its very simple and hardly messy if you know what your doing...very hard to describe in words though...



i will say that field dressing SHOULD be done if at all possible...exspecially in anything over 30-40 degrees...should be field dresses ASAP..

also you are leaving a good....ahh 20? pounds of blood and guts in the woods instead of dragging it out...this accomplishes a few things....1 is obvious..less weight...2) you dont have to find somewhere to dispose of the guts like you might if you took it home to an urban area or something like that...3) the gut pile is a food source for alot of the critters of the forest...a way of giving some of the kill back to the forest...


best way to learn would be have someone help you and show you...really theres nothing to it....everyone has their own methods...some guys make it into a surgical procedure, others are done and cleaning up before you can find your knife in your pack...end result is the same...guts out of the deer...

like Jim said, gotta be careful....arrow shafts, broadheads, splintered bone, your own knife etc....ive been cut by bone and my own knife a few times...ive probably gutted near 20 deer and aim getting pretty good and quick....gotta remember where your knife is, what way the edge is facing, and where your other hand is...ive seen most cuts by knives occur when the person is reaching up the cut the esophogus...keep your left hand on the windpipe...knife hand ahead of your left hand with the blade facing the neck and you cannot cut yourself...then pull hard on the windpipe with your left hand and slice it with the knife...which is still a bit forward of your left hand...