Anyone know of a link to a good video or website for a "how to" on field dressing? I havent had the pleasure of field dressing a deer since i was a little one and cant remember the best way to do it

I'd google it for a you tube video. Field dressing a deer depends a lot on what you are going to do with it...immediately take it to a processor, quarter it and take to processor later or quarter it and do your own processing. A lot of people don't even clean them and just take them to the processor. Depending on how old you are there has not been many changes over the years. Probably the biggest being most do not mess with cutting the glands off anymore.

It's just as easy to just quarter the deer and put it on ice and not field dress it. Only reason to field dress a deer is if you're just taking it to a processor and they don't charge for skinning and quartering, which almost all do. I'd rather skin and quarter one anyway cause then you don't have to deal with the guts and it doesn't take very long either

Many of the old timers say that deer should be field dressed ASAP (in the woods before loading) since bacteria begins to develop and decomposition starts immediately after the heart and lungs stop.

So i could take a deer to the processor with out gutting it first? How quickly would i need to get it to the processor?

This ought to be interesting to here the answers to this.

Yes but most of them charge to dress it for you. I paid $30 to have one done last year. I was about 16 degrees out side and I was so cold I could barely move my hands si I just brought it in whole. I don't think I would want to do it that way in warmer weather.

You learn a lot about your shot, bullet performance and how much meat was damaged when you do it yourself.

google is your friend here, lots of pics online with "how to's"

We used to argue over who would clean them when it was cold out. Good way to warm your hands fast.

Ask questions if you dont understand what your seeing with google, or get a buddy to show you.

I don't field dress either. I always have a cooler handy and just throw it in, I do my own processing. Last year I got a lot of deer with MLD tags so for the first time in my life I took two to a processor, never agin. I think I do a better job and know what meat I'm getting back.

I gut after skinning. On smaller doe, I may not even open them at all. There's not a whole lot of meat in the cavity.

Is there something specific you're concerned about?

Here are some step by step instructions:

http://www.dccl.org/information/deer/venison.htm

http://learn-taxidermy.com/field_dressing_deer.htm

http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/freepubs/pdfs/uk100.pdf

Don't forget to place your TAG on the deer in a manner that it is still there after field dressing it.

I've not shot one in 14 years, so I can relate to your concern about wanting to field dress the deer properly.

Goodluck.

Best and cheapest thing to do is different for everyone. If you like hunting and don't mind spending an extra $75 - $100, take the deer to processor just field dressed which only takes about 15 minutes to do. If you want to save that money, skin and quarter and take backstraps. Go to Youtube....on how to do either process. In my opinion, unless you have field dressed several deer a newby shouldn't just shoot a deer and take it to processor. They are missing a big part of the hunting experience but I am sure there are hunters that may disagree.

Field dressing has a lot of advantages, and I'm old school, so I favor it.

One of the biggest advantages is especially in hot weather is it helps to cool the meat getting rid of the body heat, and yea it's messy but a little practice and you get where you barely get your hands dirty, and you should always keep an empty milk jug or bleach bottle with water in it near your stand for that purpose.

When it's cold I look forward to it to help me warm my hands and work up a sweat.

Also if you don't gut the animal you miss out on those good eating tenders inside the body cavity.

As a new hunter I have to say that I find it really enjoyable to skin and quarter the animals myself. Like other posters have mentioned, you learn a lot about your shot placement and how it killed the animal.

Regarding field dressing, I hunt on family land and unless it is in the 80s or above (temperature wise) our procedure is to take the whole animal back to "camp" where we have a gaff (I think that is the word for the hanging rack).

I've been told our process is a bit unusual. We hang them head up, skin the animals first and then remove the hindquarters, and then get our gut bucket under the carcass and then gut them.

We always just skin and quarter.

Learned this year that the processor in Coleman will gut your deer for $10.

Halls in Coleman is top notch!

Yeah, but it is a waste of time if you are going to skin and quarter it fairly quickly. If you want the innards that bad you can always get them after quartering. Now if you are talking a monster buck and you have a drapg ahead of you that is different.

You can skin and quarter a deer as fast as you can gut one. Why on Earth would you gut a deer when you had the deer hanging and the meat was ready to put on ice?! That's just ridiculous. The faster you get the meat on ice, the better and gutting a deer just delays this process and makes a mess. You can pull most of the meat from the ribs and tenderloins from the backside which isn't much meat at all anyway

I gut my deer so you think I am ridiculous. You know what,I think you are ridiculous for not gutting them.

Josh, since you haven't done this in a while, I imagine you'll just field dress and take to a processor.

Most of field dressing is pretty straight-forward, but there are two decision points you might want to think about ahead of time.

1) Splitting the sternum or not

2) Splitting the pelvic bone or not

Those 2 variables result in 4 possible methods and I'm sure there are posters on here that do each of the four.

In reality I think the best way to do it is the way you've been taught. Everyone has a different method. I never take mine to a processor but that is just the way I've been taught. The best part of hunting/butchering is following tradition.

I field dress every deer I kill. It was the way I was shown as a child and the way I'll show my kids one day. Feild dressing takes a matter of minutes and if you carry a pair of hospital gloves with you your not getting anything on you at all. Where we hunt alot of the animals have to be dragged/carried out and it takes a little bit of the weight off them.

Hmmm How long do you suppose guts are left in a cow at the slaughter house?
When I kill a deer, its tagged, take pictures if it is picture worthy then gut that sucker. Get the truck, haul it back to camp and skin it and clean the area around the wound. If its warm (usually is) it gets quartered and wrapped in plastic bags and put on ice. If I am lucky enough to have it COLD I will put a bag over the deer and let him hang. I make my own bags out of sheets. They are roomy and much thicker than any thing I have ever bought. Will not tear easily either. Also,I do all my processing. I want to know how the meat I eat has been cared for from the time it hit the ground until its in my belly.