field dressing a deer?

I have a fried who tells me that it is not necessary to gut a deer? Says you can quarter it, get the back straps, and even the tenderloins out with the guts still in the carcass. I have my reservations… I’m only an occasional hunter and have field dressed deer a handful of times. It’s not a pleasent task but it doesn’t take take that long and seems to me to be a necessary part of the process. He claims that people shoot deer and they sit for 12-24 hours before they get found-so what is the difference. Personally, I would want the guts out and give the animal a chance to bleed out.

Does anyone do this “gutless method” as he calls it? What would be the reason not to-he does have a point?

I guess if you take one part of the suggestion that gutting is unnecessary, just think about where the tenderloins are and I think that is answer enough. In 30 years of hunting I have never heard or seen this practice. I would agree that bleeding a deer is a good idea.

check out this video on you tube The Harris Gutless Deer Butchering Method

It only takes 5min to gut a deer and when doing it right there’s almost no mess plus the meat cools down much quicker. I say do it right and enjoy some of the finest meat around!

To obtain the best tasting meat, the animal should age for a day or two prior to boning it out. If you’re just going to grind it all into sausage, then it really doesn’t matter.

Jake,

That is what happens when people shoot deer for you instead of you doing it yourself. You could probably leave the hide on too . Properly dressing a deer will improve the taste of venison by not marinating it in crap, bile, and urine. You should also remove the hide while it is still warm. It is easiest to do it then. the sooner you open the meat up to cool temperatures the better it will be. We even rinse ours out with a hose. If you would like, I will give you some venison that has been handled properly and you can taste test it. If temps where you hang the carcus are between 45 and 35 degrees, I hang them for 3-4 days to let the moisture content decrease.

Just gut the deer. If done right you shouldn’t get blood past your wrist

Not to mention that it would suck major nuts to have to drag an ungutted deer all the way back to their truck. Those 50 or so pounds make quite a difference for the hike back.

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Not to mention that it would suck major nuts to have to drag an ungutted deer all the way back to their truck. Those 50 or so pounds make quite a difference for the hike back.

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Dude! You’re pulling a truck 50lbs should be child’s play for you How’d the Muskie hunt go last week?

Chamber, your friend is correct. We would completely debone elk without gutting it and still would get all the meat. After we were done there would just be the skin, a pile of bones and the rib cage with the guts in side. I really dont see any advantages of doing this with deer though.

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Not to mention that it would suck major nuts to have to drag an ungutted deer all the way back to their truck. Those 50 or so pounds make quite a difference for the hike back.

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Dude! You’re pulling a truck 50lbs should be child’s play for you

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The deer doesn’t have wheels

I can gut a deer in less than 5 minutes, and skin it in another 5 if the carcass is still warm. 99% of hunters gut their deer, so they can’t all be wrong. Ever open up a deer that has been dead for a day from a bad shot?

Ever try to salvage a deer that sat a day and had critters eating at its guts? Taints all the meat. I can see doing this if you wanted to filet them in the field but I would rather do it at home so the guts come out.

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Ever open up a deer that has been dead for a day from a bad shot?

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I was just going to ask this. Even a deer cleanly killed will gas up if left for very long and the wrmer the weather, the worse things get. Don’t think for a second that all that intesinal gas stays inside the intesines. It will leak into the meat surround the gut cavity and can get into the hinds, loins and tenders faster than you might imagine.

I carry a tube of handy wipes and a plastic bag for the used ones to go into. I gut the deer, tag it, clean myself up with the wipes and go on to tag # 2. The meat will be fresher tasting and that gut pile does not bother other deer moving in the immediate area.

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Chamber, your friend is correct. We would completely debone elk without gutting it and still would get all the meat. After we were done there would just be the skin, a pile of bones and the rib cage with the guts in side. I really dont see any advantages of doing this with deer though.

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How do you get the inside loins out ? It’s only the best part Very few “guts” are in the rib cage of an Elk

In sudays paper a couple of reasons it gave for waiting to gut until it hung back at camp is you can gut it while hanging and most likely have water on hand to properly clean the deer. Mine are still getting gutted in the field. From there its about 20 minutes until they are hanging and can be cleaned up better.

Big G-

Remove a couple ribs to gain access. Works well.

Pete

This is what I do too. If the temps are cool enough I have let it hang for a week to age. If it is just right and the meat does not freeze up on me, this is what I prefer.

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Jake,

That is what happens when people shoot deer for you instead of you doing it yourself. You could probably leave the hide on too . Properly dressing a deer will improve the taste of venison by not marinating it in crap, bile, and urine. You should also remove the hide while it is still warm. It is easiest to do it then. the sooner you open the meat up to cool temperatures the better it will be. We even rinse ours out with a hose. If you would like, I will give you some venison that has been handled properly and you can taste test it. If temps where you hang the carcus are between 45 and 35 degrees, I hang them for 3-4 days to let the moisture content decrease.

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I no longer remove the guts, i hunt all private ag land so getting my deer out isnt a problem, what is are coyotes, i will go to great lenghts to makesure they dont get a thing from me. I can have the deer from the back of the truck to the fridge in under an hour and be back to hunting. You can let meat hang but unless you have a walkin cooler your not helping do anything other than let the blood drain, aging needs a consistant climate controled enviroment. I prefer quaters in a fridge or cooler. And as for rinseing you deer off, water is the number 1 media inwhich bacteria grows, add water promotes the growth. To each his own, there will be guys that say ive been doing this for 60 years, to them i say great for you, times and traditions change… for me its hands down far and away leagues ahead of standard methods in cleanliness and time wise. By the time everybody else gets there deer gutted wash out and hung up my cape is already in the freezer and im deboning meat.

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And as for rinseing you deer off, water is the number 1 media inwhich bacteria grows, add water promotes the growth.

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X2.

And, if I could drive close to my deer, and hung it where I hunted, I would probably gut it while hung. We used to do that when I hunted at my ex in-laws farm. Keeps the dirt out of it that way. Now I travel to where I hunt so not really feasible.

I do the same thing Kevin and let mine hang for 3 too 4 days too, the meat doesn’t get bad, it ages it and to me tastes better. I always wash mine out somehow, creek water or the hose.

Never had a problem hosing them down to clean them out. They are hung so not much water stays in them. skin off a day or two later depending on if it was shot saturday or sunday. Chopped up and in the freezer the day after that.

Most people hang their deer by the head but the proper way is by the back legs this allows the meat to cool faster not trapping the heat in the cavity.

We always field dressed our deer. The sooner the better.
Can remember my youngest daughter and a friend of ours looking out the window while we hung one I had shot. She said to the friend ” Mom sure shot the heck out of that one ” she was looking where we had cut the belly open.