• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

hunters, how do you handle your deer once it is down?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zimmerstutzen

70 Cal.
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
5,845
Reaction score
1,197
65 years ago, I was taught, the first thing was to cut the jugular, then remove the glands, then gut the animals, and even pack the cavity with snow to help cool off the carcass. No I have to admit, I never had to trail a deer (maybe I am more fussy about shots taken) Deer were always down inside 50 yards. Normally I was to them within a minute or two and usually while they were still dying. I seen some pictures of deer on line with descriptions, like this is the buck I shot last night, I had to track it since last night. Yet the guy is clearly on the back of his truck, in daylight and next to a house and the deer hasn't even been gutted yet. On another forum, it seems the older hunters are fussier about bleeding and gutting a deer asap, than younger hunters. Some claim they would rather drag the deer home to keep the abdominal cavity free of dirt. I just remember an old Austrian butcher who ranted terribly about how American hunters ruined their venison with sloppy treatment during the first few minutes. (He provided game meats and dressed game birds to the embassies in Washington, DC.) My record was once shooting a doe at 7:10 am, having it skinned and hanging in a cold garage by 7:35 and still changed and made it to work at 8:00am.

My dad was a county game warden here and 60 years ago, they would often check harvested deer. He and his deputy checked a guy that shot his deer upstate the previous day, slung the deer over the hood of his car and drove a couple hours toward home. And still had not gutted it.

How do you handle them?
 
Field dress and open the chest cavity as wide as possible, as soon as possible. Try to get things cooling as quick as I can. A lot of what happens next is determined by weather and ambient temperatures. No throat cutting needed though.
I also don't split the pelvis wide open anymore. I'm trying to reduce the amount of bone matter I am opening and exposing these days.
 
65 years ago, I was taught, the first thing was to cut the jugular, then remove the glands, then gut the animals, and even pack the cavity with snow to help cool off the carcass. No I have to admit, I never had to trail a deer (maybe I am more fussy about shots taken) Deer were always down inside 50 yards. Normally I was to them within a minute or two and usually while they were still dying. I seen some pictures of deer on line with descriptions, like this is the buck I shot last night, I had to track it since last night. Yet the guy is clearly on the back of his truck, in daylight and next to a house and the deer hasn't even been gutted yet. On another forum, it seems the older hunters are fussier about bleeding and gutting a deer asap, than younger hunters. Some claim they would rather drag the deer home to keep the abdominal cavity free of dirt. I just remember an old Austrian butcher who ranted terribly about how American hunters ruined their venison with sloppy treatment during the first few minutes. (He provided game meats and dressed game birds to the embassies in Washington, DC.) My record was once shooting a doe at 7:10 am, having it skinned and hanging in a cold garage by 7:35 and still changed and made it to work at 8:00am.

My dad was a county game warden here and 60 years ago, they would often check harvested deer. He and his deputy checked a guy that shot his deer upstate the previous day, slung the deer over the hood of his car and drove a couple hours toward home. And still had not gutted it.

How do you handle them?
Like you I have not had to trail deer because I shoot the front shoulder and they cant go anywhere with no front running gear also I can be back at the cleaning shed in less that 20 minutes so I do all the gutting and butchering their
 
Gutting is immediate,If I could gut them before the shot I would , then get them in the unheated garage in the shade to age.... Back in the 60s & 70s it was nothing to see deer strapped all over a car or truck going down the highway,Deer ,Bear ,Elk, Antelope all rode on the outside. Mostly gutted. I wouldn't take an un gutted animal home. I think mostly the practice stopped so as not to OFFEND Non- Hunters that you may pass along the way...Be Safe>>>>>Wally
 
Heart or lung shots don't require extra bleeding. There is enough of that going on inside. As is being discussed on another forum, get them gutted, cooled down and skinned ASAP. I am very fortunate where I hunt that I don't have to drag them through dirt, leaves, mud or swamps. When I go out to hunt I know if I am successful, there is a long night of work ahead.
 
I’m in the gut, skin and cool as soon as possible camp. Meat is cut and frozen right away (except what is fried up during cutting). The fresher the meat the better and none lasts six months. Antelope hunting requires a large cooler full of ice to be packed into the body cavity the moment I get the guts out.
 
I'll typically gut on site. Drag back to skin. If I'm at my cabin, I skin and hang it in the cooler for a week before butchering. If I'm at home, I'll skin, quarter, and put in a cooler up on racks above blocks of ice to cool it down. If it is cold at home, I'll skin and hang in the shed so long as Temps allow.
I prefer keeping it dry as it cools. I only wash out the cavity if dirt made its way in or if gut shot. I don't worry about bleeding it.
 
No throat cutting. I did it once and there was no obvious reason why I should do it again. In my youth I was also taught to remove the metatarsal glands. I have not been doing this for many years and see no difference in the taste of the meat. Field dress as soon as practical. Skin it at home as soon as possible. They skin easier when still warm.
 
I’m with everyone else, field dress before transport home. Grew up in New Mexico and it would be cold but mostly little snow. The Ozarks might be pretty warm or cold but again rare to have much snow
I THINK when I here about folks complaining about the ‘wild taste’ in venison. I thinks it’s probably tainted meat from too long twixt kill and butcher.
 
Like the others, I field dress the deer immediately. I never have cut the juggler and have never worried about the scent glands on the hocks, either, as some folks do. I save the heart and liver for eating. Venison liver and onions for the first night's meal after a kill is sort of a tradition here. But I don't care for the kidneys or other internal parts and don't save them.
After field dressing I drag or carry the deer back to camp or get it home where I hang it up. If the weather is warm (above 50*F) I skin and butcher it then. If the weather is cooler I will let it hang at least over night, up to several days if the weather is cool enough.
Yeah, it is a little harder to skin after the carcass has cooled, but really not too bad.
 
I hunt with a friend on his rural land.

Field dress the deer where it drops. No throat cutting, with a double lung shot it's unnecessary.

We then drag it back to the cabin, hang, skin, and quarter it. The quarters go into a cooler on ice. My friend then takes the deer back to his house and put it/them in the fridge. I'll go over within a week and we grind most of the meat except the backstraps. All meat gets vacuum sealed using his Foodsaver and then into the freezer.
 
Tag, gut, no throat cut and drag out. I hang in my shed , head down and clean the body cavity with cold water. If weather is above 40 F I use bags of ice inside the cavity and also outside as best as I can arrange them for the backstraps and quarters. It's a lot of work but the processors want a lot of $$ and I know it's all my meat.
 
If I am going to carry the deer out I gut it , make it into a pack and carry it out , If it is too far to carry the whole deer I remove the back straps , hind legs and fore quarters , bag them in old pillow cases , put them in my pack and carry them out , Heart ,Liver, are checked for disease and the Kidneys and tongue are also salvaged .
I have seen many pictures of North American hunters hanging deer by the head , here in New Zealand they are always hung head down , by the hind legs . This is especially so if the animal is hung in a tree to be gutted or is gutted on a steep slope , the offal falls forward and out of the gut cavity and in the unlikely event of a broken gut , contamination of the meat is only on the lesser forward cuts .

I have seen many pictures of shot deer and quite honestly the gut cavity often looks like it has been opened up with a hedge trimmer .
The way to cleanly gut a deer is to first make a circular cut around the anus and pull it out a little way then tie it off with a string then push it back in
Make a small incision with your knife just below the breast bone , then with your knife blade pointing up place it between your two fingers of your left hand and slide your hand , palm up , and the knife down the center of the belly towards the legs . This keeps the knife blade cutting the skin from inside, and the back of your left hand pushes the gut away from the knife tip. The tip being between your fingers keeps it from puncturing the gut, while the blade cutting upwards from the inside will not be blunted by hair or drop cut hair all over the meat . Cutting into deer hair is a sure way to blunt a knife
When the gut bag drops out the intestine is pulled with it and the anus with the string tied around it comes out cleanly without dropping poop on the meat .
The thing to remember when you are shooting , gutting and processing a deer you are making it into food and cleanliness is paramount .

PS If you are going to cut a Stag's throat while it still shows signs of life just remember they can still horn you or kick and maybe connect with your knife
 
I don't know if it's a local thing or not but I have never heard of someone not gutting a deer except when completely unknowlegble. Even then there was usually someone there to help. To me the risk of inner contamination far outweighs the risk from outer elements. Of course I imagine it depends on what you're dragging through. The other major thought is when I look at that huge pile of innards laying there I'm glad i don't have to drag all of that too. Heart and liver go in my game pouch.
 
Just gut it on the spot , drag it home ... Hang it as soon as ya can , head up here ... And open up the cavity with some stout sticks .... Cools off in no time . I skin and butcher it ASAP ... easy peezy
 
Funny this post came back up today.
It has been 90 degrees for several days here in Pennsylvania and today I saw a group of men (obviously) not from these parts, picking up a road kill deer and shoving it into a black plastic bag and into the trunk of their Nissan…!
Yumm🤪

We were taught to remove the glands and gut immediately. I no longer remove glands but always gut where it falls and get it out quickly, most years it is very warm in buck season, late season it sometimes is warm but mostly cold enough to let hang
 
I hunt about a 1/2 hour from home and that's after parking and walking a bit to the area I hunt, kill deer, gut deer, take deer home, hang, skin, split down the back and wash down with cold water, and hang to cool, I have never killed a deer that wasn't done this way, all in all I would say an hour or at most two from shot to this way.
 
Pretty much the same way I do it. I was taught when I was a kid to get as much of the esophagus out as possible while field dressing due to all the bacteria. Mine usually eat pretty good. We don't eat the organs. And the sweet rolls (some folks call it the fish), inner loins never make it to the freezer. Seems there's always a Coleman stove and butter close by. Strange.
 
Back
Top