Enigma

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since he left us. GOAT in my humble opinion.

I don't know you Chef but that's just some weak azz s@#$. Alright if you don't agree with the candidate but to blatantly disparage the wife and kid is lame. Get a grip on some class bud.

Stopped in after not seeing this thread for awhile. You folks are getting it done! There's some very impressive stuff here. My second floor balcony container garden suddenly became my ex gf's one day and left the same morning she did. Unfortunately, no updates on that haha. My small research grow is starting to pop. Some CBG and CBD plants. Averaging about 3.5' x 3.5' now. Some big some small its a weed after all And just a quick shout out and thanks to all the farmers out there that still do it everyday.

https://cortlandstandard.net/2019/11/22/deer-park-looking-for-bucks/ 40 head on 12 acres.. Smaller than I thought. Also sounds like penned up pets at this point. Dang, even the deer get handouts in NYS. We take care of everybody lol.

Gotcha. Makes sense I guess. I wonder if they do any culling inside the fence? just assuming they'd have to.

I'm not sure if we're thinking the same spot but . . . While enrolled as a freshman there in '87 there was a girl from my hometown also enrolled there. She was a senior and had somehow earned the privilege to live in this special small dorm at the bottom of the hill. She asked me for a ride back home one time, had to be first semester around Thanksgiving break. I just remember being in her apartment waiting for her to gather her stuff, looking out her kitchen window and seeing deer behind this fence 30 yds away across the lawn. A couple does popped out and then just an absolute slob buck. I was fairly inexperienced hunter at the time but just remember seeing that buck and thinking holy s@#$! I'd never seen anything that big, alive and on the hoof.

Congratulations to you and your daughter! I wish her much success! I found myself enrolled at SUNY Cortland as a freshman way, way back in the day but was not ready for the college experience at the time. They didn't invite me back for a sophomore year lol. I'm sure her experience there will be more productive than mine. FWIW my oldest left last Friday to start college and I was very happy and proud to see him on his way. Exciting times as a parent . Once again congratulations!

Uhhhhhh no. Please don't rinse your filets in blood. Or a nearby stream. Or anything else but COLD CLEAN WATER. Remove from carcass asap, rinse, pat dry and in the fridge to cool. Eat next evening. Not complicated. Sorry, but "no" #2. A cold clean water rinse does not promote bacterial growth when the meat is chilled asap after rinsing. The blood in the ribcage may be sterile but there's absolutely no reason to "rinse" anything there. Even if the tenderloins are covered in gut juice and piss.

Like I wasn't feeling inadequate enough today then i see this post. The grin on your face, grilling steaks on the tundra says it all. Well done. Very well done and thanks for posting the pics.

For those who will gut their deer this year - I remembered a tip this morning that's worked well for me. At some point you'll be up inside the ribcage attempting to severe the windpipe (trachea). Once free at the top, about half way down it's length, make a small 1" incision lengthwise through the windpipe. Repeat on the other side of the pipe. Please note the trachea is quite tough with rings of cartilage and doesn't cut easily. You can now get a couple of fingers through the slits and it gives you a good handle to pull on to pull the contents down and out of the carcass. I've also used a short (4") stout stick through the incisions as a T handle.

To each his own.

100% in agreement. It's not complicated. Remove from deer, rinse in cold, clean water at home (my preference) and in the fridge to cool asap. Next day grill or fry. It's the best "steak" on the animal if handled properly. If anyone has to rinse off any intestinal, gastric juices or blood they've either gut shot their deer or cut something open they shouldn't have during gutting. Neither is optimaI and I confess to doing both myself in the past lol. But the tenderloins I brought home were still excellent when rinsed and cooled. Just another vote for gutless IMHO.

So you're adamant that gutting is required so you can salvage the heart and liver, but you really just want to open one up so you can rinse off the "gut juice" and piss from the tenderloins right? With the lung soup from the chest cavity correct? Yum. My mouth's watering as I type . . . I really need to rethink this whole gutless method now. I guess I'm missing out on something. Even though the tenderloins I've retrieved and prepared have all been delicious, I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years . .

We're both trying to achieve the same goal. Just coming at it from different ways that's all. Practical for one person can be a hassle for someone else. All depends on time, place and resources in my opinion. I didnt think you were calling me out on the gutless. But now I'm going to have to kill one from a saddle just to bust you twice . Thanks again for your input, in all sincerity all points are welcome.

Different perspectives that's all. The hassles to me are the dragging and manhandling of the carcass during the process. I'm not looking for the adventure, just an alternative approach to get the meat home. I realize the chances are high that I'll be doing this in the dark, cold or snow. I'm factoring in those contingencies as well. I'm also pretty confident in being able to keep the breakdown area in the field as clean and manageable as you do in your garage. What extra "crap" to carry while hunting are you talking about? The only extra items I see needing to do this in the field, in addition to what I already carry, are a couple pieces of house wrap and some game bags. I won't be hunting with a pack frame, that'll stay in the car until I need it. With respect to how far away the field processing site is from a road or trail or access point ie., drag distance, my view is any distance is too far at this point in my life. Dragging 50 yards or a mile is the same to me. They both suck lol. Let's say we kill an average NYS doe and it goes 100# dressed. And for the sake of simplicity let's agree that we get 50% of a dressed deer's weight in red meat when we're done butchering said deer. I do a field breakdown and carry 50# clean meat back to my car loaded on a pack frame. Those that gut, drag and haul the entire carcass home are moving 50# of in-edible bones, hide and hooves for nothing! It could be argued that we both end up with the same thing, 50# of meat, but have you not done twice the work that I have to get to the same result? Moved an extra 50# for what? Not to mention additional time and energy (work) to properly dispose of the 50# of "waste" generated. Like I said I'm just trying to plan out a more efficient way to get the protein home and am now seeing the traditional dragging and hauling as an inefficient means to do it with respect to the extra work involved. To each there own I guess.

My thoughts as well. I'm trying to picture myself hunched over working at my feet with the deer on the ground versus having it hanging at eye level in front of me. You make a good point about losing the leverage advantage while skinning horizontally vs. vertically though. I'm banking on past experience and some thoughts Dinsdale reinforced that a warm carcass and some strategically placed hand holds cut into the skin will make quick work of peeling back the hide. We'll see! I too found myself skinning a deer horizontally at one point in time. Mine was on a picnic table though, not a tailgate. You really don't get the full effect of how much fun that process can be unless your deer is frozen solid like mine was lol. Skin an inch at a time, pull hard and then pick up deer off the ground, return to table. Repeat lol. Deer fat meets icy table top = fun fun times. In all seriousness, I just don't see it being that bad if the carcass is still warm.

I've not had the surgeries but we're thinking along the same lines.

Good point. Not for me to criticize how someone does it but you're correct. Alot of edibles went into that blue barrel as well with one cut of that saw.

TY. That gives me an idea or two on the "hanging gutless". I'll give this guy props for speed but I'm focusing more right now on being methodical and as someone says on here surgical when doing this. I'm just hung up right now, no pun intended, on hanging the carcass. I doubt I'll be hanging it in the field. I'm thinking of the breakdown horizontally now, not vertically.

Just so I'm clear, the deer are brought out intact (no field dressing), hung and then skinned, quartered and deboned correct?

Exactly. Why carry anything out if you're not going to consume it or utilize it? I'm trying to adapt, hunting wise, to some life changes and it's just not practical for me now to do field to fork the way I've done it in the past. Trying to work smarter as I get older lol.

Because Biden told me I didn't have to do it if I didn't want to. And I don't want to. Tough crowd here lol! Anyway - back on track . . . I'm just trying to think of ways to get from point A to point B, dead animal in the woods to a cooler of meat on my deck in the least amount of time and with the least amount of effort. I'm getting old and weak and lazy. So at this point in I'm just trying to rethink the steps. Opening the belly on a deer I just don't see as a necessary step any longer if I'm not going to move it, cart it off or hang it at home or in the field. When I fillet a crappy or perch I don't gut them first. I start at the top (backbone) and work down toward the belly following bones, avoiding the guts. Same thing with squirrels. When I skin and clean them after a nice head shot, second thing I do is clip the skin by the spine and skin down to the belly. Guts in this case come out last only because I'm not filleting anything further. I'm just thinking a similar approach to processing a deer might work better for me now.

Appreciate the comments so far, keep them coming. That being said, I won't be gutting anything. I know it only takes 5 minutes but that's 5 min I'll be skipping. I can retrieve the heart last, if salvageable, from inside the upper ribcage when done.

I've tried this with a hanging (dressed) deer with some success. After I pop off the quarters, I think I'll try to incorporate something like this without the downward knife strokes. His example isn't exactly gutless lol.

I've watched this vid and others. I see something a little different in each one that I think will be beneficial.