Where do you field dress your deer

This will be year 2 for me hunting in Texas, I am a northern guy stationed down here and all my hunting has been, MN, IA, ND, SD, MT. Question is, the few guys I hunted with last year would bring their kill home or back to the campers to gut. For those of you that do this, why? I and those other northern folk generally gut where they fall or close to it. This way you get it out before it starts to blow up and ruin meat, don't bring that mess back with you and makes the animal lighter and easier to handle. I have never had animals spook over gut piles, in fact killed many animals while smelling the gut pile from a day or two prior, both elk and deer. I am not knocking anyone's process just wanted to know why some folks do this.

Unless it's right under my stand, I'll gut it where it dropped.
I've gutted a many a deer in the morning and the gut pile would all be gone by the afternoon hunt.
Oh, to answer your question, more than likely, the reason people do it at camp or home, they can clean it up easier with a water hose handy.

We clean ours at camp, the longest they go is about three hours and usually much less than that. Personally I have seen lots of deer shy from gut piles. Also, although we haven't yet built our cleaning station, it's handy because there is water to clean up afterwards and light as well. Our cats and Great Pyrennes appreciate the food.

I always gut mine in the field, usually where they fall. If its right in my main shooting lane or under my feeder I'll drag it off 50 yards or so and gut it there. I will also move it to an area where I can get the headlights on it if it is already dark.

Quit shooting.....3 hours? Are they not bloated by then?

Depends.
Some places I hunt have a designated place to dump guts, they just want to make sure guts are not left near camp.
We generally throw the animals in the Ranger and make the few minute drive back to camp where we weigh, gut, skin and hang in the cooler.
The few minutes to drive to camp ain't hurting the meat all all. And two guys can handle any Texas whitetail. The animal will not "blow up" in the short trip.

Example:
I shoot a deer and it falls at the feeder, I load it up an drive back to camp. In 10 minutes it is gutted.
My buddy shoots a deer with his bow (or a bad shot with a rifle). Then waits the 15-30 minutes to go look for it. We look and track for 15-30 minutes, or even for a few hours. He guts it right there. I beat him by an hour or more and I gutted at camp.
Neither animal is ruined.

My property owner doesn't want gut piles left on the land. I cart the deer back to the ranch house which takes all of 20 minutes.

But as I grow older and get more experience, I think this idea of getting the guts out of the animal to let it cool down immediately or else the meat is "ruined" is a false one. I've eaten animals that weren't recovered until the next day, and they tasted just fine.

If by bloated you mean do the gasses build up in their stomachs? Yes, but I've seen that happen in a lot less than three hours. We've taken well over 200 deer in the last 30 years and never had a problem. Again, many times it is not three hours but in cooler weather I've never had a problem shooting a deer at first light and cleaning it at 10am back at camp. One of the reasons we clean at camp is we tend to shoot in groups; three hunters might bring in a deer and I'm usually the cleaner because I'm fast and strong.

The experts will also tell you that the meat should never get wet or you're going to get sick from it but it has been SOP in Texas for decades to quarter deer and put them under ice in a freezer and keep it like that for several days and well, we all alive and kickin'.

In my experience this is very true. I shot a spike one evening that managed to fall into a dry creek bed almost under the bank and we didn't find him until the next morning despite being right on top of him. Overnight temp was around 40 and the meat was nice and cold. He ate well.

Camp. Cleaning station, water, gambrel, pandora, libations, and a couple of extra hands. It's a no brainer for me.

Good to hear the comments and to those that think I was trying to stir the pot I was not. Just trying to see what others do and why. I to have had to recover animals the next day and meat was still good. To those that have a meat cooler at camp I envy you. I used to being able to hang deer and elk for 2 weeks up north and butcher our selves. Now it's a rush to the butcher in this weather. Once again thanks for the thoughts as to why.......we all were brought up different and learn from those in front of us. Good luck to all this year!

I do mine where it falls unless by the feeder and I have yet to shot one standing there eating corn, so...

I drive back and get the tractor...hang it from the fel... clean it at the barn where it can be washed, butchered and put in a freezer. The guts go in the fel and dispersed somewhere away from the barn. Gut pile usually don't last more than 2 days.

I do both depending on the situation. If the deer drops where there will be a long drag, I gut right there because it makes for an easier drag. If he/she falls where it is a short drag to a trail or road where I can get my Truck, then I will use the cleaning station. Much easier to gut and wash with water when they are hanging and you have a hose. If you gut at the cleaning station, it is also easier to save the heart and liver. yum!

This, although I don't actually gut them. Skin, quarter cut straps, some neck trimings and reach in and get the tenderloins. All with the guts still sitting in the chest cavity. Grab the wheelbarrow, and dump the remains about 100 yards away on the bone pile. All this with a cold beer in my hand.

If I'm hunting in my neck of the woods, normally, it's just too easy to load the critter up and do all the cleaning at camp with a water hose and everything else handy. Gut/skin/quarter/pack in ice or hang in cooler depending on where I'm at. As you know it is different up North. I used to hunt Nebraska when I was married and had no choice but to gut the deer in the field. We normally had to drag them big deer out & was always a loooong way from a camp or home where we could hang it up and finish. Plus it was always freakin' cold, so no worries about the meat going bad. Gut where it fell (normally) and drag out. Load in back of truck, wash hands and knife in the snow, and go on about your day. It was sure different my first time hunting up there, kinda like your first down here. I shot a big doe my first trip out with my muzzleloader. We got back to the house that night and the first thing I did was look for a water hose to rinse out the chest cavity. Of course couldn't find one out that time of year and they were looking at me like I'd lost my mind. Ain't no rinsing nothing when everything is frozen I learned.

If I do gut them I always put guts in same pile. I coyote bobcat hunt the pile.

Gut them within 20-30 yards of where they drop. I try to find a hill or something to lay them on so the blood will drain. I also try to not leave the guts on the road.

Some folks just like to make everything a production, my FIL being one of them. I like to get it over quick and clean. I try to always have a jug of water in the truck, rinse more thorough at camp.

If it's been gut shot or I think the shot may have nicked the stomach or guts, I'll gut it where it fell and I'll do it as quick as I can. I've only had to do that with one deer shot by my son. Otherwise, I throw it in the back of the truck or Kubota and take it back to camp. I like to clean them at camp because no matter how much I try to be careful, I still look like I've been in a horror movie after I get done.

I got almost everyone I kill in the field or where they drop. I can move the gut pile away if needed, but vultures are on it quick or coyotes depending on the time of day. I have always gutted deer on the ground and have gotten really quick at it with the right tools. I use a gut hook, knife and tree loppers. On does I can gut one in a minute more or less depending on how many I have had practice on that season. Bucks that someone is wanting to have shoulder mounted I will take a bit more time on.

I've done both field dressing and brought them back to camp. All I know that all this talk of gutting and quartering whitetails is seriously building my anticipation for this season! I enjoy processing my game after the hunt. To me its all part of the experience.

I stopped gutting deer and hogs years ago. I skin and querter put on ice, haul the carcas off.

Back at camp where we have good running water and winch/skinning area. Have guy buckets and haul to ranch dump.

It's all that time/experience spent hunting the long lease!

I usually don't at this point. Almost anywhere I'd shoot a deer, I can pick it up in my truck and drive it to the cleaning station. Then I take backstraps, quarters, and drag the remainder about 30 yards to the woods surrounding the creek. There won't be a track of it the next day.

Depends on weather, if I am by myself, etc... I prefer to do it where they lay, and definitely if I have to load myself... If I have help, not too hot, we'll do it at camp, then use the guts for coyote bait over the hill from camp

Where they drop. I have gutted so many deer it is a game to me to see how fast I can get it gutted and loaded. Sharp knife ? 5 minutes tops. Guts are gone in south texas within a few hours from coyotes

This is exactly it. Plue, back at camp there tends to be a few youngsters milling around and this is a great opportunity to teach them how to clean and quarter a deer.

I clean mine pretty close to where I shoot it. I'll drag it away from the feeder, or road, or whatever, but I'll do it right out in the field.

We gut them in camp.

Even though we gut them in camp, I still gut them on the ground, hate gutting hanging deer swinging around etc. On the ground it stays where you want it till you move it.

Wait till I get back to clean it and do it all then.. when I clean the deer the guts never leave the rib cage so quick and easy no hassle... cut off straps, shoulders, pull down flanks to get to tenders, then make one easy cut in-between a vertebra pop goes the ribs and guts into your bucket then debone or sawzaw the hams and your done

i always do it back at camp as well since there is a cleaning station and a fire near by if my hands get cold

Yep and if Clyde's there I will HimHaw around and he will have it skinned and quartered by the time I get my Knife out

There's a tree in my front pasture that I use. I've left a chain around a limb to hang the gambrel from.

Yep. I have no clue why anyone would want to gut an animal.

In the field dressing room of course. Don't want the other deer to be peeping.

I was raised to use as much of it as I could. I have also hunted on leases where if you cut and threw the ribcage away with the guts and didn't get the flank/inbetween rib meat out you were done and not coming back. Different strokes for different folks.

this for me too but I don't use a gut hook and rarely use lops unless I have difficulty hitting the cartilage of the pelvis.

In the skinning shed.

I absolutely will not field dress a deer unless I absolutely have to. I want to make sure that I have it skinned and washed before I even gut the animal. I want my meat clean clean clean. When I shoot my deer I'll take it back to camp and hang it, skin it, wash it, gut it, wash it, quarter it, and wash it again. Then put it in the vault to cool for 4-6 days. Then I will process it.

Because some of us want the ribs.

Duh so you can ware the entrails like a zombie and sneak up on your fellow hunters in the dark

For the bones or something?

We are MLD so all deer come back to camp before being field dressed to be weighed.

9 times out of 10 I keep the ribs. They either get de-boned and go in with the sausage grind, or cut in half/seasoned heavy and put on the smoker until they are jerky snacks, (goes great with beer), or they get cut in half long ways/deep fried in peanut oil and seasoned good as soon as they come out of the pot (kinda like cracklins/goes great with beer). After I/we're done with them then the dogs eat the bones. Sometimes I cook the ribs just for my dogs, they love em. If someone gut shoots a deer, then I normally don't keep them.

"Sometimes I cook the ribs just for my dogs, they love em."

No need to cook 'em then. Dogs would prefer (and are genetically predisposed) to eating raw, meaty bones.

Yes you are correct, I feed them a lot of raw as well. Only reason I cook them on occasion for the dogs is to just give them something different. Give'em something a little smokey/salty/seasoned. I'm a firm believer in feeding raw though and they love it.

Clue- the info one can gain from what you inside as you clean a deer. I check several things as I gut a deer. Herd health, rut timing, etc can be seen at a quick glance.

my parents grew up thru the depression and did not waste much, including heart & liver, pretty much stripped every possible bit of meat off the entire carcass from knees to up to the base of the ears ... just the way I was raised. Likewise, when I learned, there weren't any of the fancy conveniences of today, like 4 wheeler or UTV and not many people had 4 wheel drive in their trucks, so it was usually a pretty good drag from where the animal was shot to where a vehicle could get to it to load ... so removing the guts was a sure fire way to lighten the drag weight. Likewise, I learned early on that any dirt or hair had to be removed prior to processing (I was overly careful to keep things clean), which I had a major hand in too since my dad was allergic to the hair or dander from any form of deer related animal. Imagine your frustration trying to teach a 5-6 year old how to gut and/or skin a deer without being able to touch it yourself (that was my dad), so I learned very young and got to be pretty quick with the entire process as we hunted a lot and filled all our tags every year (maybe a few over the limit since the statue of limitations has expired ) but we didn't waste any meat ... some old habits are hard to break, so I gut in the field and toss the gut pile to the side for the buzzards, coons and coyotes to sort out. I might drag a little ways away from a feeder or a road but that's about it. Its also hard to load a mature ungutted buck into the bed of a UTV or 4x4 truck, sometime even hard to do a gutted one.

I am not saying taking to a skinning rack or not gutting is a bad thing, just not the way I do it. To each their own.

Like a lot of people, I prefer field dressing on the ground out in the field. I typically find a place about halfway back to camp that is out of the way and not close to any other hunting area. On the ground is much easier than hanging IMO. Wash up at camp and celebrate with a few choice beverages.

Usually in the camp gravel pit that's about 300 yards from the cabin. Other than the first 2 or 3 weeks of bow season it is pretty rare for the temperature to get above 40 and often it is below freezing so we usually have some time.

Folks are definitely different when it comes to this. Growing up my Dad would keep one to two deer a year for the freezer in our house, every other animal was given to someone who wanted or needed it. He was never anal like me about using unpopular parts of the deer. He was primarily a horn hunter. I never saw him de-bone a rib cage. Most of the time the ribs went with the guts. He used to ask me why I bother with them, can still hear him giving me a hard time about keeping deer ribs. He taught me to breast a dove, nothing else there worth worrying about son. Same as cleaning fish, only skinless boneless fillets for the frying pan.

Fast forward....the place I hunt in Duval if you don't at least make an attempt at the ribs you are looked at as being wasteful. If you just breast a dove out on their ground you probably won't be invited back. You pluck the whole bird and keep the little legs & wings if you want to come back. To each their own. Me personally I like the ribs and necks from deer (if not shot in neck), and I like the ribs and throats/tails from certain fish as well.

We've got a corner of the lease that nobody hunts and we set up a boat winch in a tree with a gam hook.
We load up the deer or hog in the truck and drive over there and hook it up and lift it right off the truck bed and pull forward.
All the gutting and skinning, quartering, happens there.

We do ours here just south of the cabins. Makes it very easy.

I'm real happy that I don't need to look in a pile of guts to know those things.

Also, my ranches are MLD and I report live weight, so that precludes field dressing.

I was raised that way too. But even my dad, who was raised in the depression, learned that gutting didn't save anything but the film between the ribs and that it wasn't worth the effort.

The flank meat and all external trimmings are easily obtained without gutting, but hey, if you're convinced that it's wasting meat, by all means do what floats your boat.

Dropping them off at a processor. We didn't have any local that would take them without being gutted. Sometime had other obligations to get to, but pulled the trigger anyway.

Likewise, if your convinced that a spike buck is the sign of the next wall hanger by all means do whatever floats your boat.

I don't gut them

Wonder how many folks contaminate their meat because of gutting in the field wrong... then wonder why the processor messed up their meat

Take them back to camp asap to skin,quarter and debone and get in the cooler. Will gut in the field if have to drag too far to vehicle.

Navasot how do you contaminate in the field other than nicking a gut or getting dirt on the meat?

WILHUNT, I agree. I gut my animal right where I drop it unless restricted by ranch.

If I can load it without gutting I will do that and gut at the house. If it is too heavy to load I will gut where it lays. If that is in the middle of the feeder so be it.

Or let it sit overnight with guts in it, or let it sit for 4 hours while eating breakfast etc.

I sometimes collect the gut pile from that evening/morning and put it in the field for some varmint action. It has worked numerous times

I hunt in the panhandle and am lucky enough to have a nice barn with water and a nice place out of the weather. This has been an issue as the last two deer I have killed one was right as a sleet storm was moving in and the second was during a heavy snow. By rifle season night time temps are in the teens and twenties and after gutting I always let the deer hang over night if it was an evening kill. My only issue has been funny looks as the deer is frozen and legs are sticking out of the truck bed everywhere on the way to the processors.

Body heat isn't good for the meat especially in Texas. Leaving the guts in for even a 1/2 hour or so is going to be worse than any small amount of contamination from gutting in the field.
It's best to gut as soon as possible, prop the cavity open so that the body cools asap.
If you can drop the animal and have it hanging and skinned in less than an hour then by all means leave the guts in, but most hunters don't have that luxury and should practice common sense when handling game after the kill.

I would rather take them back and hang them. For me it is easier and cleaner. Most of the time I dont gut them. I quarter them and make a small insertion for the inner loins.

X2 I do the exact same thing when I can. Once you have done it you will never Gut a deer again.

I use the gutless method and bone them where they hit the ground when I'm hunting in areas that allow that. If I'm hunting in a place where I can't bone them in the field I gut and quarter them where they fall. Frankly I never saw the logic in hauling bones home and then having to dispose of them later. Makes more sense to leave them in the field for the critters to chew on.

I gut them where they fall. I have learned from some relatives in recent years the 'dont gut them' method and did it to a doe last year. Works, but I just prefer having them out. I am good at it and pretty quick. I would rather do it and have a clean animal to skin.

I watch my kid do it wherever he wants how ever he wants.

Did any of yall's grandpas ever gut in the field then hunt the guts? I've heard more than one old timer say hunt the guts. I have set my cameras on gut piles and deer that have died in a fence and most every time the first visitors are deer.

I have killed a few deer while they were smelling the gut pile from the day before, and find that elk in ID and MT are really curious of the pile....I (my opinion and experience) don't think it spooks them at all

I've done both. I've gutted deer where they fell. and I've brought them back to camp. some places camp was not much better than where they fell. other places camp had running water and a nice place to hang them up.

on the home ranch we load them up and take them to camp. its just easier. camp is never more than a mile away...all ranch roads pretty easily traveled by truck. deer can be loaded up and haning in camp next to running water in 10-15min tops. more often than not...we will go pick them up with the tractor. just roll your deer/hog into the bucket....pick-em up and go.

as a kid though I learned to gut deer on a place where we had no place to hang them. all deer were gutted laying on the ground. to this day I prefer to do it that way. even bringing a deer to camp i'll gut it as it lays on the ground and then hang it up to wash it out afterwards.

I dress mine in the "field", hence "field dressing" I have been on hunts where for some odd reason, they wanted you to bring them to camp for "Camp Dressing"

I guess some people believe deer are sensitive to a gut pile as if they have cognitive reasoning like people I have watched deer, elk smell a gut pile and go on back to whatever they where doing. I wont gut one close to a feeder, mostly to keep varmints, mainly buzzards, from sitting and chitting on my feeder BTW, can't recall the last deer I shot under a feeder though, most are in the oats, or cruising.

Not worried about the deer reacting to it... I just see no reason at all to do it in the field when I can do it at the skinning rack were im set up to do it and save all the extra mess... your making one process into two... all about being efficient and keeping the mess to a minimum.

Do yall open your corn sacks before you head out to fill feeders also?

No problem with that, but not everyone has a state of the art cleaning station When I gut a deer, I leave the "mess" in the field.
Not saving any time, or better efficiency, since now you still have to load and discard the guts you brought back.

As far as processing, with you 1000%

It consist of a tree branch, rope, saw horses and plywood but I thought it was pretty fancy too

See, your big time"