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About field dressing deer
Is the deer dead?
Of course the deer should be dead before field dressing the deer! If the deer is alive some field dressing methods start off with cutting the deer's
throat and windpipe. You could risk ruining the cape when this is done.
Field dress a deer immediately to drain the blood and cool the carcass without cutting the throat. Wear rubber gloves to prevent any infected blood
from Lyme Disease to make contact with any open cuts. Watch for parasites, tumors, growths, and deer ticks which can transmit Lyme Disease.
Deer ticks can drop off when the deer dies and ticks look for a new host. Don't put the deer anywhere near people or pets to give a ticks the chance
to find a new host. Check your body and clothes after field dressing a deer.
How to Field dress a deer:
Feel along the breastbone till you get to the end of it and pull the skin away. Make a small cut and insert 2 fingers of your other hand. With your
first two fingers in a v pattern, guide the blade between your fingers - cutting edge up and cut through the abdominal wall back to the pelvic area.
Remove the udder of a doe if still nursing. Milk spoils fast may give meat a bad flavor. Separate the external reproductive organs for a buck from the
abdominal wall - don't cut them off completely.
If you don't plan on mounting the head, cut the skin form the base of the breastbone to the jay with the knife up. Cut through the center of the
breastbone. You may want to use a game saw or small axe if the deer is large or old.
Slice between the hams to free the buck' urethra or split the pelvic bone on a buck or doe. Make cuts around the urethra until it is free to a point
above the anus - but don't cut the urethra. Cut around the anus, on a doe the cut should include the reproductive opening. Free the rectum and urethra by loosening the connective tissue with your knife.
To free the windpipe and esophagus, cut the connective tissue severing them from the jaw. Grab and pull down cutting where needed until they are free
and the windpipe branches out to the lungs.
Open the ribcage with one hand and cut the diaphragm from the rib opening down the backbone. Cut close to the rib cage and don't puncture the stomach.
Repeat this on the other side.
Grab the windpipe and esophagus and pull down and away from the body. Make sure the diaphragm is unattached. Scoop both ends to the middle to get out
the entrails. Detach the heart and liver.
Prop the body open. If the urinary tract or intestines were severed the meat should be washed as soon as possible. Use water or snow to wash. Hang the
carcass from a tree to speed cooling or put it over a log with the body cavity down.
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