yup i dont see a point in dragging it elsewhere to do it. seems like a waste of time and effort to me.

i field dress it in the field sometimes and others i do it at home.

Yea I'll dress the deer out in the field , it's not justthe coyotes that will feed off the gut pile theres other conavors out there.
Like badgers , bob cats , martins , fishers, crows , ravens , hawkesand racoons so it doesn't matter to me where I gut it out as long as don't do it at home , my wife not only hates to see the mess she also hates the smell.

I have never field dressed a deer. In my situation, I just don't see the point. It's only a couple of miles to get them where we dress them out. We cut the legs off at the knees and get the skinning started on the tail gate of the pickup and then hang them upside down, finish skinning and then gut them. It just seems easier that way to me. Now, if I had a long way to go, or it was going to be a couple of hours til I got them dressed, it might be a different story.

Where they drop for the most part, we have no coyotes to contend with. A couple questions here though. If you have a coyote problem why not gut them where they fall and hunt over the gut pile for some coyote shooting and lessen the numbers? When you gut them at home what do you gut them in to dispose of it and how do you gut them on or in anything other than the ground?You use a shovel or what? Just curious.

Always have and always will where they fall.
Rick, the problem with trying to hunt the coyotes over the gut pile is that the likelihood of the coyotes coming in to eat while you're there. It may take them an hour, 2 hours, 8 hours, or longer to find the guts. So it comes down to how much time you're willing to wait! It would be more fun and more successful calling them with distress calls after deer season!
It won't take long for coyotes to clean up a single gut pile. If the coyotes are already in the area anyways, then let them do what they do best! Like RD said, lots of critters will benfit from the gut pile being left in the woods!

we have places where we can get within 200-300 yards of the deer to drag it to the truck.. and we always have more than one person.. then we take it to either my grandpas house or the guy who owns the land where i hunt's house.. then we dress him into a gut bucket and either throw the guts away, or the guy who owns our hunting land will set the bucket out and try to get rid of as many coyotes as he can.

Were they fall for me, and as soon as possible. Sort of depends on the temprature though. Early bow season in Michigan is still pretty warm, I want the deer gutted as soon as possible in warm weather.

I don't go crazy when field dressing a deer though, I cut a slit just big enough to get in there and do what I need to, then close it back up so it doesn't get dirty, then I take it to a processor. I don't process my own meat, just not feasable for me.

I don't do the camp thing though, I hunt locally by myself or with one other person in the area.

I'm not worried about yotes, I have killed a deer one day and turned around and killed another in the same spot a day or two later. Heck I have had other deer watch me field dress one before.

Paul

I gut them where they fall too. I lighten the load as much as I can. The coyotes are already there. A gut pile doesn't bring them in.

As stated, the coyotes are already there and a deer carcass seems to have no effect on thelive deer in my woods. I havebutchered a deer and shot one in the same place the next day. A carcass is cleaned up within days if not hours by all of the birds, small animals, and other critters in the woods. When I shoot a deer, I go back to my truck, leave my bow behind, and grab a backpack with a hoist, gambrel, rope, rubber gloves, and a trash bag. Where the deer lies I gut it, tie the hoist to a nearby tree with the rope, lift it, skin it, and bone it, put the meat in a trash bag, and place it in my backpack. I can skin and boneout a deer in approx 30 minutes. I have no deer carcass to get rid of and I'm not skinning out some week old, cold or frozen deer.