Contributors to this thread:
I got a few rabbits the other day but with the cold they froze solid by the time I got them.
I brought them inside when I got home from.work yesterday and hung them up in the "root celar" part of the basement.
24 hours later and they were still pretty stiff.
After some thinking I figured this might be a good time to try the "gutless" method that I heard people use for Elk.
Guts still frozen so it wouldn't be any mess sounds like a win.
Skinned ok and the leg quarters came off fine and... surprisingly the backstraps came out great! All the silver skin came right off.
Since it's a rabbit very little meat is wasted compared to gutting and keeping the backbone and ribs.
Anyone else do this?
I'll be making hasenpfeffer for people at work tomorrow.
Cook, bring me my hassenpfeffer!
Clean them in the field as far as gutting - Hawk gets the head and lung, liver and heart. We get the rest! Good deal!
Oh man that is awesome BT.
Have any video you can share?
So many people talk about doing stuff in the field but it seems like it would be a pain in the butt.
Does your bird damage the meat much or do they consistently hit the same area?
No videos yet, other falconers do it and some still shot. No real damage at all. some punctures were the bird grabbed the rabbit and then transferred his talons to the head.
As soon as bowhunting ends, I'm going into overdrive with the birds, I have 2 red tails waiting for an excuse to kill some bunnies.
You can do anything gutless if you want,,,,, I field dress my small game, right after I kill it,,,, like rabbits that's for sure,,,,,,,, if the squirrels by my house ever come back out, they are going to get a beat down,,,,,,,,, going to a strictly wild game diet, there will be less around at the end of this winter
I only field dressed a squirrel once....and I'll never do that again. I ruined the whole thing.
Small game I quickly skin first then pull the guts out.
I skin them after the shot. Takes 1 minute usually no blood. Guts come out at the truck.
Awesome Bloodtrail. Tweed, I shoot, skin and butcher on the spot.
Same here Trapper. A warm rabbit can be broken down in about a minute if you know how. Same for squirrel. Leaving them to cool just makes more work for the hunter.
I learned a new way on how to gut rabbits in Colorado during a hunting trip. Squeeze the guts down towards the rear and give the rabbit a quick sling stopping suddenly and out they fly. My first time didn't go so well though, but after the initial time it was a piece of cake.
These were froze solid from being trapped over night.
I do rabits right away. Fresher the easier. Do many of you guys use the gutless method on deer? I've done this a few times on mfl property with owners permission to leave the carcas. My favorite part of no more in person registration. Wish it was aloud on public land, way easier to pack meat out than drag. Not to mention it's real easy while deer is still warm. And it would cut down on number of guys dumping carcas in roadside ditches
BT - Does your hawk need a hunting license -- Just kidding. Very impressive bird.
Talking about rabbit hunting.... We have a fisher that walks our shoreline once in a while. Today he had what I think was a rabbit in his mouth. He was cute as he would 'hop' a few steps in the foot or so of snow then stop a few seconds and hop again until he was out of sight. Maybe 10 minutes later I went downstairs to ground level and as I walked past a window here was another fisher (or maybe same one) that was picking up bird food suet that fell from the feeder up high in the tree. He trotted off pretty quick when he saw me. Cool to watch them.
Jeff - We have very fishers down by me now. I had a couple on bear baits this summer, but now it's impossible to find a track. I did see some some fisher tracks up your way when we were running cats. I've even got a couple of cottontails around the house this winter (first time in years) which tells me the fishers aren't around here. 2014 we were over run with them. We ended up trapping 14 of them in my area. All but two in live traps.
