How do you remove the tenderloins? I have wanted to try this but seems you still have to open them up to get to them?

I seldom gut any animals anymore.

The tenderloins are retroperitoneal and can be accessed by bluntly working your way under the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. Then, if you're right-handed, use your left hand fingers to free up the belly of the muscle. Next, with the knife in your right hand, carefully cut the tenderloin at its proximal and distal ends. It's easy, once you learn how. I've done all 4 moose I've shot this way, as well as most other big game.

Get someone to show you....or find a youtube demonstration.

dawaba, I need to hunt with you just so I can keep all those organs you leave behind. Fresh liver might be half the reason I hunt, and why I always take onions to camp. Heart and kidneys are damn fine eating too. My kids especially love kidneys in an omelette. I can only guess at the size of a moose liver... I gotta hunt some moose one day.

-ww

I'm personally not a big fan of organ meat, nor have any of my Alaskan and Canadian guides wanted any either. By observation, I'd say a moose liver would fill a #2 wash tub brim-full.

But, South Africans, both white and black, take great care to carefully harvest the liver, heart and kidneys. I've witnessed black Africans nearly come to fisticuffs over kidneys and tripe. I stood well clear of the knives and machetes!

I never was either until I met my wife and had something other than the old nasty stuff from the grocery store, and had it prepared by someone that new what they there were doing. Heart is fantastic in stews, but my wife makes a kind of a giblet rice with it that I could just about eat with every meal.

Hint on liver for those not in the know, if the liver tastes like "liver" it is old! Go ahead and give it to the dogs.

I'm still looking up all those
Words he used in the post?

Yeah me too. MD?

Inconsiderate at best.

Anyone have a recommendation of a good youtube video for properly field dressing a deer?

if you just cut the flanks down to the ribcage you can get to the tenders pretty easy with the guts still there... that's if your hanging the deer by the rear legs... I don't understand why anyone would hang them by the head

Using the right words ensures that there is no confusion.

Retroperitoneal: outside of the abdominal cavity. The peritoneum is the clear membrane that lines the inside of the abdomen. Everyone's heard of peritonitis, an inflammation of the peritoneum. The tenderloin--as well as the kidneys--are outside of this membrane.

Proximal: closer, as toward the head. Cranial.

Distal: farther way, as toward the tail. Caudal.

Lumbar vertebrae: the 7 (usually) backbones that lie between the ribs and the pelvis. When you strain your back while lifting something, you usually hurt your lumbar area.

Tranverse processes. Anyone who has seen bleaching bones out in the field will note that most vertebrae have a single dorsal process sticking up and two transverse processes that flare out to the left and right. The long bone in a T-Bone steak is a transverse process. It separates the backstrap above from the tenderloin below. Next time you pet your dog, feel along his back in front of his pelvis. You can actually feel the muscle-covered transverse processes on each side. Imagine making an incision from his ribs to his pelvis right over the ends of these processes. Then imagine working your hand on the bottom side of the processes to work the muscle away from the bone above.

That's it!

I always hunted from a stand near woods, never had a problem with the land owner on throwing the guts into the woods or into a ravine for the pigs and fox to make short work of it.

Its nature's way of recycling.