gjersy

About 3yrs ago a bud said i could shoot a doe off his prime farm hunting land if i helped a 12 year old city kid get his 1st deer. The boy nailed a big doe threw the heart, i showed him how to gut it, he was real interested and helped. Mean while my friend shot a couple times so we went to help him. He shot another big doe threw the guts, as i started gutting it the boy was right there wanting to help, when the gut shot aroma filled his nostrils he ran away gaging & yelling his deer is all ready rotten! LOL

scottycoyote

i dont mind gutting and skinning it, but if you do hey you do, not something you can help. Check with your local processors, mine will gut it for like another $5. Lifes too short to go around doing things you hate IMHO. Of course if you cant get the deer to the processor in a reasonable time youd have to bite the bullet and do it to keep the meat from spoilage

Kathwacckkk

To me it is part of the hunt. However, I have learned to actually enjoy it. When gutting the deer, I try and figure out exactly what the arrow or bullet did. Damage, entrance, exit, lungs, heart, broken ribs / bones, size of the entrance & exit holes, etc... Also in certain areas, what was the particluar animal feeding on? With this knowledge I can fine tune my equipment, location, technique and aim.

fastetti

I think I watched my dad gut one when I was 10 and since then I've had to gut them all. That was 25 years ago. Never had a second thought about it, part of hunting. This coming from a guy raised in the suburbs of Chicago.

Something that may help is to think of it as science, not thinking of it as the same organs and such that you have. I always like to think of it as investigating how a animal works and gaining valuable information on where the deer have been and what they have been feeding on. Open the stomach to every deer you shoot and you'll learn if they have been in the beans, the corns, acorns, green browse and it will help you understand where the deer are feeding and you can get an idea on where to hunt with that info.

BarnesX.308

I don't think the blood and guts are disgusting at all. To me, they're very interesting. However, the smell is nasty. Get up wind is one thing that helps. If you are done hunting for the day, keep a little Ben Gay or Mineral Ice in your truck. Put a little on your chest and pull your shirt over your nose.

the blur

My first deer I was lucky. I was hunting by myself. Finally after many years, I shot a spike. He went down immediately. I didn't feel like chasing him, like all the internet stories. So I fired 3 more shots at him, just to make sure he wasn't running away. I missed every follow up shot as my hands were trembling. But the deer was dead on the 1st shot.

3 local guys come over to see if I got a bear, because I unloaded my magazine. My hands were shaking. It was obvious I never killed anything before. I told them it's my 1st deer, and I don't know WTF I'm doing. 1 guy was nice enough to give me a lesson, and he practically field dressed the entire deer. He reached up and cut the diaphragm. He reached up and cut the tube. He was covered in blood, and I was clean. I thanked him, and they walked off.

Now I'm dragging up hill by myself, and I snap off a spike. So I'm disgusted, but mounting it anyway. Along comes another local guy who saw me struggling, and he carried the deer to the top of the hill. I offered him money, and he refused.

So hunting on state land was my savior. If no one was around, I'd probably still be gutting & dragging up hill.

And the taxidermist was good enough to fix the spike for no charge !!

kswild

Yep round here I'm the local deer processer. Don't mind it a bit. BTW the Indians have a word for those who can't stomach gutting a animal. Our translation is Vegetarian.

Dampland

I'm just like the two fellows above. I first started gutting out deer by myself in high school, and at the same time I was taking human Biology class. To me it was really neat to see the organs and how they were aligned. I also liked to see what exactly killed the deer (heart shot, lungs, liver, etc.) And Sometime at the very end, I will cut open the stomach to see what the main food is that the deer was eating.

I keep a pair of elbow length heavy duty rubber gloves in my hunting pack, and as long as my knife is sharp, I can gut out a deer in under 10 minutes. IF I have someone holding the legs for me, then I can usually get it done in 5 minutes; including taking the tenderloins out. By using these gloves, I stay blood free, except for the gloves, which I wipe off in the grass/snow, and then clean back at camp.

The only real discomfort I get when gutting a deer; is cutting the sex organs off. Just seems a little weird, but I get thru it, and I'm fine. I have a tradition of hanging a bucks sex organs in the notch of a tree. I do this as a sign of respect to the buck; in that I'm not going to let some low life ground scavenger eat up his man bits. Weird I know, but its just my tradition.

alleyyooper

Since the original post was made 6 years ago I wonder if the fellow ever got over the dislike, Of it he just took up golf, bird watching, bike riding or running.

Al

Wilcam47

YUP

Abilene tx or KS?

yeah like picking up any type of hairball the cat puked up

gutting a deer is just part of the hunt...some stink more than others even gut shot deer but its not near as bad as cat crap.