Your persistence has paid off; your deer is down, now what do you do? What you do now will determine the quality of your bucks meat at the table. Proper field care of your deer is very important in making sure that its taste good when it is served at the table. This tips is to tell new hunters how to field dress, skin and prepare a deer for butchering. Experienced hunters might also learn something new.
One of the most persistent beliefs among hunters is that you must bleed your deer by cutting the deer's throat as soon as you get to it. This is suppose to bleed the deer of blood and make the meat taste better. Never cut a deer's throat. This has no positive effects. Once a deer is dead the heart no longer pumps blood. If the blood is not circulating then cutting the throat will not bleed any blood from the deer. It can however mess up a cape (the deer's hide around the head, neck and shoulders) if you decide to mount the deer. It opens the deer's up to dirt in an area that would otherwise have been protected from dirt and bacteria. It is in a word "USELESS".
Another fallacy is that you must cut off the tarsal glands of the deer or the meat in that area will be ruined. This is nonsense. It didn't taint the meat while the deer was living and it will not taint it after the deer is dead. You don't want to touch the tarsal gland and then touch the meat however. If the animal is not yet dead, simply shoot the animal again. It is very dangerous to approach a buck that is wounded from the front and down right INSANE to try to cut its throat with a knife.
FIELD DRESSING A sharp knife is better than a dull knife when it comes to field dressing a buck. A sharp knife will actually reduce bad (unneeded) cuts and will make the entire procedure easier. Take your time when dressing a buck, mistakes due to haste will often require you to make a trip to the hospital to get stitches.
Prop the animal on its back and begin field dressing by making a cut from just above the genitals up to the rib cage. You now have to make a choice. Some people cut through a number of the ribs in the rib cage to make it easier to reach up into the deer's chest. I find this unnecessary but its up to you. If you do plan to cut through some of the ribs you should do it of center to avoid the sternum. When you make this cut from just above the genital to the sternum take care not to cut too deep. You only want to cut through the hide and through the animals stomach muscle. If you go to deep you will puncture the deer's intestines and you will have to deal with the smell.
NOTE: If you plan on having the deer mounted don't cut any further up the belly than the sternum to save the cape.
Now turn the deer on its side and allow the guts to fall out. They will require help from you by cutting away the fat that will hold the intestines in. This is usually at the top of the cavity in the area near the spine. Care must be taken to not puncture or break the deer's bladder. The bladder will be in the area where the cavity narrows down at the hips. I leave this part of the deer's intestines intact but many or most do not. If you plan on removing all of this then you must have a very sharp knife and must ream the deer out from the back. Cutting around the anus and tying it off with string. Then cutting either forwards or backwards from the abdominal cavity to remove this entire area. Easier said than done. Care must be take not to puncture anything here this is where the deer droppings and urine are located. The deer's abdominal cavity is separated from the chest cavity by the diaphragm. This separates the lung and heart from the stomach and intestines. This must be cut out to remove all of the intestines.
This is how it usually works for me, with the guts half in and half out I cut the diaphragm away from the deer's chest cavity, I then reach as far up into the deer's chest as possible and grab the deer esophagus. With the other hand I carefully slide the knife into the deer's chest and work my knife up into the chest to cut the esophagus just above my other hand. After it is cut I simply pull the heart and lungs out and with it comes the rest of the intestines. The sooner your deer cools the better.
Wash up.
Drag the deer out.
Load in truck.
Go home or to camp for skinning.
If you decide to have your trophy mounted there are several critical steps that must be followed in order to safely secure enough hide for the taxidermist to work with. You will need to cape out the head. This is best done if hanging upside down. Patience really pays off, go slowly. Be extra careful not to cut thru the hide. First make a cut all the way around the body several inches behind the front legs. Begin peeling back the hide down towards the head. Next cut around the upper part of each front leg. Make an incision along the rear of each leg until it meets the cut you made around the body. NOW PUT THE KNIFE DOWN,Keep pulling the hide down towards the head, use your fingers to help separate the skin from the meat. Keep pulling the skin down until you reach the base of the skull. Here you cut the neck at the base. Keep the cape cool to prevent hair slippage until you get it to your taxidermist.
This to me is the most critical moment ,what happens at this point is what is going to determine fine table fare or rank smelly meat that just terrible ,some folks like that rank taste but I personally do not. To me the most important part to be most careful of is the bladder. If you are really lucky your hog relieved himself just before he walked in front of your sights. Other wise extreme care and patience; one drop of urine can totally ruin a whole hog, I can not stress enough how important it is to be extra careful, the pay off is well worth the work.
I know you are thinking bladder is in the abdominal cavity. But what will mess you up, is the 'plumbing' ( the urethra) that runs through a tunnel in the pelvis toward the rear, then makes a u-turn around the back of the pelvis and comes up on the bottom side of the pelvis bone itself. Special attention is needed here this is the most critical point. We must deal with this first once you pass this point the rest is very similar to gutting a deer
It works best if you hang one up, but you can do it on the ground or on the tailgate.
First...... skin around front and up each side of the privates, don't cut real deep right now, just get under the skin, and go all the way to the base of the tail. At the base of the tail you can make the cuts meet, what you have done is started to cut loose the privates, testicles, and anus in one piece.
CAREFULLY start cutting deeper, from the front of the censored and pull away from body, make sure you see where the plumbing runs, do not cut through it, now separate it from the rest of the pig. When you get back near the pelvis you have to be REAL careful as the urethra runs right next to the bone. Just hold the entire works away from the pig as you cut back to the pelvis so you can see what you are doing.
When you get back to the pelvis, then you can cut deeper around the sides and back of the anus, again, be real careful where the plumbing runs along the bone. As you cut you can gently pull the whole works away from the pig so you can see what you are doing. You should be able to get this entire assembly cut nearly free of the hog before anything else.
Once you get all this separated, the rest is easy, now just cut into the abdominal cavity as usual. You will have the option of both carefully cutting (sawing) through the pelvis and spreading it to get the assembly loose from the hog, or just drop it all back and pull through the natural opening in the pelvis into the abdominal area I prefer the drop through the pelvis,for the beginners until you feel confident with the procedure.
On sows, this all is a lot easier, but the process is the same, it's just that you basically cut a ring around the anus and it's pretty quick to separate, and easy to drop into the body cavity. It seems that on the sows the bladder plumbing doesn't hug the pelvis quite so close and I've never had a problem cutting into it.
What you just have to understand is that the guts are basically attached only at the ends, and the attachment point at the back end is through the tunnel in the pelvis. Cut this loose and then open the abdominal cavity and most everything falls out in front of the diaphragm.
Take your time, getting a good start on the 'business' end of the hog, and the rest is easy.
Let me know if this makes sense and I would also like to hear any other helpful techniques.
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