RE: Where do you gut your animal?
All I can say is try doing anything but #1 with an elk. Only if on the low odds that you can drive to it withtruck and awinch.. I think Hiawatha was lucky enough to do that.
If I was a whitetail hunter hunting on a stand and hada tag for another animal on that stand or a friend that wanted to use the stand, I'd get the animal and its guts outa dodge.