Grossness
- Thread starter tdod101
- Start date
Cranky Pants
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
It's not too bad. I certainly don't enjoy it but the fun is over once the trigger is pulled!
I keep some mechanics latex gloves in my bag and I prefer a decent sized knife (Grohman russel belt knife). Gut hook on a knife is handy but not essential. Avoid a knife with serrations and bring a small sharpener with you as that damn deer hair seems to dull a knife as fast as a rock!
Roll the deer to get the blood and guts out, watch for the pee sac, it's real thin and easy to puncture.
I can't do the skull cap thing, something about cutting into brains, must have watched too many zombie movies or maybe Hannibal Lector.
Deer are a breeze compared to coyotes- they reek! I gut shot one and it was trailing behind and hooking up on roots so I had to clean it out-gag!
I keep some mechanics latex gloves in my bag and I prefer a decent sized knife (Grohman russel belt knife). Gut hook on a knife is handy but not essential. Avoid a knife with serrations and bring a small sharpener with you as that damn deer hair seems to dull a knife as fast as a rock!
Roll the deer to get the blood and guts out, watch for the pee sac, it's real thin and easy to puncture.
I can't do the skull cap thing, something about cutting into brains, must have watched too many zombie movies or maybe Hannibal Lector.
Deer are a breeze compared to coyotes- they reek! I gut shot one and it was trailing behind and hooking up on roots so I had to clean it out-gag!
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Hmm. Many folks I know and worked with are/were Sask. small farmers - butchering chickens, turkeys, hogs and steers was a regular annual occurrence at the farm. Often, neighbours joined together to make a day out of it. That is where the meat came from, not Sobey's. Digging out spuds, carrots, turnips from the garden. Picking peas. Canning fruit from the "B.C. fruit truck". Stowing all above in cellar of house or in the root cellar. I am thinking we would have been called "preppers" today - the social breakdown (happened every year) headed our way was "winter" - snow blocked roads! Then too, there was the dark side - the women getting together to make lye soap from ashes, lye and tallow from the butchering, the men checking out the latest potato champagne drippings from the "brew'. Since so many on this thread obviously find dressing game as a new or objectionable experience, I guess a lot of other things have also fallen by the wayside in our "progress"...
My family still does every bit of this yet right down to the lye soap
blasted_saber
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- A blue part of Ontario
Its just not a big deal. Fresh killed animals are easy to deal with.
cdn1canhunt
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- southwestern ontario
If you gut shoot one it will be gross. If not ain't no big thing.... Great way to warm your hands up after a cold sit on stand! In your pack keep a small knife sharpener, some surgical gloves are nice , a piece of rope , a bottle of water for wash up is handy and a small towel. You can use the rope to tie legs Back if you have to go it alone.
Its a lot about mindset, if you think you will puke then your prophecy will come true. Try to remember your showing respect for the animal by using it and taking care in the field prepping the carcass . I grew up on a farm and have have cleaned hundreds if not thousands of chickens an other fowl and hundreds of cows, pigs and wild game, I was taught the process of dressing the animal was as important the care of a domestic animal or the clean kill of wild one.
He should also carry a trojan brand condom too...Just put a maxi pad in your panties, you should be fine
For a Just in Case moment..should the urge arise that is
FLHTCUI
I used to help out at my uncle's butcher shop in the fall, folks could bring in a deer whole or skin on and he'd charge a bit more to skin or gut and skin.
An older fella, first time hunter had bagged a little spike, but hit it too far back. With some help, he tracked it and got him, but hadn't gutted it because he wasn't sure how. we skinned and gutted it, dumping the innards in a five gallon bucket, setting it aside for disposal. He asked what we do with that stuff? Told him we sell it to a pepperoni maker for sausage casings.
Immediately sick, good times!!!
Its really not bad at all. After a couple you'll be a pro.
An older fella, first time hunter had bagged a little spike, but hit it too far back. With some help, he tracked it and got him, but hadn't gutted it because he wasn't sure how. we skinned and gutted it, dumping the innards in a five gallon bucket, setting it aside for disposal. He asked what we do with that stuff? Told him we sell it to a pepperoni maker for sausage casings.
Immediately sick, good times!!!
Its really not bad at all. After a couple you'll be a pro.
I have field dressed a few deer in my day. Can't say I enjoyed it, that is for sure. I learned the hard way many years ago to either make a clean shot just behind the front elbow or move on. All kinds of good advice here. I couldn't add anything worthwhile, other than it is nice to have some water to wash up with.
I actually like gutting and skinning deer. I made a gut shot once and oh man I was gagging bad for the first few minutes then I got use to it and finished the gutting process.
It's not bad at all. If you want to hunt you have to deal with the field dress process
It's not bad at all. If you want to hunt you have to deal with the field dress process
Agree 100%
First time this year I used the orange gauntlet style glove for gutting . . . they are not strong in the fingers so a Nitrile glove (over) would be my future choice.
Thought I had a clean pair for a second deer so had to go salvage the pair from the previous day and now gloved over the gauntlet (good choice).
Maximize your opening, drag the paunch out first and then you have enough room to cut around the diaphragm. This is accomplished easier with the animal on his back.
Strip the intestine towards the paunch and with a foot of clean gut cut through it and hang the stripped part on the outside.
Leave the bladder intact and remove it during skinning.
With the diaphragm detached, clamp off the esophagus with your fingers and cut towards the front and pull everything rearwards and out. Liver and heart are salvaged at this time.
Be careful with your blade as you are working by braille.
During skinning, cut the hide between the hind legs to the scrotum. This will expose the sheath and the ##### is cut free behind the scrotum. Pulling on the ##### to the rear, it is detached back to the anus. Cut around the anus until it is no longer attached to the body and the bladder, intestine, ##### and anus lift out intact. This process was developed while hanging head down and spreading the hind legs with a gambrel.
Cutting hair really dulls a knife so cut the hide from the inside out.
Once the hide is off, remove the brisket by cutting through those little white gristle nubs that are the bottom of the ribs. Once the brisket is removed, the wind pipe can be cut free, and the interior wiped dry.
The brisket is a waste of money to have it processed as it might weight 6 to 10 pounds and is basically fat, gristle and bone with little meat to be salvaged by a butcher. Best used as a fresh cut cooked by braising for 40 minutes at 350 degrees and the at 220 degrees for 10 hours. A small brisket with little fat won't take as long and from a spike will feed two; from a large deer it will be a full meal for 4 or 5.
That is a start that anyone can develop to claim as their own. Work slow and avoid cutting yourself. most important is getting the guts out to start the cooling process and the hide off to further cooling your prime meat.
I find gutting a deer isn't as bad as you think.
Unless you gut shot it and the stomach or gut exploded.
Also, I have accidentally cut holes into stomach or colon. It's not the end of the world.
Go slow, be careful and use you knife as little as necessary. Most things in the stomach cavity come out with a little work with your fingers.
Goes for the tenderloins too which are NOT part of the gut pile. I've seen beginners, who are too enthusiastic with a knife among all the fat and connective tissue, completely destroy those without even realizing it.
It would be good to have somebody show you how to deal with the anus. I find that the most difficult thing.
There are three different methods, I know and none are easy.
The buttout tool helps, especially if you are new to this.
I like to have multiple sharp knifes with me a small saw.
I use a long and sharp knife to core around the anus. I use the saw to cut through the sternum.
Initially I open up the skin only from the sternum to wards the anus and from the sternum towards the throat.
Then I peal back the skin on both side of the cut about 5 cm. that way I don't have to deal with hair everywhere.
Following that I position the dear with front hooves between my legs. I open the stomach cavity with a small incision and very carefully right below the sternum.
Keep your face away from that and let the air escape. I once watched an "experienced hunter" enthusiastically cutting into the stomach cavity and getting the escaping air from a gut shot deer in his face. He was dry-heaving for several minutes. It was highly entertaining.
Then carefully cut from the sternum towards the anus. I have my left hand inside pulling with two fingers up while I cut with the right hand. Don't cut yourself
and don't puncture the intestine. A gut hook helps if it's sharp and not blunted already with hair.
After that I cut with a saw through the sternum to the throat.
Now I throw the deer on one side and work as much loose as I can mostly using fingers, avoiding cutting into the gut or damaging liver or tenderloins.
After I have managed everything loose on one side down to the spine I flip the deer and do the other side. Once I'm done with that everything comes out easily.
For the anus I take a longer sharp knife and core around the anus, starting directly under the tail and scraping along the pelvic bone.
That's tricky if you have never seen it. WIth practice it's fast and clean.
On the other side try to cut the windpipe as high as possible.
I tend to wash the body cavity with clean water and snow. Especially if there was a lot of blood.
If you somehow get a few "pellets" in there it is not the end of the world. Deer are reasonably clean animals and mostly eat grass and leaves.
Gutting some other animals is much more smelly and disgusting.
Then I tease the tenderloin out, find the liver and heart (if usable) in the gut pile and pack them.
Learning the gutless method pays for a larger animal. May be even for a big deer.
I'm not sure it's faster.
I've seen guys hang their deer to gut it. That makes some things easier but I'm probably done before they have found a place to hang it.
These days I wear disposable gloves too. You don't really have to and I usually don't get blood much past my wrists.
Hand sanitizer in your pack is a good idea.
If you don't need to legally keep the head and don't want it as a trophy, saw it off and leave it.
IN the past I used to even retrieve the sausage casings from the gut pile.
That isn't nearly as bad as it sounds either. What you squeeze out of the small intestine is like the half fermented grass left in your lawn mower after a few days.
Wash it a few times and put it in a zip lock with snow and salt water and they are good.
My worst experience was finding a deer two days after I shot it. The ravens and assorted critter had been at it.
When I first walked up to it, it looked awful.
After I looked, I noticed that the critters had eaten the soft bits on the head and around the anus.
Most of the good meat was intact and the skin was in most places not broken. It also had been cold.
I processed it and got 60lbs of good sausage out of it. That was not fun though and I gagged a few times.
Gutting and skining a healthy deer shot through the lungs is not that bad.
You get better at it after a few.
Unless you gut shot it and the stomach or gut exploded.
Also, I have accidentally cut holes into stomach or colon. It's not the end of the world.
Go slow, be careful and use you knife as little as necessary. Most things in the stomach cavity come out with a little work with your fingers.
Goes for the tenderloins too which are NOT part of the gut pile. I've seen beginners, who are too enthusiastic with a knife among all the fat and connective tissue, completely destroy those without even realizing it.
It would be good to have somebody show you how to deal with the anus. I find that the most difficult thing.
There are three different methods, I know and none are easy.
The buttout tool helps, especially if you are new to this.
I like to have multiple sharp knifes with me a small saw.
I use a long and sharp knife to core around the anus. I use the saw to cut through the sternum.
Initially I open up the skin only from the sternum to wards the anus and from the sternum towards the throat.
Then I peal back the skin on both side of the cut about 5 cm. that way I don't have to deal with hair everywhere.
Following that I position the dear with front hooves between my legs. I open the stomach cavity with a small incision and very carefully right below the sternum.
Keep your face away from that and let the air escape. I once watched an "experienced hunter" enthusiastically cutting into the stomach cavity and getting the escaping air from a gut shot deer in his face. He was dry-heaving for several minutes. It was highly entertaining.
Then carefully cut from the sternum towards the anus. I have my left hand inside pulling with two fingers up while I cut with the right hand. Don't cut yourself
and don't puncture the intestine. A gut hook helps if it's sharp and not blunted already with hair.
After that I cut with a saw through the sternum to the throat.
Now I throw the deer on one side and work as much loose as I can mostly using fingers, avoiding cutting into the gut or damaging liver or tenderloins.
After I have managed everything loose on one side down to the spine I flip the deer and do the other side. Once I'm done with that everything comes out easily.
For the anus I take a longer sharp knife and core around the anus, starting directly under the tail and scraping along the pelvic bone.
That's tricky if you have never seen it. WIth practice it's fast and clean.
On the other side try to cut the windpipe as high as possible.
I tend to wash the body cavity with clean water and snow. Especially if there was a lot of blood.
If you somehow get a few "pellets" in there it is not the end of the world. Deer are reasonably clean animals and mostly eat grass and leaves.
Gutting some other animals is much more smelly and disgusting.
Then I tease the tenderloin out, find the liver and heart (if usable) in the gut pile and pack them.
Learning the gutless method pays for a larger animal. May be even for a big deer.
I'm not sure it's faster.
I've seen guys hang their deer to gut it. That makes some things easier but I'm probably done before they have found a place to hang it.
These days I wear disposable gloves too. You don't really have to and I usually don't get blood much past my wrists.
Hand sanitizer in your pack is a good idea.
If you don't need to legally keep the head and don't want it as a trophy, saw it off and leave it.
IN the past I used to even retrieve the sausage casings from the gut pile.
That isn't nearly as bad as it sounds either. What you squeeze out of the small intestine is like the half fermented grass left in your lawn mower after a few days.
Wash it a few times and put it in a zip lock with snow and salt water and they are good.
My worst experience was finding a deer two days after I shot it. The ravens and assorted critter had been at it.
When I first walked up to it, it looked awful.
After I looked, I noticed that the critters had eaten the soft bits on the head and around the anus.
Most of the good meat was intact and the skin was in most places not broken. It also had been cold.
I processed it and got 60lbs of good sausage out of it. That was not fun though and I gagged a few times.
Gutting and skining a healthy deer shot through the lungs is not that bad.
You get better at it after a few.
