Just curious. Why do people in the south not gut the deer in the woods? Seems like all of the videos I watch anything south of the Mason Dixon line gets taken out of the woods with innards on the inside instead of the innards on the outside, as in gutted.
Im a northerner but lived in VA for two years and I shot a deer one day and just took the deer home intact and cut it up. I found it wasnt necessary to gut it when I did it right when i got home. I learned that down south most guys cut up their own deer where as up here in MA most guys bring it to a butcher. Another reason to gut even if you cut your own is to reduce weight for a long drag. Down in VA at the lease I drove the truck right up to it so not much of a drag. I think if you cut up right away theirs no need to gut, others may disagree but mine turned out fine. Now blown apart guts that may be a different story. My 2 cents.
You are wrong. I'm in WV and as dumb as most try to make us out to be, we are smart enough to get the guts out immediately. A lot of us even pack deer out. It's rugged and deep in most places I hunt.
You want to know why elk, mule deer, moose, etc.... have the reputation for being better eating? Because they are cooled quicker by necessity, to pack them out. Heat and meat don't mix. If people did the same on whitetail, they'd see the difference. No way I care to eat a deer that has had hot guts in it for 3 to 4 hours versus butchering or gutting quickly.
I'd say people in the south drive to most the deer they kill. Which is why they don't do it. God Bless
Where I hunt in Texas a deer typically has to be quartered and put on ice pretty much right away. Normally it is not cool enough to hang the deer. No need to gut the deer in the field first, when I am going to quarter it at camp anyway.
I'm old school. I gut. Usually all I ever do is remove the deer from the area I'm hunting so as not to attract coyotes any more than they normally would be. As soon as I can get it to a " neutral zone " the guts come out.
Mere in PA most guys I believe gut them where they fall. I for one do then same unless I have help and can get it to one of my field edges or somewhere I won't disturb future hunts. I've found guy piles have absolutely no bearing on future hunts but predators will and we seem to have more now than ever.
As others have sad the quicker the meat is cooled and guys removed the better.
The only deer I didn't gut was the last wyoming mulie I shot in the 90's. We laid him on one side, skinned back, boned the entire side out, packed in cheesecloth and tossed in the snow. Roll over...repeat. when done he was reduced to a bag of guts 'n bones. We packed out meat and rack.
Otherwise, in wisconsin we gut and drag.
Oh yeah....that mulie was the tastiest venison ever,
I do it to tenderise the meat. It is a known fact that cooling meat down before rigermortice sets in will lead to tough meat. Becauseof our wet cold they will cool down too fast with the gguts out and be tough.
Actually, here in Virginia, not gutting deer was passed down by Houndsmen ( Deer Doggers ), as they chase deer with hounds during the general firearms seasons.
Not gutting the deer, keeps the hounds out of the gut pile.
That was the only reason I have ever heard, or seen, for not gutting deer on the spot where they fall.
Very common in the Old Dominion, east of the Blue Ridge, where they hunt Deer with dogs.
Most southern deer camps have to shoot alot of does.In early season pulling up to the skinnning pole and placing a golf ball under the skin and wenching it off is just too easy and alot cleaner without yellow jackets coming to the party.
Yeah you miss the innerloin but the work is a snap and makes shooting the next one not as difficult.
My last 4 midwest bucks I never gutted as well......
TBM: No offense intended, but that's pure male bovine feces. If you have tough deer it's because you didn't cool it out quick enough and you DIDN'T AGE THE MEAT before you froze it.
What you do with the deer withing the first 5 or 10 minutes of when you recover it has more effect on the meat quality than just about anything else.
We gut ours at a cleaning station. We have to get weights both dressed and undressed as well as fetus measurements. You gotta be pretty quick down here in sept. though. Doesn't take long for meat to spoil.
Another related question is why do hunters DRAG a deer? I did that only once. Even for a relatively short distance, it's a LOT easier to cut them in half after gutting and skinning, and carry them out on a pack frame. It's also cleaner than dragging a gutted deer, cools the meat down faster, and protects the cape if you want it mounted.
does.....yearlings.......hunting season or crop damage permits.........skin one side........bone it out.......roll over and do the other side......guts stay in the body thats left. md has a call/or on line check in........ so you just get your number and go. and really if i didn't have good hunting buddy's a phone call away.....then i would cape a book buck.....and bone it out. totally done with gutting and dragging deer.........takes me about 15 minutes to completely bone a deer including the neck and be on my way out of the woods. i pack a couple of clear plastic leaf bags.....[ no insecticide ]......and a good canvas sack. all the meat goes inside as separated muscle groups...........back straps just two big strips of meat..........neck is fileted........don't forget to reach inside for the tenderloins.!!!!!!!
I live in Southwest Virginia and have always gutted my deer where they fall.That is how I was taught from my Dad and usually where we hunted you had to gut them to get em out.We even had to carry a couple out on a tree pole.When my Dad passed away I started hunting with my father in law who is from North Carolina and he usually never gutted deer,just hung,skinned,and quartered as soon as he got it home. (Which you usually have to do during early archery in NC.)I remember the first deer I shot in NC with him.As soon as I found it I tagged it then gutted and started dragging,he met half way to the truck to help and when he seen the deer had been gutted he looked at me like I was crazy and said"you gutted it?".I looked back like he was crazier and said "yeah I ain't dragging guts to the truck".I thought it was weird that he didn't make it a habit to immediately gut his deer.Although I believe I've made a difference in that he seems to do it more often now.
Zeik, I believe alot of states require the whole deer to stay intact. I dont think i believe in the ageing deer meat thing, ive cut all mine up right away and they tasted fine.
I have also debunked the gutpile keeping deer away theory. I gutted a deer and kept the guts where they were and put a camera on it for coyote pics as deer season was almost over. I checked the cam and found no coyote pics but found deer including bucks with their nose right on it.
A majority of the guys in my area gut their deer, then it looks like they drag them through every leaf and dirt pile they can find. Wonder why I cant get them spotless for packaging.
I have hunted Military Bases from coast to coast, and never have seen a restriction on field dressing game.
What base do you hunt on that has that restriction ?
I also have never seen Bases try to fine anyone, and I am not sure they have the authority to do so. If you mess up, they pull your privalages. If you mess up really bad, and you are a civilain, you get a misdemeanor or felony ticket that requires you to appear in front of the Federal Magistrate that has authority over that paticular base. If you are active duty, a violation report is forwarded to your command.
Those can be removed in about 30 seconds, max, per side without removing the guts.Inter the cavity right behind the last rib, right below the spine. If the guts are inflated, use a second old knife and puncture the bottom of the belly to let the gases out. Doesn't smell like roses, but makes the job easier.
We've been doing the field strip on game for about 15 years. It doesn't take any longer than field dressing a deer.
As stated by WDM above, if you don't have too far to drag, gut your deer when the draggings done and keep all of the dirt and other stuff out of your deer. Its a lot easier to do the job right when the deer is hanging.
Great idea Pat. When I lived in South Carolina I belonged to a hunting club and the state regulated it pretty good so you had to weigh everything. We had a nice skinning shed and a walk in cooler we made so it was pretty quick and nothing spoiled. Also, you gotta figure that most of the deer shot down south are considerably smaller and you can drive right up to them. It's not like shooting a mulie 3 miles from the truck.
Actually fellas, TBM isn't all wrong. Cutting muscle's before rigor set's in allows them to shorten up when it does set in. Causing them to contract and be tougher. Rigamortis is a process that is reversed after a while in all things that die. Basically the muscles starting to break down reverses it. It is more technical than that but, that is the simplified version of it. All game that is quartered or cut up before it has set in will be tougher to chew. Science says that and TBM had it right. In his attempt to grab your goat he simply embellished a bit. It worked too.
If you ever get the chance to de-bone an animal you'll notice that versus carrying/dragging them out bone in.
Cooling the animal quickly has zero effect on the meat as far as tenderness is concerned. It definitely affects the taste but, not the chewing. While butchering one by cutting cross grain of the muscle groups, before rigor sets in and releases, definitely affects chew-ability. Just sayin'.... God Bless
TBM said COOLING DOWN the meat before rigamortis sets in makes it tough and that's incorrect. FREEZING the meat before rigamortis sets in will make it tough.
What's the FIRST thing they do with cattle after after they stun and bleed them? Yup...guts out. Gee...I wonder why?
I've gutted deer at 30 below zero, had them freeze solid, thawed, skinned and not be the least bit tough.
Sorry TBM, but your facts might be a little bit more opinion than fact.
In WY this fall I had a very old cow elk quartered, bagged, and hanging in the brush by 10pm. About 2 hours after dark. The loins and backstraps were in a separate bag. She is actually too tender if there is such a thing. I cut the steak with a fork.
Leave the guts in the woods, takes 5-10 to field dress. Why haul the guts home and then have to carry them back to the woods to dump? I would understand if you had a purpose for the guts, like Pat mentioned.
Tonyo6302, I hunt on Ft Rucker. We experienced a major drop in deer numbers a few years ago. Auburn University did a study , and determined coyotes were the cause. You can read the study on their website, sorry I don't have a link for that. So mass panic spread, doe haverst was eliminated, gun hunting is limited and only two bucks 3 on one side can be killed. Federal trappers were hired, first year 167 coyotes and 300 plus hogs were trapped. I was at the check station when two hunters brought in a field dressed buck, the wildlife biologist told them if the game warden was there, they would get a $250.00 fine and one year suspension.
When my Brother In Law was stationed at Fort Benning, the Base Game Warden would sometimes turn over violaters to the State Game Warden. That is where the ticket and fine would come in.
I had heard earlier in 2014 about the harvest restrictions at Fort Rucker, but had not heard you could not field dress game there.
It is very common in much of the South to be hunting on a timber company land lease and to have a skinning rack set up at a central location for skinning, gutting, etc., and a gut pit for the guts and whatever else you don't want. I have hunted state lands in the South that have a central check point with a skinning rack for all to use. That being said, I have gutted or even boned out an animal that was too long a distance from a road, and left the guts, etc. in the woods. After 45 years of deer hunting in Florida and Georgia I have never known of anyone to take a deer home to gut it, contrary to the videos the poster refers to(which aren't necessarily a good indication of how anything is done anywhere) ....BUT I have seen deer taken home to gut in Pennsylvania on more than one occasion...and Penn is a bit north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Razorback1 ...can you really field dress a deer in less than 10 minutes, or are you kind of exagerating that just a little bit?
The rules here are trickey, its not written in the rule book. It is written on the vehicle dashboard permit card , that you have to display when hunting. They starting to ease up, now that they see coyotes aren't dragging deer and young soldiers back to their den. ;)
Don't know where you got your information but I have news for you. The process known as rigor mortis starts shortly after death so by the time a animal is killed, taken out of the field, butchered, and then frozen rigor mortis has already set in. Also the cooling process helps accelerate the process known as rigor mortis. No meat is stiff when butchered even if it is allowed to hang. If it were stiff then it would be TUFF to chew. Such as jerky. DANNY
I've always gutted mine in the field for two reasons. A.) starts the cooling process; and b.) gets rid of excess weight for the drag out. Like several others, I don't believe the "gutpiles spook deer theory". I've seen many deer walk within a few feet of a gutpile and never show the least bit of alarm. Buzzards will clean up a gutpile quicker than about anything.
In texas, it is not cold enough to leave hanging outside for more than a day or two. That is only if a cold front has blown in and the highs don't get too high in the middle of the day, which is rare. Unless you have a walk in cooler we really don't gut. The deer will be on ice within hrs so we use the gutless method. In the forest I will quarter on the ground without gutting at the kill site and pack it out like I do in western states.
The only reason to gut is if you are going to hang a deer for more than day or you can't quarter it within say four hours or so from kill time.
I believe the reason MOST guys in the south (me being one of them) don't gut in the field is we can shoot 6+ deer a year.
1. Why gut near a stand you can hunt again that day, etc.
2. Most deer fall less than a mile from your clubhouse, etc. It does not make one bit of difference if you wait to gut back in a more controlled setting. I will argue it's actually better because you can hang, wash and control much better.
I totally disagree that gut piles don't spook deer. Sure younger deer don't spook but a mature deer it will definitely impact. A mature buck will stop showing up once he feels a slight increase in traffic.
WV Mountaineer hit the nail on the head, then woods walker refined it. TBM, well, he was in the ball park, even the correct game, but, as usual, he was off in left field picking daisies.
One thing I have learned in life, but especially so from bowsite is, everyone has an opinion. Some right, and some wrong, but it's theirs, and they will likely hold tight to it, especially if it has no major impact on their life.
As for myself, I hunt as much as I can, and in as many places as possible, but when I gut depends greatly on where I am, how far it is to a place to hang for skinning and quartering etc. Where we hunt on our place in NC, we usually grab a deer and it is on the skinning rope in less than 30 minutes. If it is cold and can be hung for a few hours, or even a couple of days, we gut right away, then hang. For bigger animals, I have gone strictly to the gutless method, where I began skinning and quartering right away.
Also, someone above mentioned they could skin and quarter on the ground in about 15 minutes. I would like to see that. Not saying it isn't true, there is actually a video on youtube of a processing facility, skinning and quartering a whole deer - ungutted from what I remember - in less than 5 minutes. It has been a while since I saw the video, but it may have been more like 3 or 4 minutes. It was amazing.
Regardless, my opinion is, if an animal isn't allowed to lay in temperatures above approximately 50 degrees for more than a couple hours, it really shouldn't matter.
I live in TN. If the area is inaccessible, I gut deer where they fall so they are easier drag or pack out.
If its easy for me to get a tractor into the area, I often use my tractor to dress them where they fall (pic below).
I think some people don't field dress because they prefer to string up a deer. I have to admit, I think its easier to clean one when they are hanging, hence the reason I use my tractor.
I've been deer hunting since 1967, and have never dragged out a deer without gutting it. If it fell on a neighbors land, I'll usually drag it back on mine, but I've always gutted them as soon as possible.
I won't drag a deer more than 100 yds by myself. I'd rather go ahead and quarter it on the ground and pack it. So much easier. I laugh at the memories of all the times that we gutted every deer, which was how I was raised. Senseless and unnecessary.
Why would anyone want to, or think you have to, take the whole carcass out of the woods? Only reason I would is if leaving the carcass there would hinder future hunts or is visibly offensive for some reason.
I haul all my deer out with an ATV & trailer, haul them down a couple hundred yds down the hill from my house, gut them then hang them in the shed for several days weather permitting.
After boning them out, I haul the carcass down to where the gut pile was & put it there. Then I shoot the occasional coyote off the carcass. I guess the guts are kind of like chumming! We also get to watch eagles/hawks/crows feed on the carcass as well.
I would also disagree about the gut pile spooking deer too. Like spike78, I've put cameras on the gut pile/carcass & have gotten lots of pics of deer of all sizes checking them out.
Muskrat. I can easily gut a deer in 5-7 minutes and never get blood past my wrists. It amazes me as I watch some people spend a half hour absolutely destroying the insides of a deer. As I told my son. when you gut a deer you are a surgeon, not a butcher.
So... Who's having deer steak dinner at TBM's house tonight? I hear he's having a cookout with some extra tender meat he's been saving for a special occasion.
stagetek, the first thing I do is make a small cut at the bottom of the sternum, insert a knuckle saw (rib saw) and cut the rib cage to the neck. Its important that your saw has a blunt end so you arent stabbing the innards over and over.
Then I start my belly cut from the groin and head down toward the sternum. Once you get to the sternum, everything falls out.
I'm sure everyone has a way they prefer and several people probably have better ways, but this way is my favorite. It's fairly clean and takes me the least amount of time.
One more positive is that once I am done its easy to drive the tractor over to hose out the carcass. The tractor also makes it easy to load the deer into a truck.
Tractor is a good way to get it all done without needless steps and minimal physical labor.
I'm certain this does not apply down south. But the Alaska fish and game manual cautions against letting an animal freeze too quickly...
"If participating in a winter hunt, a phenomenon called cold shortening may affect the quality of your meat. If the meat is allowed to freeze too quickly, before the rigor-relaxation process can occur, the muscle will shrink due to loss of water, vitamins, minerals, and water soluble proteins.
Cold shortening results in tough meat. Depending on the temperature, you may want to leave the skin on the meat or pack it with snow to prevent it from chilling too quickly until you are ready to process it."
Butt hole out, clean and ready to drag, it takes about 1.5 minutes to gut a deer. I too will never know the reasons it takes guys 12-15 minutes to accomplish this. Point the rear end down hill, cut everything loose around the butt hole, cut to the pelvis after removing the nut sack and bladder, get the colon and pull it back through the pelvis, open to the back of the sternum, grab the guts and roll them out, cut through the sternum length wise to the brisket, grab the wind pipe, cut it and start pulling the lungs, heart, and liver up to expose the diaphragm, cut diaphragm loose, throw the handful of organs on the gut pile, roll the deer over to dump the blood. You are done. It literally took longer to type it than to do it.
All these gadgets and saws just waste precious time. A proper knife, sharp, and the realization that you are a long way from the truck really economizes time wasted. I guess whatever floats your boat. God Bless
We debone and pack out meat nearly all the time, no need for gutting anything.
We do hunt a couple of small places a Realtor gives us access to... we are kind of security watch for the place and give him some meat from time to time. He asks that if we kill something to please take it out whole.... if he is showing the property it can make for embarrassing moments to come upon a stinky mess of a carcass or gut pile while showing it. That is the only time we will take an animal out whole.
In fact we have informed him of dead deer and carcasses etc. that were natural causes and in some cases poachers left. We bury it for him and tell him about it. That way we get some atta boys and are an asset to the property owners and all involved. Have called in water leaks... all manner of things. They appreciate us keeping an eye out and being low key, low impact.
New Home...new normal, I grew up in New England and was trained to gut animals on the spot. In a much colder environment the point was driven home by all deer hunters I met.
In South Louisiana I took my 1st bow killed doe and was confused by my partners unwillingness to dress the deer. It must have been over 80 deg. on that October day! Years later I made a muzzy kill (alone) on a basket-racked 7-pointer. I gutted him on the spot and got all kinds of crap from my mates. You would swear I shot the Pope! To confuse things farther, the souther deer were in almost all cases much better to eat? I attribute this to the "green feed" of the southern deer as opposed to the Browse the Massachusetts (December) buck was eating. The best was that muzzy buck that got cooled down quickly and "hung" in a good friends walk-in cooler for 6 days. Off-the-hook good let me tell you! By the way...after 36 years I must say their is no comparison as to who can cook deer the best. My Cajun and redneck friends hands down know how to burn!
I have done it every way I can think. Gut them on the spot and drag to the truck, then home to process. / Gut them on the spot and pack with ice let them hand until I get ready to process. / De-bone on the spot and pack out the meat. / Take deer out whole and get meat out with the gutless method. / I have let them hang with hide on. / I have cut up the meat and kept the meat on ice three to four days. / Yes, I have even took them to the processor. I don't ever remember eating one that I or my Wife cooked that wasn't tender, tasty and left you wanting more.
For you guys that have to have the guts out as soon as possible. I have had to leave a few deer in the woods over night, that I couldn't find until day light.This is in TN where the temp might not get down past 40 or so those were just as good as any I have ever are.
I am one of those southern hunters that never guts a deer and am now transplanted to the midwest and still don't. I started out gutting them when I was a kid because my dad taught me thats how its done. Once I started hunting in south GA in the swamps I quit gutting them as I floated the deer out of the swamp and didn't want to get swamp water, dirt etc. in the body cavity and it helps them float. Now I just get them home, skin them out, quarter them, pull the tenderloins out the sides, like Bowriter mentioned and I am finished. All with never gutting them. We also aren't talking hours to get them home, either.
If I have access to a walk in cooler I will gut them but again not until I get to the skinning shed. I hang them head down and can have them gutted in a couple of minutes. Trick is to ring the rear with a filet knife, make a small cut at the sternum, crack the ribs with limb loppers, unzip the belly and tug - all straight into a gut bucket.
It's pretty obvious there is some blatent waste of game going on amunxt the anti gutters. Rib meat is the best part of the he deer along with the hocks and necks.
Man if I was a game warten I'd bust some tail over this. Bad thing about it it's legal to waste game in western states. In Montana all they require is quarters above the hocks to be removed and not much more. The neck and ribs can be left legally and the inside loin too.
It's pretty obvious there is some blatent waste of game going on amunxt the anti gutters. Rib meat is the best part of the he deer along with the hocks and necks.
Man if I was a game warten I'd bust some tail over this. Bad thing about it it's legal to waste game in western states. In Montana all they require is quarters above the hocks to be removed and not much more. The neck and ribs can be left legally and the inside loin too.
For those who don't know. You can get every single piece of meat out of a deer with out ever gutting it. The inside loins, neck and yes even the rib meat.
TBM, you really need to do some research before you spout off. Everything you mention including the tenderloins inside the animal is removed. The only thing left is the spine, stomach lining that hold the guts in, heart and lungs. By the time I’m done removing the rib meat I can see the lungs.
Gutless method for me is the only way to go learned mostly from having to pack out. I don't waste time gutting, I get the meat removed and cooled down quickly. I also hunt back northeast where they generally drag the whole deer out to keep the coyotes out of the hunt area. However I have been by myself with a heavy deer that went down in a thick swamp with dead falls to navigate hidden under swamp reeds and did a no gut method. Then I took the spine, ribs and guts and loaded it on a tarp and dragged that out of the field by myself. It was less than half the effort to remove the whole deer this way. I never will go back to gutting anything again.
So far WVMountaineer has the record at 1.5 minutes...and is the official speed-gutter. Certainly there's someone out there who can gut a deer in less time than that.
TBM you need to check your deer anatomy...the hocks, necks and rib meat can all be reached and removed quite readily without gutting the deer. Even the tenderloins can be removed without gutting the deer, you just need to move the stomach out of the way a little bit...and when the deer is hanging by its hocks that is relatively easy to do. When an arrow or bullet has exited through the stomach or gut there are some real advantages to not gutting.
In TN pretty much everyone I know guts in the field.
And just to show you how different military bases can be, I hunt on Fort Campbell sometimes and you get in trouble if you bring a deer to the check station that ISN'T gutted.
The Gutless Method w/ Randy Newberg - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7AHA2TyqHo Aug 12, 2013 - Randy Newberg of "On Your Own Adventures" and "Fresh Tracks" shows viewers what he feels is the most important skill needed to become a ...
If they're close, I'll take them out whole because I like to put the guts in a bucket in the horse stable for a few weeks till it's just brown water and maggots.
Brown water goes in the planters and the maggots go to the chickens. Use the whole animal and don't feed the coyotes.
One set of deer guts will net you about 2 inches of maggots at the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket.
I live in Georgia and agree there are lots of people who do not gut deer until they get to the processor.
Albeit, many a camp or club have their own coolers so there may be some practicality to it but I gut them as soon as I kill them.
The use of four wheelers supports not gutting them so if there was much of a drag I am certain gutting would be the first order of business before a long drag.
Most adults can handle a 150 pound buck but once you get up around the 200 or even larger you need to gut it just to be able to move it.
I am from WV and cannot ever remember seeing deer not gutted coming out of the woods.
I'm from NW Pa and pretty much everybody I know always guts immediately. Its just what you do. My one brother-in-law will sometimes quarter and pack out but he's the only one I know that does that. Might have to look into it.
I'm from NW Pa and pretty much everybody I know always guts immediately. Its just what you do. My one brother-in-law will sometimes quarter and pack out but he's the only one I know that does that. Might have to look into it.
Here is the proper technique for the rib roll as demonstrated by Don "Hollywood" Martin. The sheep was gutted in this case, but not necessary as seen in my pic of the bull above. Pic above courtesy of LC.
I have always thought if I gutted a deer in my hunting spot it would bring in the scavengers and might make the remaining deer more skittish. Regardless of the temp I try to get my deer gutted skinned out withing 2 hours average.
