Field Dress a deer and leftovers

[PT111]

This may sound like a stupid question but I have been given different answers. When you filed dress a deer what do you do with the guts? I know some just leave them lying out for the vultures and some bury them. Some even pack them in plastice bags and dispose of them in their garbage.

What do you do with them? Also how long do you allow to dress one if you know you can get to the processor or freezer in a reasonable time?

[Jager78]

Put them in a nice plastic container neatly and make sure to recycle them.
Let's conserve our natural wildlife!

No, seriously I just leave them and they are all gone the next morning.
I don't know why someone would take them along and dispose of them, maybe someone can enlighten me on why they would go to all that trouble?

I do know guys who bury them, never asked why. I guess maybe because they are going to continue to hunt that area later and are afraid the deer might smell it and avoid the area? I don't really know why.

Deers are not afraid of Foxes but they are of coyotes and wolves.
I suppose if the Coyotes come to eat the delicious left overs and mark their territory it prevents the deer from entering that area?

[hellbilly hellraiser]

i either just leave them, or take them and put it in my coyote baitpile.
Leaving the guts isn't a bad thing like some say. just a couple of days ago a guy i know almost got attacked by a bear while gutting his deer. he just finished so he dragged the deer away and the bear packed off the guts. you will only be feeding the local couger, bear, coyote, and scavanger birds.

as for getting it hanged..i always carry about a pound of fine crushed black pepper with me in hot weather.. after gutted sprinkle the pepper all over it and the flies wont go near it. Depending on your weather will determin how fast you need to get the meat cooling. bactiera starts growing on meat at 40-45 degrees i think. so you need to get the meat cooled to 34-40 degrees within 24hrs.

its best to let the deer hang in the refiderator for about a week. anyless the meat will taste gamey...

i have worked at a wild game meat butcher/processer for several years now and hunted all my life, this is about the best way i know.

[crowbeaner]

Depending on whether or not I have another tag, I leave them for the crows and song dogs and watch them for activity. Nothing like natural bait even if you're not fishing.

[zahnzieh]

I think I would be careful not to field-dress a deer under your tree-stand - at least I wouldnt. Especially if you are going to be back there the next day. Supposedly the deer dont really care, but the scavengers they attract (esp. yotes) might sour your hunt the next day. Drag the deer a ways away - at least 300 yards - then field dress. Of course if you are hunting in someone's back yard like we do here in Illinois you might need to pack out the guts!!

[Swampghost]

It all depends on the circumstances. Back in no mans land, let the other critters have them. It's usually warm here and we carry coolers full of ice to get the game cooled down quickly.

I hunt some private where they have weight limits so you weigh, then dress and get to haul the guts someplace else for the Turkey Buzzards.

[jdscholer]

I'll try to keep this story quick and small.
A few years ago, our party of four had cow elk tags-unfilled after over a week of hard hunting. On our last morning to hunt, we decided to simply walk east out of camp in a fairly tight drive through what we knew to be a good morning route for elk, if there would only be some in the area. Well there was.
Before we lost sight of camp, a band of six, two of which were bulls, ran in front of us in easy range. I'll just say "OH JEESE"
When the dust cleared, litterally, the two bachelor bulls ran off by themselves. In this crazy godsend our group preformed admirably I am proud to say. We all shot elk, only cows, and though some of us put shots into elk that had already been wounded by someone else in our party, the fact is that we did a pretty clean job of tagging out in a flurry of shots.
Then we worked. All day we worked. Till dark we worked. Gutting, hauling, skinning, cutting, cleaning, hanging, bagging, MY GOD WE WORKED!
Now, the gut piles. The next morning, two of us decided to put a sneak on the gut piles in hope of catching some coyotes. Well, we were too late. Not only were the coyotes gone, but so were the guts. Every little bit was gone. The only thing left was the undigested stomach contents. I couldn't believe it. This was four large gutpiles, all within a quarter mile of our camp, in 24 hrs. Nature's clean-up crew really takes care of business. Judging from tracks, I think the birds did as much as the coyotes. I know I'll never worry about leaving a gutpile in the woods. jd

[Swampghost]

Same story as jd's only 8 hogs that 2 of us got. Cleaned until 11:30 PM and had to shoot back to town as we had gotten greedy (kids!) and had no way to preserve the meat. We left the gut piles right in the middle of his dad's camp. The next weekend, ALL GONE!

Ma Natures clean-up crews are highly efficient.

[bclark1]

To reinforce what others have said, deer don't care. Neighbor of mine shot a deer right next to a gut pile from the previous day a couple years ago. As for predators, depends on the local population. I've seen gut piles last two weeks, in spite of coyotes and birds (and unsubstantiated rumors of the gray wolves, cougar and bear). Granted, they froze overnight, but still, hungry critters would find a way.

[Yellowfin]

Save the heart and liver to eat, use the intestines for sausage casing. The rest makes great coyote bait--I've shot over them many times.

[globemaster3]

I was raised to drag the whole animal out and field dress at the truck or camp. Minimized the smell around the stand and preserved your area. Different places I hunted had different solutions to the problem: a dumpster, a specified hill (Ft Sill called it Carcas Hill), bury, etc. If I was on my own to determine final disposition, sometimes I burried it in the garden (great fertilizer) put it in the trash if it was coming next day, or find a dumpster somewhere.

How much time you have to cool the meat really depends on where you shot it (geographically speaking, not shot placement). Growing up in FL, it was still in the 90s during archery season in Sep. We were keen to hustle out of the woods, field dress, and get it in a cooler with ice. Cooler climates offer you more time. During an assignment in WA state, I shot a nice 5X whitetail and was able to leave it hang in the garage to age since it never got above freezing.

[rem870hunter]

we (,grandad,dad,and me) leave the guts. last deer grandad shot was in virginia. early morning hours of the last either sex day in the area we hunted. i sat watching that pile all day until quitting time. hoping for a bear. nothing came around. atleast not there. a skunk came into the tent that night. my guess looking for the blood that was on his boots. i watched it the next morning till around 10. decided to take a look and see if it was stll there, before moving. wasn't even a drop of blood left there. something ate it and fast.

[fisherman66]

its best to let the deer hang in the refiderator for about a week. anyless the meat will taste gamey...

Aging meat isn't for the taste, it's for tenderness. Keeping the meet stretched over the carcass for several days at just above freezing allow enzymes and lactic acid to breakdown without the growth of bacteria. I age on the quarter in a cooler which seems to be just as effective. If you cut the meat off the bone during rigormortis it is likely to be very tough. The gamey tastes is usually a product of poor cleaning (getting urine or fecal matter on the meat then storing it prior to butchering), or allowing the meat to spoil by not cooling it fast enough and most commonly by not trimming all the fat and connective tissue off the meat prior to cold storage or in the preparation for cooking process.

[Kreyzhorse]

Gut piles are nature's free stores.

They usually don't make it through till the next morning. The only thing we do is make sure we clean our deer away from any hunting spots if at all possible.

[camper4lyfe]

When I hunted on what used to be my grandma's land (now owned by 3 uncles), one uncle asked that the piles be burried, since he used the land for other things, and didn't want to see or smell the piles.

[Scorch]

What do you do with them?

Fold them neatly and sort them alphabetically by size???

Just leave them laying. They'll be gone before you know it.

[Bitmap]

You could leave the guts where they fall, then sit out with your firearm and a spotlight and hope to ambush some wild pigs when they come feast, assuming that sort of thing is legal where you hunt. If you do this you will have some good stuff to mix with the venison in your sausage.

[simonkenton]

I have killed a deer, and, as usual, gutted it where it dropped.
The next morning the gut pile was completely gone, and I killed another deer from the same stand.

Even before there were coyotes in central Georgia, 20 years ago, a gut pile would not last the night. Lots of coons, possums, crows, and buzzards.

[lockedcj7]

I don't bother to dress them out if I can get them to the processor within the hour. Most of the time, that's not a problem. If it's going to be longer than that, I prefer not to dress them in place but I've done it before and it didn't seem to matter. Like others have said, the pile is gone in a day or two and I've killed other deer in the same spot later in the season.

You might want to save the heart and liver to eat. I don't care for organ meat personally so I don't bother. I do sometimes save the organs for dissecting with my students. There's a huge difference between preserved specimens and fresh.

[camper4lyfe]

The last few years, I've hunted on other people's land and used their garages/help processing the deer. I've actually used the heart and liver ans currency. Gave the land owner the liver, and the garage owner the heart in exchange for the use of their respective help.

[KEN K]

I've seen a deer come up to a gut pile and sniff it, just curious I guess.
As for gammy taste, I've found that the cleaner, faster the kill the better the taste. I agree that ageing is for tenderness.

[simonkenton]

I always gut mine where they drop.
Why drag all that extra weight out of the woods?
I carry a plastic bag and put the liver and heart in there.
My dogs and cats are wild about deer liver.

[Mannlicher]

nature wastes nothing. I don't either. The gut pile stays there where it will benefit other animals.

[ArmySon]

Deer, birds, fish doesn't matter to me. I just leave the guts and it's gone in no time.

[UniversalFrost]

I gut it where it drops and then yote hunt over the gut pile the next day if any is left.