how do you field dress?

snoopycda

snoopycda

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After reading and viewing so many different threads and videos, i see and read that people still cut the throat and believe that an animal needs to be bled after a bullet has just ripped the heart, lungs or liver out causing major hemorrhage.
This leads me to question why this practice is still done.
If you are going to clean your game before you put it in the truck and at least skin it that day, all the blood that is left is on the floor of the garage the next day. A small puddle.
My field dressing takes less than ten minutes on deer and less than twenty on moose if someone is helping.
So i guess what i am asking, is this just ritual?
 
I have never done it, and I do not understand why it is done.

The only reason being is that you had one bullet and didn't kill the animal on the first go round.

No heart beat , no bleeding.So I am confused also.
 
head shots :D

moose I shot the other year I could only see part of the head antlers and neck too many trees for a good boiler room shot so it got it in the neck from 25m away.

and lung shot game some blood will drain out of the cut windpipe
 
When the buck went down immediately I thought it was a clean headshot.
Not seeing any brain and blood on the ground, I decided to cut its throat.
on further exam, the hair was shaved off the top of his ear, and had hit a burr on the antler.
So what was I supposed to do?
 
It`s a hold over from butchering at home. When we drop a beef or hog you get in fast and cut the throat to bleed the out, of coarse you use a head shot so it`s needed. Not very useful when out hunting unless you screwed the pooch when shooting. Lots of capes are buggered up with unnecessary surgery.
 
I've never done it and never will. They bleed enough when you put a bullet through them. Also keep capes for a taxi buddy and don't want to ruin them.
 
Cutting the throat of a brain shot animal, as in butchering, is done because the heart is still pumping and significant blood can be drained. A dead animal will not bleed at all, so cutting its throat is a waste of time and cape (if you want it).

One of the reasons I always try for a fist shot that severs the major blood vessels above the heart, not the heart itself, is precisely so the heart can continue to pump for several seconds and provide a good "bleed" that I have come to believe improves meat quality. If you get an exit with the same shot, the short trailing job will be very easy too.
 
Cutting the throat to bleed out an animal only does something if the animal is still alive. In my opinion you are causing unnecessary suffering and it is not a good practice.
 
An animal shot through the lungs will bleed out internally very well.
A neck [unless the Jugular is severed] or head shot, not so much.
Since I avoid neck and head shots, cutting the throat is largely redundant for me.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
Field dressing as I understand it to be,is gutting the animal as soon as possible.Usually within minutes of the kill.This starts the cooling process.
 
More than half of the animals I've taken have been high neck or head shots. Frequently the animal is still kicking a bit when I get to them and the heart will continue to beat for up to a minute or more. Regardless, I slip a small filleting knife behind the front leg and into the heart to let them pump out and sometimes I move their front leg in a pumping motion to aid in getting the blood out. Just like a pig -- shoot, stick and bleed. Obviously not needed on heart/lung/liver shots.
 
gtrussell said:
Field dressing as I understand it to be,is gutting the animal as soon as possible.Usually within minutes of the kill.This starts the cooling process.
Click to expand...

This^^^

I dunno if there is another popular definition of "field dressing" around, but about the only time field dressing is not started immediately, is if the process is to debone without gutting, gutless dressing, or whatever you want to call it.

As for cutting the throat to bleed it out, that depends on the circumstances, and whether the cape has any use to someone.

Mostly, if I cut the throat at all, it's to provide me with a start or finish point when I unzip the deer from chin to arse, and roll the whole lot out the back end of the carcass by cutting the windpipe and using it as my handle to pull on.

Heads and legs, unless they are otherwise needed (Evidence of species and ### when required, legs for a friends dog when they ask, etc) stay in the bush with the gutpile.

Cheers
Trev
 
I was taught to cut the throat when I started hunting; it was just something you just did …After a few moose you kinda wonder if nothing comes out when you cut the throat. So I stopped doing it when I was by myself …But to this day if I am with one of the older guys that taught me how things are done …I get the …did you cut the throat
 
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