Field Dressing

I see on the internet that more and more guys are using the gutless method to field dress a deer - I've always gutted my deer by starting near the rear end by sawing through the pelvic bone providing a channel to pull out the crap tube with the rest of the guts - tempted to try something new with my next deer - I'm always amazed at the amount of guts that is in a deer - we use to eat the liver and heart but over the years stopped doing that - somewhere we read that the liver's function was to remove the toxins in an animal so thought maybe it ain't the best thing to eat - well hang in there guys -

going to be honest here I have never heard of the gutless method, so I looked it up. Not for me, I will stick with gutting my deer. I also don't cut through the pelvic bone, I only cut the belly open and remove the guts that way.

Have you tried Butout 2 .... everyone in deer camp has one now or the Peavey version
Good luck and play safe
Glen

Gutless is very efficient for larger game like moose

The only trouble with the gutless (or Alaskan) method is if you want to keep the hide and cape, the carcass needs to be skinned out accordingly. That takes quite a bit of very careful knife work. I've seen and helped do it on a couple of occassions. It worked very well.

Depending on location I do both. If pack out is longer gutless for me although that doesn’t mean leaving the heart, liver or tenderloins.
Nothing wrong with eating liver Joe. Unless you’re in an area with high cadmium which northern Ontario is so ill only eat young ones there

Got a butt out tool years ago. Was never able to make it work well and eventually went back to the old fashioned way. Also abandoned splitting the pelvic bone after the first couple deer I killed 35 years ago. Just cut around the back end with a sharp pointed knife and pull it through when removing the guts now. Find that quicker and cleaner. I don’t split the rib cage either


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I’d never heard of the gutless method either before this post…..looked it up on Utube……not one I would use.
Just wonder how many hunters that do gut their big game remember to take out the windpipe. Many years ago at a conference we were told by a professional butcher/hunter that the windpipe is a major source of bacterial contamination of the meat. He taught us to cut in right under the jawbone and cut the windpipe as high as possible, then pull it down and out the body cavity along with the rest of the body contents. He said that if you just cut it high in the chest cavity the upper windpipe keeps adding bacterial contamination to the meat as long as it is left in the carcass.
I’ve been doing that jawbone cut first with my deer ever since.

Excellent point about the removing the windpipe completely. By opening the neck all the way to the jaw, you also help that part of yhe carcass cool down. The neck is a common area of the carcass where spoilage happens.

We usually split deer and bear from the back end up to the jaw bone and cut the pelvic bone as well. Especially with the weather during recent hunting seasons we also prop the rib cage open for air flow on the game pole and sometimes have skinned deer immediately when hung.