have a few exceptions. If I have a downhill drag, and don't want a bunch of dirt and crap inside the body cavity, I'll sometimes move the deer, then gut just uphill from the truck, so it gets loaded right after gutting. Better to make an intelligent plan based upon all the factors than to create standard course of action that ends up running contrary to all the goals. Recovering as much good meat as possible is very high on the goal list.

+1.