I start by cutting off the wings and lower legs. It's important to leave the head attached.


There you have a whole skinned quail.

Next, you pull the leg over the back, and pull the legs off one at a time. It's best to pull from the front to the back.



Here you have a whole quail with the legs and thighs removed and in the pan.




You could see that I had the quail by the head with my right hand. Just pull the head and neck off and the intestines come with it.. You can see that I have the breast in one hand and the head with the backbone and guts in the other hand. Notice that my hands are still clean




I've done them every other way that's known, but this has always worked best for me. I can do them as fast as a helper can clip the wings and feet.

You can also leave them in the vest over the summer if you don't get em all out on the last trip.....not recommended tho!

I remove the guts cause they make the whole bird get mushy and smell awful. Once the guts are out the bird can sit in a cooler a few days or in your vest an entire day and be just fine. If you leave the birds on the best all day on even a few hours without removing the guts they fester and at least stink real bad and at worst start getting into the meat of the birds and breaking it down. You can stick your finger right through the bird.

If your on hunting trip for a few days you can gut your birds and leave them whole in a ziploc in your cooler until your entire hunt is over. Then pull all the birds out and take a picture of all of them all together. Then you can clean all of them at once. The birds will taste better and will be much more palettable for cooking

WACM,
I've never used a gut hook so I'm interested in hearing how this works. From what I can tell, you aren't opening up the birds in a traditional way. I would do this if it's easy and doesn't take too much time during the hunt.