Bird gut hook?

Does anyone use a bird gut hook when cleaning their birds, or are hooks just gimmicks? I found a pretty neat pocket knife that has one of these hooks, but I wasn't sure that I'd ever use the thing.

Thanks

Here is the way I field dress mine.

Nice!

I use the Oxner Method now. Very easy! Thanks Bill!

Really only useful if you are going to pluck the birds and clean them whole for bake and stuffing recipes.
Almost everyone skins the bird -- some cut out the backbone. Cutting out the backbone is called spatchcocking the birds and allows you to
flatten it for a grill. In South Texas, people who have hunted in Mexico call it Mexico style or Mocatito Zip--it is the way birds boys in Mexico cleaned birds for Texas hunters when we could still hunt in Mexico.

I use one. I remove the guts from my birds asap. The guts of upland birds get nasty really quick. Its best to get them out as soon as possible. They keep in a cooler much better after that. Once the guts are out you can leave em whole in a ziploc in your cooler till your ready to clean them all at once. It's nice to get your pictures of all of your birds as well.

It takes a little getting used to but once you learn how you can hook all the guts at once, you can have them out in less then a minute. Don't let your dogs get them. I hear the dogs can develop a hard mouth that way.

WACM - so you're using a hook to get the guts out without cleaning the bird? Can you explain a little more or perhaps point me to a video?

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

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!

Been there. Found one on my friends Ranger my last time out.

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.

My brain is locking up trying to envision how this is done

Cut off the tail, stick the hook in the cavity, twist it a bit and pull. You may need to to it twice.

Ha, sorry hold the bird and feel to find the bottom of the breast plate. Just below that is the birds anus. So you want to open the bird up from the bottom of the breastplate to the tail. You can make an incision there or just grab the tail section and rip it open between it and the breastplate. It’s just skin there.

Then stick the hook in and pull the guts out..So the bird stays completely intact..it’s just hollowed out in the back. You can pinch that skin between the bottom of the breastplate and the butt and sever it without getting your hands dirty. It takes seconds to sever. On Pheasent I use a knife cause they don’t tear open like quail. I hope this helps.