I've heard of the gutless method, and of course the traditional method. I was talking to a guy who hunts the Adirondacks a lot and they gut the deer without opening up its stomach. They make a incision in its side about 10 inches long and pull the guts out that way. They do it that way so they can carry the deer on their back without getting covered in blood. Anyone else hear of gutting a deer this way

I’ve never been stout enough to carry a deer on my back. If he needs packing I go gutless and quarter. I have never heard of that but I suppose it would work, you’re getting To the same place just through a different door

Seems like the long way around the schitt house.

Sure seems that would be the way to go to me too.

What's his method for avoiding the deer's ticks?

I've never understood people dragging a deer 2 miles or carrying one out on their shoulders.

This right here. I’ve quartered whitetails around here if I couldn’t get a wheeler or truck to them, if I have to drag it more than about 50 yards it ain’t getting drug.

It used to be illegal to quarter in the field in MN.

I never did two miles, but a little over one with a mature buck resulted in the purchase of a game cart.

😉

Back to the OP: that makes sense but I have never done it. I would be interested in it for sure if anyone has any info. Soaking myself in blood gets old.

I lived in North East PA. , we used to get the deer moved with guts in because the swamps were so thick it was easier to tie them to a pole and carry them through brush. carrying them on your back is a good way to make a back ache and game carts were to burdensome in brush. Now here in the prairie a game cart stays in my truck from Sept. til January.....

Ditto.

Being Thanksgiving, and all, I am thankful for game-carts.

I can see it working but also can see it being work getting all that and my hand/arm through a 10” incision. Would be nice not to have that belly open for drag/carry and could see it being cleaner. As it sits I quarter and bag everything.

Apparently they turn the deer into a sort of backpack skinning out the fore legs cutting the bone and tying the front and back legs together to make each strap for the deer backpack

Ive seen the deer backpack pretty often up here. Usually results in a mess. Would be interesting to see the side cut work.

I've done the backpack version, but did the whole opening. The slit would be nice to know

I've done the backpack version, but did the whole opening. The slit would be nice to know

The deer backpack is definitely a rite of passage for young men up here. Shoot em and pack them yourself.

Been in beach mode. Pretty fun as it’s been good and a nice change from the wet woods. I deploy the packraft. Paddle in and and put the stalk on. When the deed it done the boat driver pulls up, tosses a line off the bow, and pulls the buck off the beach and floats it out to deeper water. Pull it aboard via the swim step and tuna door. I gut in the boat. Heater hunting rocks this time of the year.

Now that sounds like some fun!

Must be fun when a deer is loaded with ticks.

Screw laws, it's cut up and put in a pack.

Same here. Not being critical IF it works for them
it’s no skin off my nose. That idea doesn’t attract me.

I got a 3 wheeler in 1981 for hauling in Miss. Nat’l
Forest

Never needed to drag or carry a deer more than
1/4. The game pole between 2 guys works well.

Jerry

Here is the backpack for anyone interested.

It’s great for those tweener spots. Too far to be motivated to drag but too close to want to take the time to quarter.

Some states don’t allow for 1/4’ing it and require it out whole or with head attached.

Huh. I'll be damned.

Blast from the past.

bullfriggingchit....... maybe on your 50 pounders.

I would quarter it out if I had to go very far

Always figured once they get to bouncing your shoulders would think WTF.

That, and the swinging of the deer, make it a PITA.

It's incredible how something that doesn't weigh *that* much in the grand scheme of things can feel so heavy when it's all dead weight.

Oh hell no. Tried that once with a pretty big deer. After the season we bought a game cart.

From antelope season in late september to the end of the deer season the game cart is in the truck. If we get a serious snow and am still hunting I have 1 of those 6' black toboggan sleds they slide damn easy in the snow. Mb

We used a sled this year second weekend and it was great in the fresh snow. The cart is in the background, unused and covered in snow.

Did that once......and only once.

I would much rather drag than use a pole.

No need for poles

Hah! That reminds me of my dad and a buddy carrying a deer on a game pole between them. Dummies used a spud bar for the game pole.

I bet that hurt the next morning

Do you have a list of these states? I'm genuinely interested.

I think Nebraska is one of them or used to be.

bullfriggingchit....... maybe on your 50 pounders.


———————-

Oh hell no. Tried that once with a pretty big deer. After the season we bought a game cart.
————————

I can do the pole RATHER than drag for distance.
Haven’t killed a 50 # in years.

Yet - I have a 4 Wheeler.

Jerry

Deer have to be intact until registered here, aside from gutting.

I keep 50' of rope and 2 double wheeled pullies to pull a deer up into a tree . I have not done it yet but if I get a deer way back in the brush I will never drag one out again unless it is close, like 1/4 mile. I will skin it ,debone and put it in my boundary waters back pack.

You mean a snatch block?
Deboning them on the ground isn't too terribly difficult but I guess if you could get them up into a tree then you could keep it all cleaner, I guess.

It's difficult if you have a bad back

Bring them out whole sans guts in Maine. We stash a couple orange kids sleds in the woods and twitch them out that way. At least they slide easy.

I think a cheap poncho would make the deer backpack a lot cleaner for the trip out

WI. was one of those states where we had to bring them out whole with only gutting. We have some big deer here and the hunting population is getting older and what's a coronary event worth to a person? Now we can section them into five pieces. We tried the pole thing on a 200 pounder and decided it worked well for a photo op, but not for retrieving a deer. My deer cart hasn't left the basement in a while since I've been using a sled and a Rokon to pull it. Much lower center of gravity than the cart or packing it.

Sounds like a good way to get shot .

Well, it is Illinois

Solid point.

My back starts aching more and more every year and doubly so when crouched over at unnatural angles working on critters.

Same here.

We do have telecheck now so you can call it in, answer a few basic questions about the kill and they give you a telecheck ID number.

Get the ID number and if you want to pack a critter out in a pack you can, no dragging of a whole deer.

Automated and works pretty good.

I still miss the physical check stations, especially when there were kids there checking deer or turkeys.

They went to phone and online check-ins with confirmation numbers to write on your tags here several years ago, too. The only physical checks are with cwd permits, and a few other special cases.

I know a guy that was packing a gutted buck out over his shoulders. Even though he had an orange hat and vest on some other hunter saw the buck floating through the brush and shot it with a 150 gr. .270. The bullet penetrated the field dressed buck, shattered the packers shoulder and lung and exited high out the front of his chest. They were close to town and got the shot up deer packer into ER pretty quickly. After some touch and go the packer survived. He had several surgeries to repair his shoulder and the event left him crippled up on that side. I don't remember if the shooter got charged with any crime or not.

I hope they charged his dumb ass with something.

Packer wasn't too smart either.

Concur. My brother and I tried that one night to get the front half of 234 buck out of the woods to a point where we could have reached ti with a 4wd truck. I had already carried out the two hindquarters on my back so I was a bit tired already. We had to go through two dry oxbows near the river and a fifty yard briar patch and other patchy brush.

Within about fifty yards of trying to maintain our balance and fighting that buck, we were ready to kill each other. It would start to swing and down on our butts we’d go. we finally got it out but we were whipped before it was all said and done.

We both thought,”it worked so well when the porters did it on Tarzan!” 😊

Agreed... on both counts.

My dad and I packed a buck out like that - once. Missouri got telecheck in 2006 and I have been doing the gutless debone and quarter pack out method since. Dragging is a thing of the past for me.

not far enough north, to just use a plastic sled from Holiday for like $5 per... back in the 80s and up to the mid 90s at least...

I left MN back in 1995...

hunting up north between Chisholm/Hibbing area, half way to International Falls...west off of Rt 73... south of Rt 1 intersection.

Some of my in laws did it that way.... gutting them from the side, and carrying them back...

we younger guys liked using the sled instead....

I guess yoiu could call it a snatch block. I just call them pullies. I have 2 double pullies and that is supposed to pull up a 200 lb deer with only 50 lbs. I never used it though, but keep it in case I have a long drag out and dont want the coyotes to get it before morning. If I hang it high enough the coyotes wont get it.

I have boned them out by getting on the downhill side of a small tree.
Start skinning a leg the it up on that tree. The hill is your friend.
You can stand on the down hill side, and not have to bend over very far.
Even though only the leg is elevated. A loop that tightens in the leg makes
it easy. Do the legs, flop it on the belly, skin down the sides and take the straps. Or, work under a blow down.

Only takes an hour or less to have ruined, boned out, meat in a backpack.

Hell of a deal if you consider how long, and how much effort to get a deer out.
Then, to skin it. Then bone it.