Do You Field Dress Your Deer Kill or Haul It Back to Camp?

[chubbs]

Expat nailed my method. I field dress where it fell unless it is laying down hill. If it is heading down hill, I spin it around and go to work. Get the guts out asap to aid in cooling the meat. It also takes a few pounds off of what you have to drag out.

 

[ws6guy]

yes field dress where it dropped. Then hang for a couple of days before quartering and putting in the fridge for about a week. If too warm to hang then we quarter and put in a fridge, usually process about a week later.

 

[Thor]

Why carry all that extra weight back to camp?

 

[Leadeye]

And after immediate field dress, hanging cool, make sure whomever processes it does not saw through bone. All venison must be deboned to obtain the best flavor.


There are a lot of ideas out there about how to get the best tasting venison. Some are good, a lot are debatable. But getting bone dust in your venison is not adding good flavor to the meat.

I have gotten to the point in life that the only venison I eat is that which is process by either of my two brothers or myself.

This is good info, we always bone out the meat.

 

[bwframe]

My neighbors are trophy hunters. They drag deer with a four wheeler and need two guys to load whole deer in the truck to take their deer to the processor. They have talked about paying more to have the processor gut the deer for them.

The neighbors have some really nice taxidermy hanging on their walls. In ten years, I have never heard them even mention eating the venison.

 

[phylodog]

I love to hunt but unfortunately my wife and daughter aren't keen on eating venison so I typically donate the meat from my buck. This also makes my life easier as I'm rarely ready to call it quits and head home so I don't have to worry about properly storing the meat (I live almost 2 hours from where I hunt). My taxidermist has a list of needy families who need the meat so I consider it a win-win. If I decided I want to put some venison in the freezer I prefer to wait until later in the season when it's nice and cold and I can head home right after the harvest.

 

[Nazgul]

Field dress as soon as posible.

Don

 

[Nazgul]

A word of warning - ​

NEVER

pull the knife towards you. Always pushthe knife away from you.

Yep! Cut myself really good last year field dressing the best doe I have ever taken. (Rihno).

Be careful, especially with a really honed blade!!

Don
​

 

[Nazgul]

Thats Rhino not rihno...

Don

 

[Hookeye]

Dress em on the spot. Like a big rabbit but not as nasty smelling and stuff easier to get ahold of.

1st is intimidating. 2nd is a " hmmmm" and you're a pro by the 3rd

Or should be IMHO.

Doing a good job shows respect for the critter by my view. Go to a processor and see how sloppy the ones coming in look.

Ridiculous.

Takes me about 8 minutes w a bad back. Blood not past my wrists. None on clothes.

Done a few LOL

 

[Willie]

A word of warning - ​

NEVER

pull the knife towards you. Always pushthe knife away from you.

Yep! Cut myself really good last year field dressing the best doe I have ever taken. (Rihno).

Be careful, especially with a really honed blade!!

Don
​

I read a fatality report where an elk hunter was pulling the blade towards him, it slipped he and stabbed himself in the leg. Got his femoral artery.

 

[Dead Duck]

Proper Knifery -

Never cut toward yourself, always cut towards a friend.

 

[ws6guy]

Do any of you use gloves? I've tried them before but found that it makes the task harder because of lack of grip.

 

[phylodog]

I wear the two piece gloves they sell at most stores that carry hunting gear. If I'm gutting a buck which is going to the taxidermist it requires going into the chest cavity up to my elbows to cut the esophagus. The grip isn't much of an issue when I put the latex gloves on over-top of the arm length gloves.

 

[bwframe]

I wear the same purple nitrile gloves that I do for cleaning fish, handling hot peppers or auto work.

I carry a couple pairs of these gloves, a few bounty paper towels and two gallon freezer bags. Heart and liver go in one bag, dirty gloves and paper towels in the other.

 

[ghuns]

If the deer has to be moved any distance, I field dress it where it landed.

If it fell where I can drive the tractor up to it, I scoop it up, take it home, hang it from the loader, and do it all in the shed.

I am lazy. I have allowed deer to walk another 20-30 yards onto a trail or into an open field just for easy tractor access.

 

[Dead Duck]

If the deer has to be moved any distance, I field dress it where it landed.

If it fell where I can drive the tractor up to it, I scoop it up, take it home, hang it from the loader, and do it all in the shed.

I am lazy. I have allowed deer to walk another 20-30 yards onto a trail or into an open field just for easy tractor access.

Damn...
Why don't you just use a lasso and walk it to your shed and then have the deer dress itself.




I call cheating. You have to sweat at some point.

 

[ghuns]

Damn...
...I call cheating. You have to sweat at some point.

Not if I can avoid it. Work smarter, not harder.

When my son was first starting to deer hunt, he had a knack for making sure they ended up in water. Either falling down the ditchbank or ending up in the middle of a swamp. He was little, so dear ole dad got wet, frozen, stinky, and tired dragging those out.

 

[sugarcreekbrass]

I wear the two piece gloves they sell at most stores that carry hunting gear. If I'm gutting a buck which is going to the taxidermist it requires going into the chest cavity up to my elbows to cut the esophagus. The grip isn't much of an issue when I put the latex gloves on over-top of the arm length gloves.

I also use the full length gloves with the latex ones that goes over them. The orange ones from Hunter Specialties are my favorite. I had had some of the others and they were junk. I used red ones once, not for sure who makes them, but they were the worst.

 

[Bapak2ja]

Thanks for the info.