Guys,

I'm planning to hunt a lot more this year with my crossbow and intend to take at least one doe with it. So hunting in October it's usually pretty hot and with the heat comes the flying critters...mainly flies. Last year when the lease foreman was cleaning the doe he shot I was stunned at all the flies! The doe was covered up! He did his best to cover the meat with a stretchy cloth that he wrapped the doe in as he gutted and skinned it...I was trying to keep the flies off while he was trying to hurry up the cleaning of it but there were just so many! Is there anything you use to keep the flies etc away? Will Yardguard work? Or anything else?

best thing is quarter it, rince & put in cooler with ice...

Always, unless it's below 32 degrees outside, did I say always?

I have a machine that draws them in and traps them, it might help; ANother thing is I don't like to gut them in camp, especially when hot; I try to have at least a bag or two of ice still in bags, and use it in the chest cavity ASAP after field dressing, then quartering it back at camp there's less flies;

Learn to quarter the deer without gutting it might help.

Learn?? Lol!!

The object is to cool down the animal, right?

You can get it on ice faster if you don't gut the animal. Skin Quarter then on ice.

This^ without gutting you can skin, quarter and have the animal on ice in around 30-40 mins. Faster if you have someone to help hold.

Exactly how I do it and I hunt all of bow season.

Yep I haven't gutted a deer in years. Waste of time to me, but to each their own.

When ya huntsolo, & that big one, steps out, i reach for: equate: hemerrhoid cream ... its an advertisement was working on just in case i made the big time...
like with hogs, warmer the weather, faster on ice...
Gutting makes it easier if your not close ta were ya can drive up...

not sure what the big deal is about gutting a deer ... only takes a couple minutes if you are in a hurry, 4-5 minutes if not rushed ... yes, I have been timed at cleanly gutting a deer in under a minute without help ... sure makes it easier to drag to some access point where a vehicle can then transport too.

When hot, we try to get skinned and quartered quickly, into ice chest or fridge so the meat temperature cools off. We've never been a big fan of soaking in water or ice chest filled with icy water, but to each their own.

While hunting out west where there aren't any trees big enough to hoist a deer up into, we have stuffed bagged ice into the chest cavity and another in between the hind quarters, then wrapped in a tarp for transportation to where we could process or have processed.

I am with you on this PMK. I can also gut a deer in less than a minute if I want. Get out the guts and you take away a lot of the heat. Then throw a couple of ice bags in the cavity and you are good to go. I also do not soak the meat in ice water. To me that seems like what you are doing in a way is marinateing the meat in dirty water. But to each his own.

I do not keep the ribs so how is putting ice in the cavity going to cool the hams and shoulders?

Probably assume one would keep the ribs after skinning.

Think about your statement. When you gut the animal it is opened up from the throat to the anus. This is all a cavity. Ice bags will help to cool it all. But I could care less how you want to do it. I like to eat clean and not water soaked meat. So this is how I do it.

For me not gutting is not an option for deer. We take all the legs, the neck meat, tenders, backstraps, flank and cut the meat from in-between the rib bones.

I can gut, skin, and have 4 legs and a deboned carcass in an ice chest in less than 30-40 minutes by myself. If my brother is there look out we will get it done fast! In my opinion I don't worry about the flies, it isn't exposed long enough to do anything.

I keep a large pepper shaker with black pepper. Pepper the deer/meat as your working with it.

I don't think the guy cares how fast you can gut a deer; obviously he can't. A big ice chest is his friend.

I have seasoned countless briskets and steaks with a lot of black pepper and it has never kept flys off of it before going on the pit.

Use it on a carcass in liberal amounts. You can't be shy with it. The pepper will not hurt the meat. The flies may still come around, but they won't light for long and they won't lay eggs on the meat. Public land where I have gutted game on warm days where it was going to take awhile to get to the road is where I first started using it. Worked well for my purposes.

recalculating ... have used the walmart, streachy cloth type, but preffured the quartering & pudding on ice ... some dont like watered down meet, fish we always added salt, presurvitive... Not sure what the yardguard is...
why its a discussion forum...

skin quarter put on ice... you got a couple hours in October after its been killed but the sooner the better

I have yet to understand how to get at the heart and liver without gutting.