So when processing/gutting whatever you want to call it how do you hang your deer head up or down? Most I know hang by the rear legs head down. For me it’s easier to hang by the head so gravity does the work allowing all the guts to fall easily into the bucket. Interested to hear how you do it and why.

Gut before hanging usually in the field

Gut them where they fall. Hang them head down from a tree at camp to skin.

If they are an eater I hang them head up. Mounter head down. I find them easier to skin and cut up head up.

^^^THIS^^^

I gut them in the woods. I prefer to start at the neck and cape it down to the shoulders and front legs. Then I hook a rope to it and tie it to the tractor and strip it off the rest of the way. If you're going to mount it, you'll wreck the hide if you put a rope around it's neck. You need to hang it head down in that case.

Hind legs up. The guts still fall out by gravity.... can't see that happening any other way.

Prefer to skin that direction all the time too regardless. Have hung head up a few times and just don't like it, I can make the hide cuts I need to make easier hinds up.

Not that either way is "wrong"

Here is another one.

How many use a bone saw when cleaning a deer when you don't need a saw at all?

I hang hinds-up on a gambrel, unzip the guts, slice though the front chest wall with a sturdy knife and lets the guts fall in a cut-down plastic drum (skinning shed is on my hunting property). Then I cut out the tenders. Then I skin from the tail down to the head. Chop the lower front legs off with lopping shears, remove the shoulders, remove the neck meat, remove the straps. Then I take a bone saw and cut the backbone in front of the hind quarters and let the torso/head/hide fall in the gut bucket. I leave the hindquarters connected to the hip girdle, but I lop off the lower leg portions. All the pieces go in a cooler of cold water as I work and when I'm done the water has drawn out all the heat. I drain that water, load the cooler in my truck and head home. When I'm feeling considerate, I even haul off the gut bucket before I leave.....

Depends on my mood.

Usually, it's head down.

Gutting it?

If you're referring to gutting it, the only time I cut the pelvic bone is when I'm going to donate it. FHFH requires it. Generally I don't worry about the ass hole because I'll have it quartered up before it would matter.

If you're talking about processing it, I use a saws-all for any bone cutting.

When I am hunting, I field dress the deer where it falls. If I am going to hang it for aging, I usually hang it head up. When it's time to skin, it goes head down on a gambrel. If it needs to be skinned in camp, we hang them head up, and pull the skin off using a golf ball or rock and a vehicle with a trailer hitch or a winch. If for some reason I need to open the rib cage, I use a pair of loppers--easier and quicker than a bone saw.

I have done it both ways. Over time head down proved ‘better FOR ME’.

I see others do it head up and don’t argue w/them. They’re used to it.

I gut before hanging w/head uphill a little. For me— I start at the rectum and get the hide separated from intestine.
I don’t use a bone saw per se, I use a reciprocating saw to cut thru sternum & pelvis. Other than that I don’t use a bone saw.

With hind legs spread w/a gambrel, it’s easier to remove tender loins - for me.

I have pix of my deer hanging BOTH ways at deer camp but head DOWN won the contest for me.

Jerry

ADD PIX

Usually head down..

That's how I do it, but I use my tractor. One time I was using my pickup and I forgot to cut the front legs off at the knee and slice them open. I started pulling and got down to the front hooves and it wouldn't come off. So I gave it a little bit too much gas and popped the head off. I'm sure there was beer involved.

I field dress my deer in the field usually where they fell although sometimes I bring it back to camp. After field dressed I hang head down from a gambrel, skin and quarter using a sawzall. the quarters are hung at least overnight and weather permitting perhaps day or two before butchering.

Gut them in the field with a small knife and a Gerber saw. Then hang with gambrel from hind legs. I was taught it was disrespectful to hang from the head ? Don't know why. Just the way the old timers taught me.

I can see BOTH being true.

Jerry

Yup was taught same thing but don’t much see the logic in it as I’m dismembering the carcass.

Shut up and follow the rules hang um from the back legs

I use a little gerber with bone saw blade to open the sternum and split the pelvis. Neither has to be split but I think it helps things cool faster, especially on warmer days. Also makes it easier to cut esophagus, pipes, etc and very easy to remove last bit of large intestines. None of those things "have" to be done, and can actually be done with a knife/pressure...but it's simple, easy, and saves a knife edge by using the little bone saw.

I hang mine from the back legs mainly because my Dad made a gambrel for me and it works well with a come-along to hang from our back yard swing set. Club I hunt also has gambrels on winches so they are what I use.

Why do you gut them? I hang from back legs, skin him, remove back straps, remove front shoulders, cut head off, get as much neck meat as I can, cut gut liner enough to reach in to get tender loins, remove one ham, then the other, ribs and guts fall in gut bucket. I did read on a post here not long ago to split skin down belly and back. I tried that. It’s much easier to pull skin off.

I don’t use anything but my Buck knife. Why would you need a saw??

No right or wrong way. Just get it done !

Not everyone can drive up to the corn spinner for wheeled retrieval.

I gut only at our small family spot where I have a walk in reefer to hange the body to age. All my other kills get the gutless method.

Head down always.

I use a Sagan Saw to cut a section out of the pelvic bone and then break the pelvis so that I can pull all of the entrails out as one unit, no need to cut around the anus and tie it off.

If I can drive a vehicle to the deer, I usually bring along a pair of limb clippers and use that tool to cut the pelvis bone, they are just a little bulky to carry far from a vehicle, unless you have a son or nephew along to do the carrying.

At home, gut & rinse on the garages apron.

Hang, then clean & rinse with water/vinegar solution.



Skin & process, not before the next weekend.

Away, @ camp.





Use what you got !

It depends on the circumstances. MOST of the time I use the 'gut less' method too. IF, IF it'll be a while before I can process, then I'll gut them for cooling.

Also normally I give 2-3 deer to friends, so I gut and rinse THEN they come and take whole deer for themselves.

Jerry

I use this methodology too, however, you don't need a saw or pruning shears. I simply place the tip of my knife, at the centre of the pelvis juncture & 2-3 taps of the back of the blade with a hatchet splits the pelvis, slight push on each inner ham & done. I find it also leaves less jagged bone to rip up the back of my hands. All the guts exit through the split pelvis.

Never needed a saw for the sternum either. If you can't split with a knife, straight down the centre, move approximately an inch either side & split the cartilage between the rib bone & the harder sternum.

I hang all deer head down, gut them at the barn, or nearby tree. I use a 18vt dewalt cordless sawzall for all bone cuts, and the golf ball method with a boat winch for hide removal. (Boat winch cable is routed through a snatch block and earth anchor). Wheel barrow beneath the deer for guts. Gambrels I make myself from aluminum or steel tubing and 1/8" cable that cinches at the deer's knees. You can not drop the meat, even if the tendons are cut. So far, I've made and shipped off more than a dozen to friends who want one. We have room to hang at least 5 deer at a time, each on block and tackle. Butchering kit, hangs on the wall, and I have.a string of 150wt bulbs on a construction lighting string wrapping the cutting area with 1500wts of light.
Personally, I do not gut on the ground, or in the field. I'll keep all chance of dirt away from the meat, and I just don't like gutting on the ground. A rubber surgical glove over the action of the sawzall, keeps the saw parts clean. I take the blade trhrough one of the fingers and tape at the cut, and the wrist, and no gore in my saw.

Interesting as my guide and I in NE BC did not gut my elk and moose which resulted in a lot less on the horses to get back to camp. Seems the same would apply for a human pack out?

I've tried both and I find it easier for me hanging head down

Usually head down .

Riiiiiight, but that's a packout - ie, the thing(s) were quartered on the spot.
hanco is talking about getting them out whole, and, with guts. If you have to get them out whole (and can't get a quad, truck or horse to them), it's a lot easier to gut them (less weight) and drag them to where they can be loaded.

I rarely get critters out in one piece anymore but when I do I always hang head down. It is a pain to bag it but I always worry about brain goopage migrating down through the body into the meat via gravity.

I hang mine with the head down. I don't ever gut them anymore and never use a saw.

I was in a camp once that had a homemade walk in freezer. Worked well til freezer part quit.

Now I debone hanging. No need to gut. Cut the stomach far enough down to reach in and get sweet meat.

Head down.

Never gutted a deer anyplace other than where it died. Bringing one home to gut seems like way more trouble than it would be worth.

I hear ya BUT I may be the exception because I hunt either AT home or on family property 3 mi. away. I like bringing it home especially if I gut it. A water hose is handy so the deer & I keep clean. I also have enuff property to dispose of head, hide, entrails. > buzzards are on it in less than 1 hour.

Jerry

Most done in the field, quartered, caped and head removed. Rare a cervid makes it back to a building.

Hit this deer with a gay 270. Blew his head clean off, quartered the rest of the deer. All with one shot.

I built that rack 5 or 6 years ago.

I know people who split the pelvic bone in the manner than you've described, but I'm not a fan of hitting my knives with a hatchet or a hammer or an axe. I usually bring a BUCK # 119 to split the sternum and smaller knife for the finer work, but have used a Witterlings Wildlife Axe that one of my buds has sharpened to a razor sharp edge for the sternum splitting chore.

When gutted in the garage i hang head down. First skin, then gut.

Head up, for no other reason, than that's the way my dad showed me.

I was worried about warmer weather moving in on all 3 of my deer this year, taken in archery, rifle and late antlerless seasons. Ended up quartering by gutless method on all three and putting them in a cooler to soak in cold water for a while, then draining and covering with ice for a few days till I was ready to cut them up for the freezer.
Usually I hang them head down and hope they don't freeze before I get the processing done. Even the ones I've shot with the 270.

I hang em head down, skin with a winch, then gut em.

Rare for us to bring in a whole animal as rigs can't get into our deer and elk spots. That being: gut and skin on the ground (may hang head down for skinning if in a sandy or dirty environment and a tree is available), hang by the hocks for storage or aging, and butchered on a 4 x 8 ft bench.

When suspended by the neck to a single point, I find the carcass spinning and swaying to no end. With a two point hook up to the hocks about 90% of that issue goes away.

Will do the gutless deal if I am immediately headed home. Typically though, things may have to hang around camp for a week or more as the group tries to tag out. Then game comes in mostly in halves or quarters to minimize surface exposure. Hams are hung again by the hocks and front quarters by a line through a hole two ribs in.

I reversed some words and so messed up the post that I will simply delete it.


.

Head down or You would be asked to leave My camp. A deer hung by the neck is not acceptable for a few reasons. I believe that Cornell Co-Op Extension suggests - Head down and aged.

Not legal in AK due to salvage requirements....

We don't process anything bone in. but I'm talking quartering, cutting ribs off, cutting head off, cutting legs off. How many use a saw, how many use joints that are there? I don't recall using a saw to get em in a cooler ever in a long time.

I’ve never seen anyone use a saw, what do you saw?

IN the thread -- several of us said we SAW...

thru the pelvis or pelvic bone,

thru the sternum.

Some people use a saw on ribs, leg joints, etc.


Note: I process my deer at home so that CAN modify the situation.

I began using a reciprocating saw for the Pelvis and to cut off the back bone.

Since I had the saw out... it's so easy just to saw thru the sternum. I never did that till I began processing at home.


Y M M V


I use what works for me and what I like.

Use what works for you and what you like. Please don't tell me why I should do it your way.


Jerry

I pretty much dress a deer like I was taught when killing beef for the locker plant, when I was young. Saw the sternum, split the pelvis with a knife, use knife at joints for the legs and head. Hang head down. Harder to do, but skinning cold makes a better looking carcass. I seldom do that any more. miles

When I lived in New England a lot of deer hunters hung their deer head up, some probably because that is how the Benoits did it and the Benoit's were influential in some New England hunting circles.

Since moving to Nebraska, I don't recall ever seeing a deer hung head up anywhere in CO, KS, MO, NE, or SD.

Ive was taught how to skin one by hanging them head down. Never tried it any other way. Hang them up and slit the throat to try and drain some blood and work away.

I didnt notice anybody say they debone as they go.
I find it easier to go ahead and debone the meat starting at hinds and working down getting the meat off the bones and throwing it in a cooler of cold water.
When we are done just wrap the cap back along the deer and load it up to haul it to the bone yard. Havent used a gut bucket in a long time.

Deboning while hanging allows me more room for meat in a cooler.

get a good pair of long handled pruning shears and a good knife. gut in the field,hang by the hind legs. skin down to the top of the neck on a none rutting buck,rutting buck I never save the neck roast,to much fluid in it for me. cut around the neck thru the windpipe ,take the shears and cut the head off. shoulders next cut them off the deer with leg still attached. lay the leg fat and cut with knife right thru the joint.after the shoulders are gone loins come out next with knife,then do the tenderloins. then cut around the backbone right below the hind quarters and lop the bones with the shears. I thin cut the whole center bone out in one piece. cut from both sides staying close to the bone as possible,pop the joint tendon with knife and remove. hind quarters should be separated. take one off the hook and lay flat. cut thru the leg joint removing the hock with knife. if you've never done this it takes alittle practice to hit the right spot with your knife. then it go in the spare frig for 5-7 days. this all takes me about 20-25min.

----Ya got to give that buck ya just shot respect. Hang him by the neck with his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth looks like you just had a public hanging of Coony Millet -- wanted in three states for rape, bank robbery, and murder. ---------- Web

Well I've got a FRYER to process. It was killed by a vehicle in front of my house. Normally 1-3 deer per year are road killed along my property.

This one is 017 fawn, but a Nubbin. We have been C O L D this week and last night was in the 20s. I'm going to open him up and see how much damage was done.

Hopefully MOST of it will be usable. IF so, I'll call AGFC and report the road kill. If not, then it'll feed buzzards & coyotes.

Jerry

Gut in the field

Fetch Game cart, return to camp

Hang from a rope around the antlers

Skin

Split sternum with hatchet, spread ribs with a stick for rapid cooling

Bag the next morning, allow a crust to form overnight

Hang bagged until return home

Continue hanging head up in the barn for a week or so, as long as temps allow

Split pelvis with hatchet

Cut, bag, and freeze

Our party keeps a couple of 24" meat saws and spare blades in camp. They're used on elk and moose solely to split the back bone as we break halves into quarters. I have split backbones with an axe or hatchet, but results are less than surgical. Put the cutting edge against a vertebra and use another implement or club as a hammer. One hit usually splits one vertebra. With deer, pronghorn, and caribou, we can pack back/front halves, and one can get them to that state with just a pocket knife.

Now Pharm, you're doing it ALL wrong man !

Don't you know nuttin.

Man MY way is simpler - quicker - easier - cleaner,

What's not to like?





Whatever works for you and you like is THE answer.

Jerry

This. I use an old single tree to hang them with a pulley system. I've processed hundreds this way. Most who watch me decide its the way they are going to do it. I've done so many for so long that it only takes me a matter of 20-30 minutes.

Edit to add: No saws. Everything is done with a smallish knife. No need to split the sternum, no need to saw bones. De-bone everything. If packing out, Cape it and pack the rest of the meat in cheesecloth bags.

We use sawzall at pelvis, sternum, knees, ribs at spine, base of the neck, base of the skull, and to remove any rack with a piece of skull. It will get drilled and screwed to the wall of the cabin, for use as a hanging rack for coats, hats, bows, kitchen gear, ect.

Gutless isn't legal in AK, even if you take all the trim meat, rib meat and the like? That's the first I have heard of that. I think there's a miscommunication going on here concerning what the gutless method is.

An AK F&G sponsored video I watched before flying out into the bush for a caribou hunt was where I first learned of the gutless method, back in 2004 or so...

Jerry,
I tried a new "my way" this year. It went like this:

Shoot buck

Tell new kid "gut, hang, and skin that deer"

Drink beer and watch to make sure he doesn't [bleep] it up or cut off his fingers


It turned out pretty good. I got the idea from my brother, who told his boy (on his first-ever elk hunt) to drop the guts on the bull I had just shot. Damnedest thing. My brother and his boy showed up at the kill site just as I was done with pictures. Okay, now the work starts. My brother told me to put the knife away, then turned to his boy and said alright, it's your turn.

A guy could get used to that.





P

Pharm, I heard that.

In another thread I mentioned taking a G son along to pack meat out. Similar.


Jerry

Why do you split the sternum? I cut around it, cut tendon in the hip joint, ham falls off.

I’m asking, because I might learn something. I clean mine the way other guys on leases I’ve been on clean theirs. You fellows using saws may be doing it faster and easier. I learned about splitting hide, belly and back here. Makes it way easier to get hide off.

Hanco

Remember I process my deer at home and have the benefits of water, electricity, and lights if needed at night so all that figures in to MY processing

Yes, for me the sawsall (reciprocaticating saw) is just that, faster & easier.

Normally our WX is too warm for deer to hang long SO. I cut it up and put it on ice & water in ice chests. I empty & refill a few Xs to dump bloody water
out and keep the meat cleaner. As long as you keep it in COLD CLEAN ice/water, it’s no diff from hanging in a cooler.. which I’ve never had.

These things work well for me. Maybe someone else is looking for solutions.

I too learned Gut Less from someone on the fire who hunted in Kansas. I don’t remember who he was
but I tried it and LIKE it so much that I use it as often as feasible.

Jerry

I split the sternum to facilitate cooling. Rifle deer season in Oregon lands on the closest weekend to the first of October so sometimes we're hunting at the end of September. It can get pretty warm during the day so proper cooling is essential.




P

If they’re not boned out I generally hang em from a rope

Hanco & Pharm

I only split the sternum WHEN I can let it hang a few days. Opening the sternum makes is much easier to get ALL of the esophagus/lungs etc. cleaned out.

Cutting legs, pelvis, neck OR head, & antlers off is a snap w/sawsall.

A knife blade will stay sharp longer if you’re NOT cutting/grinding against bone.

Someone else mentioned hitting a knife w/hammer or hatchet. NOT around my Dad ! !

Jerry

Hang all mine head down for minimum of a week given good temperatures.

The hind meat is better than the neck.

-Ken

Hang from a gambrel head down for as long as weather allows.

I always split the sternum when gutting, it splits very easy if you don't go up dead center and just go up one side just cutting each rib. Split the neck all the way to the jaw, remove the esophagus I do not want this left in a hanging deer, don't care if it's just 1 day.

Split pelvis w a Gerber hatchet, remove the azzhole here again I don't care if I am going to hang and debone as soon as I get home.

Splitting the pelvis also makes it easier to get legs laid open for cooling and hanging from the gambrel.

If I am at my buds and kill one I rinse it out since I have to right drive by a hose bib when leaving, only time I let water touch my deer. None of that water/ice soaking BS for me.

I was taught to hang head up. Reason was head down blood would run down into the neck and spoil the meat. Don't know if that is true or not.

That was the normal approach back in the 60-70s. My Dad butchered a goat every year to BBQ and he would NOT rinse it with water.
Later in the 80s, I learned from OTHERS and tried it.

Have you ever tried ice/water ?

10 gauge - you are entitled to your own opinions and practices...it doesn't bother me.


Jerry

Not done it myself but a buddy does it and I do not care for the taste of the meat. Maybe I had a bad batch, dunno, tried it once and never saw any reason to sample it again.

Never saw any reason to do it as I have never had what I would consider a bad taste from any of my deer or quite a few I ate growing up that dad or my uncles killed. Unless somebody forgot to cut the glands from meat before grinding it or packaging meat with the glands still in it.

Like you, if others want to do it they can have at it, no judging from me but I see nothing "I" can personally gain from it.

Maybe we are lucky. The place I hunt close to home allows me to have 30-45 minutes max from the time a deer is shot, gutted, loaded in truck, driven to the house and skinned/hung. If weather is right that deer is chilling pretty dang fast.

End result is still the same, as long as we eat what we kill and enjoy it all is well.

My way is the right way to me and your way is the right way to you, or so that's what my wife says. I still think I am right!!

Heat, cleaning up the meat with fresh spring water, and just easier to clean out everything that you are not going to eat. Easier access to the tenderloins, and speed. Without the saw, and each hunter cutting his own takes a fairly long time. But With two cutters, one sawman, one cleaning meat and sorting for each cooler, we can process 5 deer it the time it took us to do one. We work well as a team.

10 gauge

If I had access to a walk in cooler, I would NOT do the ice chest thing.

WHEN, when our WX stays BELOW 50* I let my deer hang outside several days. I absolutely PREFER that. Unfortunately that does not happen very often during our season.

Jerry

we always hang them neck up. thats the way i was shown 50 years ago. might be a PA thing. however i have changed a few things over the years. i skin them as soon as i get it back to camp. if the weather is going to be below 40 for a while, i quarter them and let the pieces hang for several days. we used to let them hang whole with the hair on but that makes for a tough skinning job.

I’m gonna have to try the saw thing, split sternum, damn sure worth trying.

How weather has been for us lately. Almost 20 years ago I killed a doe opening Saturday, hung and skinned immediately and didn't touch her until we cut a loin out for sammiches the following Friday and didn't do anything else until Sunday. Probably the best loin and tenderest roasts I have had. Never got over 40 that week.


Even when we are warm and debone the same day I try to put in a refrigerator on trays for a day to firm the meat up. If I don't refrigerate for a day I grind everything but the loin which I beat out for sandwiches. I am a chili nut so grinding whole deer does not bother me a bit.

My bud and I kill between 10-15 a year so we can be choosy about what we do with each deer.

Looking at building a cooler ourselves. Buddy has a box off of a delivery truck about 16" long and we are thinking of framing it in, insulating it and sticking a window unit or two in it to help on warmer days

Head down if I'm gonna hang one. Usually do the gutless method. If I can't get my truck or ATV to the critter, it'll be deboned on the spot.

Hillbilly skinning rack and a couple ratchet straps are always in the truck bed along with the cooler and a few jugs of water. Guts and bones never leave the woods. We have a nice skinning shed at our club but depending on where we are hunting on the property can be several miles away.

10 gauge

This is a very good idea.

** "Looking at building a cooler ourselves. Buddy has a box off of a delivery truck about 16" long and we are thinking of framing it in, insulating it and sticking a window unit or two in it to help on warmer days".**

I may find a good used REF and put in my shop and ONLY run it Nov. - Jan ? I'll get serious about that this year.

Jerry

hang by the backlegs until they get cut up. this gets the heat up and away quicker so they cool faster. never liked hanging by the head myself.

Will PM you w an idea I have had for a while about a fridge for hanging deer.

Not a knife but I have used a cleaver to split the hams along the back bone, while hanging from a gambrel. Using a rubber hammer, or a piece of 2x4. The man that I learned to butcher from had a 2 hand cleaver that He would split beef and hogs with. He was good at it, but made me saw them. I have tried splitting deer along the backbone using a Brush hook/slingblade. Worked pretty good as long as you took little chops at a time. I did learn why He made me saw the backbone for customers to see. miles

Why not start with a damaged refrigerated truck? I've also seen a sheet metal and fiberglass insulation make a nice cooler with a window air conditioner. .

Because he already has the box sitting on runners. Was a shed for storing square bales.when he was milking goats. Now its just taking up space so may as well use it.

The only time I would gut one is if it was gut shot. I don’t think I have ever gut shot one, but have gutted a couple for other guys that have gut shot them. Yuck!!

I was sitting on a hill, saw a guy shoot a deer on the other side of the road. He took his coat off, took his long sleeve shirt off, got his knife out, walked out to the deer, when he got close to the small buck, it jumped and hauled ass. He stood there looking, don’t know if he ever found that deer or not. He didn’t look happy.

This and another post as helpful suggestions.

The sawsall works GREAT on the pelvis, cutting the backbone off at neck or head, and cutting legs off too.

Jerry

The only Xs I gut deer are when I can let them hang for a few days OR

When friends will come and take the deer for themselves, I gut them completely and rinse out thoroughly.

Otherwise I USE and PREFER the gutless method. The sawsall still works on the gut less ones too.

Jerry

I will try the sazall when the other boys aren’t at the lease. I’m pretty sure I would get hoorahed if I were to pull out a sawzall.

I know of at least one instance when a butter cutter chainsaw was lubed with vegetable oil and used to quarter, or more likely, eight(th) a bison.

Head down,hung on a gambrel. I skin before I gut because I usually don't have to drag one far. I prefer to keep the hind quarters as clean as possible from any contamination from the body cavity,especially if I busted a gut with a bullet. I think head down helps keep the best meat the cleanest.

I am not following you.

How does skinning it first keep it cleaner? Seems to me if you gutted it first, having the skin on would protect the meat from any nastiness that may get on it while gutting.

this

No need for a saw to remove a hind quarter from the pelvic area of a deer. Very easily done with a thin bladed knife , Let the bones be your guide.

Skinned ASAP, head down, washed with cold water from the hose, hung 7days or more in a dry cold place with fan on the cavity till it dries out.

Field dress with a small knife and small Sagen saw, opening the pelvis and rib cage. Split the deer from jaw to tail and get everything out cleanly.

Then hang head down for however long to age.

Skin with knife only, and we save the hide to trade off later.

Debone starting at:
1) remove backstraps.
2) remove shoulder quarters and send to deboning table.
3) remove neck meat boneless.
4) remove rear quarters with knife and send to deboning table.

Never use a saw for processing. Leaves bone marrow on meat, which tastes bad and if there is cancer or prion-diseases, they will be in the marrow and lymph nodes. Throw the bones away and carefully get rid of all the inner-muscular lymph nodes.

Head down, that way if there is anything in the oesophagus it won't run down the chest cavity and makes skinning much easier...

I too fillet all moose and deer for the same reason. Removing bone dust and all fat, esp from deer will improve the flavour greatly.

Gutless

I (almost) always gralloch my deer in the field as I understand doing it is best for the meat.

If I do it at the garage, I do it head down. I saw the hip bone and the sternum and everything comes out easy peasy with the help of gravity, falling directly into a rubber bucket and without much messing.

Whichever way I do it, I leave it hanging until rigor mortis disppear, when I skin it and debone it.

Yep and easier to process when getting it home.

I never thought about the bone marrow from the sawing. That doesn’t sound too good.

Where I use the saw does not affect the meat. It's only to dis connect parts.

I cut the meat away from the sawed areas & bones. It's a non issue to me.

Jerry

Gut them where they die. That’s why they call it “ field dressing” . Hang it in the shed ,head down , with a gambrel through the back legs. I think there’s more than one way to skin a cat for this question.

And retrieve a 90 pound deer.

.

Why not just whack it with the hatchet then?

The more I hunt the more I discover I need a lot less schit in my pack or pockets. I do use a Sagen saw sometimes, if I have it with me. But most of the time I just reach in and pull it out because I can cut it from the outside almost all the way around.

Tom, if you whack the pelvis directly with a hatchet, it splinters, then the pelvis cuts up the back of your hands !

Suddenly, I've come to realize I don't bone or debone a carcass, I meat or demeat it.

That's a great idea! Can't wait to give it a try.......

Thanks for that tip. I need to try that. I have a devil of a time getting the Saws-All clean. That should keep most of the funk out.

Gotchya!

You will notice a vast improvement. I take the blade through the middle finger.

I use a cordless Saws-all to cut the legs off at the knee. Then I use it to cut the spine right above the ass end and throw the whole rear up on the table and use a knife to unhook the hind quarters from the pelvic bone. Then I use the saw to cut the head off of the body carcass for easy packaging in trash bags. If it has horns, I use the saw to cut the skull cap off. It can certainly make the job a lot quicker and easier.

As far as the sternum goes, if i'm not mounting it, I bust up on one side or the other where the ribs hook to it with a knife. You can cut right through the ribs right there. It's soft bone. I do that so I can reach up to grab and cut the wind pipe and yank everything out in one clean swoop.

Everyone does schit different, no right or wrong way. That's why we read these types of threads to find out better ways to do stuff. Different strokes for different folks.

Of course the middle finger.

I have been doing my deer by way of the gutless method, and don't do much hanging anymore.

But if I was still hanging them, I'd still be hanging them like I used to with the head down.

I've cleaned hundreds of deer and always thought it was much easier hanging head up.

Heck next time I get a deer I am going to cut it up in the woods. I shot a 1.5 yr old doe last fall and had to drag it through the marsh. I was in 2' of water sometimes . Next time I get a bigger buck way back i "da woods" I am going to get some rope with a block and tackle , cut it up right there and put it in my Boundary bag.