quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Sullivan:

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Originally posted by The Slug:

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Sullivan:
I ordinarily don't gut my deer, but I wouldn't have a problem gutting one where it fell and hunting the stand again the same day. I have killed as many as three does in one sitting, and each was sniffing on the prior carcass. From my experience, blood does not bother deer.

Who guts your deer?

No one guts my deer. I hang and clean them with the guts still in the carcass. If you process your deer within a reasonable time(for me, it is within 30 minutes after the shot), there is no need to gut one.

Never heard of that before. Are you able to get the heart and liver? Do you just butcher the meat off and have a skeleton with guts intact or does the whole deer get broken down? Just curious as I've never seen it done this way.

The tenderloins and the heart are my 2 favorite parts.

I also save the liver on young does.

I shot a buck a couple of years ago that was standing there smelling the coyote that I killed an hour before. The only problem that I have with leaving the gut pile is that for the next day or so you have a bunch of buzzards fighting and making a bunch of noise over the gut pile. Of course thats only a problem if you are in a part of the country that has buzzards.

i gut them where they fall,unless i'm asked
to do it different.
many of my friends in Tx haul their kills to a butcher room and do the dressing there.
when horse hunting elk i rarely gut my animal
we here in wy call it "indian quarter"
take off the top, front and rear quarter
pull the loin and continue the cut all the way up the back of neck,to recover the neck meat.
repeat on other side then reach in under the short ribs to gather the tenders.
takes about an hour to ready one for horse travel or a backpack recovery

I gut them where they fall.

Jeff Sullivan, please elaborate on your technique. You've piqued my interest here.

It won't bother future hunting on the ridge. I usually dress on the spot, unless shooting does, usually shoot them where I can back the truck up to them, then dress them where it's more convenient. I like to use running water to clean out meat deer. You can also dress elk, and caribou as described and never gut them. Guts stay with the hide and backbone.

quote:

Originally posted by Wallhead:
I gut them where they fall.

Jeff Sullivan, please elaborate on your technique. You've piqued my interest here.

Must be a Blaser thing as I often do this as well...Not all the time depending where and how far etc.This is my process;and the animal is hot,making the hide easy to pull...

With animal laying on its side,I make a skinning cut from head to tail along the back bone,around the neck up by the ears,up the back of the hind legs,to the top of the tail(connecting with the cut along the back).Then you yank down towards the belly.And peel the skin around the ham and shoulder cutting around the first joint.A hooked blade knife is very helpfull for this.

This effectively has exposed half of the animals meat.I remove the backstrap starting at the pelvis working forward,laying the piece on the exposed side of the rib cage as I go.I take the ham off next by starting in the crotch,cutting next to the pelvis ,towards the backbone and into the hip joint.You are pulling up on the leg,using the weight of the carcass to break the leg free.Front shoulder same thing,starting in the arm pit pulling up on the leg,take the shouder off(same as you would do if hanging)

Then I take any neck meat,etc;(I already have a plastic kitchen garbage bag out with the loin in it for any trimmings).

You make a cut at the last rib along the narrow of the back,just like you are starting to gut,finger under blade etc. and you can reach in here to remove the tenderloins.I do them by hand,slipping my fingers between the meat and backbone,loosen the whole thing end to end,then pull one end free.

This side done, roll the animal over by way of its back,pull the skin down and repeat.

Some outfitters(mostly caribou) I've hunted with don't skin the hams or shoulder,but take them right off,hide and all.I think this puts alot of fur on the meat,and creates more work.

What you have left is a tube of ribs,with guts inside,hide left attached to the ribs on the flank and belly.It's very quick,I use 3 bags to hold a whole deer,ham and shoulder-2,one for backstraps,t-loins,and neck.

I have a video shot on a caribou trip,I will try to post.I just recently converted it to a dvd;and have not tried to do anything with it yet on my computer.

Dinsdale

A friend of mine killed a nice buck sniffing the gut pile of another nick killed the morning before on the same ridge

I too think a gut pile has little to no effect on the genaral population of deer, elk etc. but some of us are not hunting the general population of deer and elk. Some are hunting a special wise and weary mature buck or bull. These particular animals IMO are much more in tune and suspicious of death and that is why they tend to be the biggest,smartest and most sought after.

As far as the hunters; If you hunt with a bunch of ego-maniacs (spell?), like I do, who want their name in the Boone and Crockett book so bad they can't stand it, then you will run in to that type of behavior.

The guy from Joysey was still a jerk and should have had the cahonnes to talk to his fellow hunter face to face.

you mean that none of you clean the intestines for use to stuff the sausages? what kind of hunters are you?

I have personaly seen Deer spook when close to a gut pile the day after. Lost a shot at a nice 4x4 mulie at 40 yards last year when a Doe in front of him spooked when she winded the gut pile.

I hunt close to home and got into a habit to take the deer home whole and gut it at home.
Gut pile goes to a bucket and later to our woods for other critters to enjoy.
I save heart, liver for myself - nobody else eats it in our home, they are all Americans, LOL!! - used to take kidneys but the smell while cooking is too much.
After that the deer hangs for few days under the barn and I take some fresh meet for the fridge and it makes for nice breakfast for several days. My favorite meat for this is the muscle on the inside rib cage along the spine fried with onion.

quote:

Originally posted by Wallhead:

Jeff Sullivan, please elaborate on your technique. You've piqued my interest here.

My deer processing procedure is actually quite simple. I hang a deer from a gambrel by the hind legs and skin the carcass down to the neck. I then cut out the backstraps and salvage what ever I can from the front shoulders. Lastly, I debone the hind quarters and remove the tenderloins. Done!

The guys who lease one of my farms, used to bring them back to the house on the place to gut them. I had to get them to stop because when I would stop by the house to see how things were going, my dog would roll in them and whew would she reek!

quote:

Originally posted by Czech_Made:
I hunt close to home and got into a habit to take the deer home whole and gut it at home.
Gut pile goes to a bucket and later to our woods for other critters to enjoy.
I save heart, liver for myself - nobody else eats it in our home, they are all Americans, LOL!! - used to take kidneys but the smell while cooking is too much.
After that the deer hangs for few days under the barn and I take some fresh meet for the fridge and it makes for nice breakfast for several days. My favorite meat for this is the muscle on the inside rib cage along the spine fried with onion.

Everywhere I have hunted, here in Texas, has a game poll at camp that is usually covered. I almost always bring the deer back to camp and gut it there and if time allows I will also quarter it up, etc. The only time I will gut in the field is if I know the poll will be crowded. If it is a doe or cull buck, I will usually skin first (hanging from hind legs) then gut and quarter. A lot less hair on the meat. The gut pile goes back out for coyote bait, but in south Texas the pile is always gone before morning. I used to love to eat the heart/liver, but my wife complained too much about cooking it. I'm not much of a cook. Now the camp curr dogs get the heart, etc.
When I hunt out of state, it usually gets gutted where it fell, unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

I may have to give JeffSullivans method a try.

A friend of mine insists you have to
1. Cut the glands out where the deer hits the ground.
2. Field dress the deer at least a half mile from where you hunt.

Funny thing is I have dressed a deer 20 feet from his stand, and the next day he shot a nice doe right near where the pile was.

Never had the heart to tell him about that.

I've never field dressed a deer. Every deer I shoot gets cleaned at a designated cleaning area where we usually have winches (or at least a rope and a good strong oak limb). As a matter of fact, I've just recently discovered how you can clean a deer, and get all the meat, without ever opening the body cavity. I really like this as it cuts down on the mess you have to clean up and makes disposal much easier.

I have, however, field dressed hogs that I shot in the summer. If you don't get the guts out and get the inside cooled off.....a hog will spoil in the summer heat pretty fast.

Last year I saw a doe spook at a gut pile. She came running when I rattled, looking for two bucks I suppose. She started down the creek bank, the same creek the previous day's deer died in. She got to the gut pile, then ran back the way she came, with her tail up. I didn't get to ask her, but... she either didn't like the guts or my scent in the area.

I still leave gut piles sometimes, other times I quarter the deer in place and leave the hide and bones, too. This year, I hauled out a deer on my daughter's pony, guts and all. The pony and I both got as bloody as if we had gutted it.

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Originally posted by Norton:

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Originally posted by The Slug:
Gut them where they drop. I've never seen other deer affected by this and, as others have said, the pile is gone very quickly. BTW, the NJ guys seems like a little bitch if he rants about it to everyone except the guy he should talk to. Tell him to be a man and then have a beer together afterwards.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Say it to his face or not at all.

+2
Either take it to the supposed offender or shut the hell up...

Gut piles last less than hours around here. Been past where the pile was 3-4 hours after gutting and couldn't even find the exact spot.

I've usually gutted them where they fell unless conditions dictate otherwise.

Here in the east it's not only legal to pickup any fresh road-kill you happen upon but actually encouraged.

I don't like gutting a deer on a roadside.

I do like free fresh meat (if anyone thinks less of me for it I have some words for you that you probably won't like)

I'll usually toss them in the back of my truck and head for home.

I keep an 8 foot kiddie pool in my garage to contain the mess.

I dump the gut pile in my back yard about 100yds from the house and I can usually find no trace whatsoever if I go back more than 48hours later

I've had a complete hide simply disappear without a trace

I can HEAR our coyotes from time to time, but I've never eyeballed one. I KNOW we have a bear one ATE a dog the other side of our hill, but again I've never seen it, I've seen tracks, but.... and allegedly we have bobcat but I've no evidence of this...

Hunting in NJ along the Delaware river between Dingmans and the Milford Bridge it was EASY to find the local bears...
Follow the crows to the nearest gut pile then simply wait the the bear they'd be along in <45min...

Gutting my own deer I tended to work FAST and get the deer to my vehicle to avoid an unpleasant discussion over ownership of the carcass.... with the bear...

In NJ I've never had to wait more than 45min watching a gut pile before seeing a bear arrive to eat it.


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It has nothing to do with where you gut them or where your from. Your buddy just doesn't have all his huntin marbles in his sack.
Scott