Where do you field dress?

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On the property I hunted in WI we had a specific gut location. Here in TN, I gut where it drops. It's already a pain to drag it up these hill no need to drag the guts too.
 
Hill Country Hunter said:
Why would so many of you contaminate water or and water ways with fecal matter and rotting animal parts??? What if someone else uses it as a water source? For that matter, what could be more gross than seeing strings of entrails floating by in clear running water--or even worse--in hazy, muddy water where you don't know what else is down in that putrid stream?
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Why would you stop at that Creek on the way to your stand to pee in it? Nothing cleans that out of the water. The guts are eaten by everything from fish, turtles, to coyotes.
 
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I will gut wherever is most convenient. If that is where it fell, so be it. If it's in a nearby creek, so bee it. If it's by my truck, so be it.
 
I drop the 30 extra lbs. immediately and it is always gone the next day. Once or twice it may have taken an extra day for critters to find it, but I don't think it bothers anything to gut it in the woods.
 
I drag mine out of the woods - not because I think the guts will disturb deer or attract coyotes - but because it's easier to gut them if they are hanging. Starting last year I bought a deer hoist that fits a truck receiver hitch from Sportsman's Guide and that lets me do it anywhere on the farm rather than the couple of specific spots I had traditionally gutted deer before.

Speaking of the life span of a gut pile. I gutted 2 deer at the same time last year in one cut bean field and came back 2 1/2 hours later and you could hardly even find the location of the gut piles they were cleaned up. Surprised the heck out of me.
 
field dress em at the stop sign in front of my jeoulus neighbor house. then his yappy dogs come roll in it when his momma let the dogs outta the trailer
 
Football Hunter said:
Brisco Darlin said:
bigtex said:
I gut em where they fall. I've never seen a gut pile "spook" another deer. In fact I've killed deer, gutted them and gone back and killed another deer standing beside the gut pile.
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same here.
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Me too,put a camera on a gut pile,you'll be surprised what you will see.
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i'm planning on doing that this year.
 
I drag mine out and gut them close to the truck... I end up hunting close to houses a lot and don't want the attention a gut pile brings. It is either dogs, coyotes that are too loud and bring in dogs, buzzards that bring in dogs, or worse... dogs. Don't want them causing a ruckus near my stand. NOTHING ruins a honey hole like some loose dogs.
 
Poser said:
Does anyone else tend to enjoy gutting deer? I don't know what it is exactly, but there is some satisfaction that comes with the delicate and precise knife work and intense concentration of gutting a game animal. When I first started hunting, that was maybe the most intimidating aspect of the thought of killing a deer. When you've never done it before, its kind of a mystery and you are afraid that, despite how many youtube videos you watch, that you might screw it up. After I got a couple under my belt, I ditched the gutting gloves, then I ditched the latex gloves altogether: Get in there and do it right, man has done it that way for a millenium, it is part of the hunt.
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Agree. nothing like the satisfaction of completing the hunt. "it does not have to be fun to be fun" :)
 
Thanks for all the feedback on this.

I enjoy field dressing when I am by myself. If I am with someone else, I feel rushed, etc. I'm still not a fan of cutting out the anus - I'm probably gonna break down and get the butt out this year.

I enjoy the processing part of it much more though.
 
WRbowhunter said:
Poser said:
Does anyone else tend to enjoy gutting deer? I don't know what it is exactly, but there is some satisfaction that comes with the delicate and precise knife work and intense concentration of gutting a game animal. When I first started hunting, that was maybe the most intimidating aspect of the thought of killing a deer. When you've never done it before, its kind of a mystery and you are afraid that, despite how many youtube videos you watch, that you might screw it up. After I got a couple under my belt, I ditched the gutting gloves, then I ditched the latex gloves altogether: Get in there and do it right, man has done it that way for a millenium, it is part of the hunt.
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Agree. nothing like the satisfaction of completing the hunt. "it does not have to be fun to be fun" :)
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I always put a dip in when im through without washing my hands.
 
To answer the question, mostly where it falls. If there is a creek or water nearby, its a plus. If not, o well.
 
Poleaxe said:
Hill Country Hunter said:
Why would so many of you contaminate water or and water ways with fecal matter and rotting animal parts??? What if someone else uses it as a water source? For that matter, what could be more gross than seeing strings of entrails floating by in clear running water--or even worse--in hazy, muddy water where you don't know what else is down in that putrid stream?
Click to expand...

Why would you stop at that Creek on the way to your stand to pee in it? Nothing cleans that out of the water. The guts are eaten by everything from fish, turtles, to coyotes.
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You are making the argument for me--everybody knows you don't pee in the creek if you can help it.

I wouldn't pee in the creek, and I would have a meaningful discussion with anybody I saw doing that. Every decent outdoorsman will make their latrine and keep urine and feces--particularly human excrement--a couple hundred feet or more from any water way and in a spot or buried where it will filter through the soil and not wash into the water with he next rain. The organisms in the soil will clean up those contaminants; the ones in the water will not. Too many of our streams already have higher E. Coli counts, etc., than they should. Washing up is one thing--but would you want to drink the water 25 feet downstream from your floating gut pile? If not, then putting it in the creek is a lazy and selfish thing to do.

Yes, turtles and other things will eat guts, but that will happen a lot faster on land than in the water, and with a whole lot less contamination of water sources.

Also, fish crap and fish parts in the water is totally different than mammalian remains and excrement. The mix of organisms in the stream is balanced to efficiently decompose fish remains without stream contamination; a huge carcass or a bellyfull of e. Coli will wreck the balance and contaminate the water before the organisms there can clean it up.
 
I gut mine where they fall most of the time.Its mostly to make it easier to get the deer out of the woods.I hunt public land with no 4 wheelers. However to be honest if I had a 4 wheeler and skinning tree I would do the skinning and gutting at the same time.
 
Poser said:
If you split the pelvis bone, you don't have to mess with the anus near as much.
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Do you carry a small hatchet or use a sturdy knife for that? I've switched over to the Piranha knife but I also carry an older Buck. Sometimes, mostly on older deer, getting that pelvic bone split is tough.
 
I'll gut'em where they fall as well for the most part. I've watched deer walk by a gut pile from the previous day, stop for a sec and sniff, then ease on like nothing was out of the ordinary. I should say, where the gut pile WAS. ;) Had to be plenty of coyote scent around it bc it was just about licked clean.
 

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