RE: Field dressing a deer sucks
 

yea its def only about a 5-10 minute procedure.

RE: Field dressing a deer sucks
 

I'll throw in my 2 cents. All those that say if you can't handle the job after the shot then don't take the shot. I know one of the local processors here charge an additional $20 to gut one. I had one of my best friends to help me drag out my muzzleloader opener buck last season and he after my first cut he kept about 50 yards distance and was gagging and rambling about how bad it was. But usually me and my hunting buddy just toss a coin to see who goes. If it has feathers, fins, or fur we'll skin it.

RE: Field dressing a deer sucks
 

yup... like all the other said... if you can't gut it don't shoot it! its that simple... just man up! :D

RE: Field dressing a deer sucks
 

that's WAY more advanced than I am!!! :D

I don't have a gambrel to start with... although I THINK I know what one is!!! I just gut them and get them to the processor... I'm hoping that this year a friend will help me quarter it...

I am pretty young but I am into hunting. Because I am young I dont have a lot of experience with dressing game. I can do squirrels and stuff fine. When it comes to deer I usually let my dad do all of the big work and I just held the legs apart. I can handle most of it. The thing that really gets me is the smell and sounds. Does it get better with practice?

I think it's one of those things that if you decide you are grossed out by it, it will gross you out. If you decide it's a vital and important part of the hunting process, just like any of it, then you will be just fine.
Dig in and love it.

clean some rabbits a couple times. after that there is nothing that smells worse..

Yes there is, turkeys smell worse.

The poor hunter
 

He gets his hamburger from a fast food restaurant and then he's expected to cut up a deer.

Reminds me of a neighbor who requested I lance a boil. I advised her that I wasn't a surgeon. She answered back that she had seen me do enough enough deer butcherings in the back yard to qualify.

The total job should take less than 5 minutes but if you have to try to get around the smell, try this. Take a few cotton balls and coat them with Vics Vapo-rub and put them in a double ziplok bag. When its time to gut, put a soaked cotton ball in each nostril and see if that blocks the smells.

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

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

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.

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.

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. :D

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 !!

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. :biggrin:

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.

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.

:D Al

YUP

Abilene tx or KS?

yeah like picking up any type of hairball the cat puked up:eek2:

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.:eek2::eek2:

My Dad took my huntin the first time when I was 5, Never looked back! The most exciting part when I was little was watchin my Dad field dress. I killed my first deer when I was 11, and I couldnt wait to get in there and gut it myself. By the time I was 12 I dressed 200 pound deer and drug em 400 yds to the truck. Its part of the deal!
Been doin it for a long time now. Immediatly after the shot, I run down, Gut the deer, Prop open the chest cavity with a stick, and go sit back down and see if I can kill another. Also do all the processing myself. I love the smell of fresh deer meat!

It does not bother me at all..... except a friend and I cleaned a gut-shot deer for a guy we were hunting with, and we both had to back off twice, dry heaving at the smell!
I also know a guy (6'4" 300#) he can clean fish all day long, but the blood of a deer makes him up-chuck like a baby!

I don't mind doing it at all. Farm boys come natural to those tasks.

I don't mind it a bit.At least I know I was successful.

Man is a predator.

Kill......butcher.........eat.

Stop whining, or buy your meat at the market.

You know how to kill, you better know how to clean.

I dont think that was a lung!:biggrin:

X2 I agree with grinder67

Can't tell a lung from a paunch(stomach). Now that is a hoot. I used to field dress a deer in under 10 minutes at night with a small flashlight in my mouth, gus and lungs and heart. Legally BTW. It is not neuro surgery, nor is it hard to do.

I've done one by only the light of the moon :) sent the wife home to get another flashlight when my batteries died. Had it gutted and skinned in under 15 minutes and before she got back. She said the phone rang, then she had to pee, then needed a drink of tea. Took her half an hour to go about half a mile and back...:D

I find field dressing to be an interesting thing. I think if everyone field dressed their meat they would have more respect for the animal, like pulling out its guts really makes you realize that this used to be a living, breathing creature who will now provide meat for you and your family. As quite a few other people have mentioned, if you can't clean it, don't kill it.

Vicks vapor rub. A little around your nose and you won't smell anything.

Skinning is easy if you check out the youtube video of the golfball skinning trick. Circle cut the ankles & neck. Place a golf ball under the skin and loop a rope around it, skin and all. Hook it to your bumper and the deer head to a tree and slowly, very slowly pull forward. The skin pulls right off.

Gutting the deer is less messy if you hang it head first from a tree. It's not the best way, but everything just falls out with only a couple swipes of a good knife. Just watch your feet, lol

I've grownup killing animals for slaughter. It wasn't a game or sport. It was what you did to have meat for the family. Most people that can't take it hasn't been around it and have been sheltered to real life. Just man up and get use to it.

I can crawl in inside a gut shot deer like an opossum does a dead cow. Jump in boys...the waters fine.

Doesn't bother me one bit but my brother and dad can't do it without gagging or puking. Just dressed one out for my dad this morning and he started to gag. It always makes me laugh.

to each their own but geez... i'm a little surprised when a person says they're cool with taking the life of a living creature yet is disgusted while claiming the kill. lets man up here.