RE: How to dress Tom
Field dressing is easy. Lay the bird on it's back, tail end towards you. Run your finger along the mid-line of the breast towards the tail. Once you get to the end of the breast (you'll feel it), pluck the feathers between the legs, and the end of the breast the anus. Then make a shallow slit, from the inside of one thigh to the other, above the anus and below the end (bottom) of the breast. Be careful to avoid cutting the entrails, and part the skin. Reach in and pull out the inards(they may be very warm). Also take care to avoid rupturing the intestines near the anus until the very last. My friend usually pushes out waste from the end of the intestines near the anus before cutting the intestine free. Make sure you get all the lungs out. The esophagous mis a bit tough to remove by simply pulling. You may have to reach in and carefully cut as much as you can. Once a friend told me that he stuffed a cold beer in the cavity to speed the cooling process once they got back to camp.