Field Dressing Your Harvest

With over 40 years of experience hunting deer in Missouri, I always feel a great sense of accomplishment each time I harvest a deer. As I walk up to ensure the animal has expired, I immediately fulfill my tagging requirements and then take a few moments of reflection. 

But in the back of my mind, I know a great deal of work lies ahead — field dressing my harvest. The key to acquiring good, quality, great tasting meat from wild game is proper care and handling after an animal has been harvested. Three things to always remember — keep the meat cool, clean, and dry. 

The quickest way to cool the meat is to remove the entrails and open the body cavity to let the body heat of the animal dissipate. This is known as the traditional method. Another way is to remove the meat from the deer and leave the hide, skeleton, and entrails in the field. This second method — known as the gutless method — is used more out west on big game animals but is a very efficient and effective way to take care of your harvest.

Traditional Method

Equipment 

• A pair of rubber gloves. While not necessary, rubber gloves are highly recommended to keep your hands clean. 
• A good sturdy, sharp knife with a 3–5 inch blade. A sharp knife will make the process much quicker and easier and will prevent unnecessary strain on your arms and hands. 
• A hatchet and hammer to get through the pelvic bone. Some people prefer a small saw. Either one works, but sawing leaves bone marrow and bone dust on the meat. 
• Good, strong, quarter-inch rope.

With the traditional method, start by placing the animal on its back with its head uphill, if possible. A lot of times, getting the animal to lay on its back is difficult. This is where rope will come in handy. Tie one leg to a nearby tree, if you can, to help stabilize the body. 

If you harvested a doe, start by removing the milk sac. Remember, this is not a deeply connected part of the deer, so make your knife cuts shallow and think of it more as skinning. If you harvested a buck, remove the penis and testicles. Again, no deep cuts are needed in this process. Start by grabbing the organ and lift up, cutting the skin on the uphill side and working your way down to the anus. When you get back to center of the deer’s hind legs, cut the skin through the meat straight down until you reach the pelvic bone. This is a large solid piece of bone, so it will be hard to miss. 

You’ll need to split the pelvic bone, which sometimes can be done with a knife on a young deer; however, it’s much easier to use a hatchet and hammer. Place the hatchet on the pelvic bone, facing toward you on the downhill side. Use a hammer to get the hatchet through the bone. Again, this is a spot where shallow is better as the bladder is right under the pelvic bone, so be sure to drive the hatchet straight back toward the rear end of the animal and not down. Some use a small saw to get through the pelvic bone; however, this leaves bone marrow and bone dust on the meat, which can make the meat taste undesirable. 

Next, use your knife to cut completely around the deer’s anus from the outside. 

Now, find the breastbone on the deer. You can feel it with the hide on. Using your thumb, press down on the breastbone and follow it, moving from the head of the deer towards the stomach. 

Once you can’t feel the breastbone, stop, back up a half inch, and use your knife to cut through the skin. Be careful not to cut too deep. You want to keep the meat clean, and you can ensure that by not puncturing the entrails. Once through the skin will be the diaphragm, a thin membrane. Make sure you’re making small movements. Place two fingers in front of the breastbone and under the membrane. With your knife blade facing up, lift the membrane as best you can, slide your knife between your fingers, and cut the membrane, being very cautious to move slow and not puncture any entrails. If your knife is equipped with a gut hook, this makes the process significantly easier. However, it is still possible to go too deep, so move slowly and deliberately. Continue to cut through the membrane until you reach the pelvic bone. (If you are going to shoulder mount your deer, skip this next step as it will ruin the cape for mounting). 

Now you’ll need to open the chest cavity. Do this with a good sharp knife by finding the end of the breastbone while straddling the deer, facing toward the head. Just off center of the breastbone, use your knife to cut through the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone. Once through the rib cage, continue to cut all the way up to the jaw of the deer. If needed, you could use a hatchet and hammer or small saw. 

Reaching up as far as you can inside the deer, find the windpipe in the deer’s throat. Once you feel it, you’ll know it. The windpipe is soft, round, and feels like it has ridges on it. Carefully take your knife and sever the windpipe all the way through. Use a rib spreader or short, solid stick to prop open the chest cavity. This will let the body heat escape more rapidly and will also help in the next step. Along the inside walls of the rib cage will be more thin membrane that you’ll need to cut. 

After you have cut as much membrane free from the ribs as you can, set your knife to the side. With both hands reach up as far as you can, grab the windpipe, and pull toward the downhill side. Keep grabbing and pulling wherever you can feel resistance along the bottom of the deer’s spine. 

Eventually if everything is cut loose, you should be able to pull/roll all the entrails out of the deer. Use your knife to remove any fat or pieces left behind. If you tied the deer to a tree for stabilization, untie it, then go to the head of the deer and lift the head as high as you can. If you can get your arms wrapped around the deer just below the front shoulders and stand it up, even better. This removes any excess blood that is left behind from field dressing. 

Many people wash down their deer carcass after field dressing, and if you accidentally nick some of the entrails, this may not be a bad idea. If you do wash the carcass, do so after the deer is hanging so that it can dry. 

To watch a video of the traditional method, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/opf.

Gutless Method 

Equipment 

• A pair of rubber gloves. While not necessary, rubber gloves are highly recommended to keep your hands clean. 
• A good sturdy, sharp knife with a 3–5 inch blade. A sharp knife will make the process much quicker and easier and will prevent unnecessary strain on your arms and hands.The gutless method is an efficient way to take all the meat off an animal while leaving the unused parts of the deer on the landscape, which is preferred especially if you’re in a chronic wasting disease zone. Remember, if you need to take your deer in for testing, you will still need to remove the head and about 6 inches of the neck to submit for testing. 

Place the deer on its stomach with its legs folded under, if possible. Locate the spine and cut through the hide from the tail to the head (figure 1). If you are going to taxidermy your animal, you’ll need to stop just behind the front shoulders. 

Once you have cut the hide from tail to head, begin peeling or skinning the hide off that side of the animal (figure 2).

Once you’ve skinned the hide, a foot or so down from the spine, remove the backstrap. To do this, use your knife to cut through the meat along the spine from the front shoulder to the tail. Then use your knife to cut back under the backstrap, feeling the rib bones as you cut, staying just on top of them and letting them be your guide (figure 3). 

Once the backstrap is removed, lay the deer on the side that still has the hide on it. Finish skinning the deer down to the elbow joints on the front and rear legs. Grab the front leg and lift it up, use your knife and begin cutting off the front quarter (figure 4). Start in the arm pit of the deer and cut the shoulder free from the body. 

Next, remove the rear quarter much the same way (figure 5). This is a bit more difficult as you’ll need to cut down to the pelvic bone and find the hip joint. You’ll see a rounded bone inside of a socket in the pelvic bone. Use your knife to cut connective tissue inside the joint. Continue lifting the rear leg and cutting where you feel resistance. 

Next, remove rib meat and neck meat before rolling the animal over and follow the same procedure for the other side (figure 6). 

Once both sides are complete you should be able to reach in behind the last rib and remove the inner loins that run along each side of the spine (figure 7). Your deer has been taken from the carcass and is ready to be deboned.

To watch a video of the gutless method, visit  short.mdc.mo.gov/opg.

To learn more about deer hunting and related topics, visit our Events page online at 
mdc.mo.gov/events.