Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Cut my leg while field dressing a whitetail...

Use a sharp knife. More people are cut with dull knives because they are fighting the blade instead of guiding it.

Like others have said, cut away from yourself. My dad grew up in his father's meat market so I've had that (and the sharp knife business) well pounded into my head. Still I've nicked myself in the off hand when trying to rush the job or not taking the time to reposition myself or the animal for an easy cut.

Also blades over about four inches give me trouble. I tend to pay attention to the front end and loose track of just where the back of the blade is.

BTDT...

I cut my left hand pretty bad once while doing a gut job on a deer...was in a hurry of course.

Almost down to the bone.

I did notice that when I got home I had this urge and started chasing my wife around....

If I remember correctly, I caught her.....

Tony

The sun was setting as I was gutting a single caribou years ago. I was using a very sharp knife and as I reached inside the ribcage my left index finger's knuckle just barely bumped the edge of the blade I was holding in my right hand. It smarted was all but I noticed my own blood. I got the animal gutted and cut out the tongue - a major reason for getting that animal for camp meat. It took no more than an hour to return to camp. When I got there however, I noticed that the wool liner mitt in my choppers was rather soaked - the bleeding hadn't quit. We made some warm water and washing it out well and bandaged it. Even so, a day or so later that knuckle was swollen big and red; I couldn't bend it. The local clinic ended up lancing the wound to remove pus and then treating with local and oral antibiotics.

I never did figure out why that one tiny slice out of many I've gotten became infected- and bullet hole and gutting job were very clean guts-wise. The lesson is always to keep an eye on those nicks though; most don't, but some do.

And, in this part of the world there is common local knowledge about cutting two kinds of animals to be very careful of. One is seal, the other salmon. Salmon teeth can really cause troublesome wounds which sometimes develop cysts in them, something I try to avoid ever getting....again. Seals can cause a nasty infection people call seal finger. Never had that, but know that it can lead to trouble down the road including arthritis in the affected joints.

Sounds odd, but that is correct. Seal finger is known in Norway and Sweden where it does lead to very nasty things (things traditionally cured by amputation, now mostly antibiotics). Current evidence from my neck of the woods (the Baltic) implicates a mycoplasma as I understand it.

John

I nick my self everytime I skin, gut, quarter, any kind of critter! Everyone who knows me knows that I do this and hangs $hit on me.. I havnt ever had an infection or got sick.. I cut myself twice, the other nite, cleanin a squirrel!!

I've nicked myself several times while field dressing deer. It usually happens when I'm reaching way up in the chest cavity to cut the esophagus.

Unless your wanting to save the cape, this is one of the better method's to use. The only downside is that when you've cut the two pipes (the food pipe runs at the back of, and is attached to, the white cartilage like windpipe) you can get stomach contents spill inside the body cavity as you draw the pipe work out. This is particularly bad news as it can contain all sorts of bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria, E.coli O157 or Campylobacter all of which are real nasties as far as food poisoning goes.

The way to stop this contamination is to tie off the food pipe before pulling it through...A couple of simple overhand knots will do, but you need to seperate the two pipes first (running your fingers between them is usually enough) and then scrap the flesh off the outside of the food pipe to expose the white "inner" underneath, otherwise the knots will slip and come undone as you pull through.

Althernatively, you can close the pipe using a small cable tie; much simplier and you don't need to scrape the pipe first for it to grip.

After gutting the animal, if you intend leaving the head on while the carcass is being taken back to camp, be aware that a small amount of gut contents can come back down from the mouth and upper throat if the deer has been "cudding" and this again can contaminate the inner neck area...By using two cable ties an inch apart on the food pipe and cutting between them, this absolutely stops any form of contamination from this operation...

Regards,

Peter

Zip ties , good idea !!! Never worried about what was left above the cut point before . Just reach up inside as far as elbows allow , finish separating gut pile from what I'm keeping and then drag it back to camp.

......How in the world did you cut your thumb off? I can't see it happening gutting a game animal. Details?

...I've gutted and skinned a pile of deer over the years without incident, that is up until a few years ago. I was using a Wyoming knife to zip open the belly skin and slipped causing the knife to turn on my finger and cut my pinkie finger pretty good. I bound it up with a strip of tee shirt and it healed up OK.

Phil,

We put alot of our deer carcasses into the commercial food chain via what we call gamedealers.

Over recent years there has been a big push to raise hygiene standards for carcass handling so the carcass is presented disease free and as hygienically possible. With that in mind, the second cable tie was one little refinement which some people like to do. Some, myself included, also use one to seal the exit pipe when pulling the "cored out" anus & penis back through the inside of the pelvic cavity if you don't want to split the aitch bone in the field.

Truth is there are many ways to gralloch a deer, but as long as you end up with a clean and disease free carcass back at the larder, exactly how you do it is not too important..Having said that, I always like to watch an experienced hunter do it as envariably you pick up tips and ideas...

Regards,

Peter

Yes indeed. My method is a combination of three (at least) from watching and being guided by more experienced hunters, one a veterinarian. There's nothing special or unique about my method, simply the steps involved suit the way I move and handle the knife.

"Gralloch" is a new word to me, I like it. Perhaps the visceral appeal of the word has something to do with my ancestry.

I open up the throat, and free the trachea by splitting the hide and neck and then sternum. spread the sternum and cut out the diaphram having good visual and hand access. I typically do this after opening the gut cavity. After splitting the pelvis and excising the anus and rectum tying off the rectum to keep poop out of the cavity. Evrything just pulls out. You trophy hunters recognise the spoiled cape, but I am a meat hunter, with all my fingers, so I will take the heat.

When I hunted bear for pelts, I would skin the bear on a tarp and then gut it and debone it packing the meat only, and hide. That way both a good cape, and clean meat were assured, and my safety protected.

The slow down and cut away from self is ultimately the best advice.

Randy

When spltting the sternum,(cutting ribs) I cut the sternum at the medial condral joint, on moose I do both sides so there are no sharp bones, and there is an opening to start the spread.
Randy

Medican,

For us laymen, where is the condral joint and what advantage does it offer to split the sternum there?

I don't generally split the sternum or the pelvis in the field as I want to minimise the number of meat surfaces open to contamination. However, I realise that due to circumstances sometimes splitting or or both of these bones is the way to go..

Regards,

Peter

it is the grizzle joint where ribs attatch to the sternum, and it cuts much easier than bone as a soft joint. As I say I hunt for meat and am pretty clumsy with a knife so it is as much safety as ease of getting the chest cavity clean and cooled.
Randy

I like the Sagen Saw for splitting pelvis and sternum. It has finer teeth than some of the others so doesn't hang up on the sternum as much. But you don't need to be delicate there. At the pelvis, short strokes so the protected end isn't battering the innards and it's pretty hard to make a mess of it. A couple much more experienced deer cutter-upers I know use them now.

Here's a picture

Thanks Medicman, I think I know the joint you mean...

Nighthawk,

When I need to open the sternum in the field I saw a "T" handled Gerber E-Z saw...As you say the course blade tends to hang up a bit and is not ideal especially on our smaller deer such a roe and muntjac. IIRC the Sagen is made from a section of band saw blade and so cuts better, but is not stainless and I found it a bit short although I think Sagen make a slightly longer one now..

I used to have one of these below which are made by a guy here in the UK.


Essentially he "converts" a butchers knife by adding the pull cut teeth (no bone dust in the carcass) and giving it a blunt tip. If I get another I will specify he uses an orange handled knife as a starting point so I might hang on to it a bit longer next time!

Regards,

Peter

That's how I lost my Gerber saw, leading to the Sagen. Can't imagine having a camo handled knife for long though they seem popular.

Stabbed myself in the thigh while gutting a deer on the ground once. Only made about a quarter inch slit not too deep. Really not much at all. When I got home my wife convinced me to go to the emergency room for a couple stitches and a tetanus shot. The first thing the doc said was 'I bet your wife made you come in for this didn't she?' We had a good chuckle over it. I generally slice a finger or two every year. Only once this year.