If I am out by myself in on a Wildlife management area or a dif woods from the hunt club I always gut them before I have to drag them out. I like to hunt alone alot and sometimes I get a long ways back in some thick stuff. Can't imagine dragging all that extra weight a mile and 1/2 out throught thick timber. Also even though I am in the south now I have a snow sled. I put the deer on it and use it to drag it out. Makes it easier around all those cypress nuckles and such. When I am at the hunt club all I have to do is throw it in the back of the truck and drive it to the processor just a few mile up the road. I gues it would all depend on the situation for me.