Grossness

[John Y Cannuck]

Just be sure to not shoot your deer anywhere behind the diaphragm. If you hit the guts, it can be disgusting in the extreme. A heart lung shot drains the blood out, and makes for a fairly clean experience, assuming you don't punch the guts with your knife.
Most people have little difficulty dealing with it that way, however, one of my old hunting buddies was close to hurling for his first four or five deer.
I've never had an issue, and i have dealt with gut shots.

 

[VanIsleCam]

I don't think gut shots are that bad. Rinse the cavity as best you can with water and bring vinegar and paper towels. A bit of vinegar cuts the reek and then you can trim away anything super pukey off the hind quarters once exposed. Plus the membrane on the inside of the ribs is sacrificial in any event so it acts as a barrier to meat contamination. Anyone ass shot a beastie and ended up with chit everywhere? I haven't, just curious.

 

[VanIsleCam]

Look the reality is that if you are new to field dressing it will all feel weird, maybe gross and exotic. After a couple you will be a champ or go back to styrofoam trays with your protein choices lovingly arranged at the supermarket.

 

[Superbrad]

I don't think gut shots are that bad. Rinse the cavity as best you can with water and bring vinegar and paper towels. A bit of vinegar cuts the reek and then you can trim away anything super pukey off the hind quarters once exposed. Plus the membrane on the inside of the ribs is sacrificial in any event so it acts as a barrier to meat contamination. Anyone ass shot a beastie and ended up with chit everywhere? I haven't, just curious.

Honestly, I have never made a shot on a deer that was less than heart or lung..... except one, and that was the one I lost... talking about 35 deer.....

My only gut experience came on my second deer and that was because my field dressing skills were poor and I brought it on myself..... still wasn't all that objectionable in my opinion....

would I wear it as a cologne, no.... but it is easy enough to get through and if a hunter is weak stomached, then a pair of nostril plugs like swimmers wear is light and small to carry if that is your thing.....

 

[c-fbmi]

If you're squeamish about blood or touching the bloody entrails then may I suggest veterinary gloves, the latex or plastic ones that go all the way up over your shoulders. If you are careful and don't kneel in the blood as I always tend to do, you can gut a deer sized animal without ever getting a spot of blood on yourself.............the smell, well it's just part of the game. I have gutted many, possibly more than a hundred animals, and you can get quite proficient at it. It's not as critical as caping but precision certainly helps and knowing what they were supposed to look like inside before the bullet entered the fray helps a bunch too.

 

[VanIsleCam]

Yeah I hear ya but it may happen and if it does, my point is that you need to get down to business and use your best efforts to do it right. The animal deserves it.

I got my first moose this year and I hit it through the hump, it dropped then stood up, I shot again and it was still standing. I cycled again and dropped the reticle and put one into the body (heard the thump and saw the cloud). First two shots were placed between 2-300 on the reticle. Third I used the 200 gradation and got a shot 18 inches lower than the first two. The second shot had smoked the spine. Yeah a better range finder would be great.

But he cleaned up well - it was just extra work. In this pic you can see where the third shot ended up. When we dropped it off for cutting the butcher remarked on the quality of the gutting/clean up. Btw, only reason it was dropped off was that we were only half way through our trip.



Last, imagine our ancestors chucking rocks and fire hardened sticks at ungulates. Do you think they were worried if the guts opened up?