Do You Still Gut Your Deer?

Home I bring them out whole and process them the same as a beef, I’ve work it so that I can drive my tractor to my baits from there to the tackles under the main beam in my barn and then into the cooler.

To camp we bring them out gutted with the hide on, camp is only accessible via 13 mile atv ride acrossed ridges and bogs or
Via boat so hide on helps to keep them clean.

Generations prior a fair amount came out already processed in jars or was Jarred and packed away in camp for later use during logging trips. There was also a barrel buried in the ground full of brine for Corning.

I take it those of you using the gutless method are not harvesting the organs?

Tubby’s Canteen said:

I take it those of you using the gutless method are not harvesting the organs?

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I have before. In my opinion, the biggest advance of the gutless method aside from being able to take an animal deep back is that you do not risk contamination of the meat from the gutting process. After you are done, the rib cage is left and you can take whatever you want from inside.

Tubby’s Canteen said:

I take it those of you using the gutless method are not harvesting the organs?

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Correct. I am not an organ eater. Frankly my normal shot is heart/lungs, so the heart is a moot issue. I will bring things to native friends at church, if I know they want something and it's practical.

I very rarely gut deer.

Wild pigs on the other hand, every single pig is gutted as the ribs with the backstrap left attached are one of our favorite cuts. We keep everything on the pigs except the oink. Well worth the effort.

Tubby’s Canteen said:

I take it those of you using the gutless method are not harvesting the organs?

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I dont
I don’t like liver and the heart I don’t eat them much anymore.
And I have never wanted lights or sweetbread

I don't have a barn or other place I could do my own butchering so it goes to a processor.
My m.o., shoot, get truck, back up to deer, flop animal on power lift unit platform, hit button to lift animal to tailgate height, swing platform 180 degrees, roll animal off on to bed of truck, stow lift unit, position deer on tailgate, don long sleeve and heavy latex gloves, use gut hook knife and loppers, gut, bag liver and heart for a friend's dog's special diet. Dependent on size of deer, takes around ten minutes. Transport to processor. Figure out what I want. Could be bacon, sweet sticks, hot sticks, lebanon baloney, roasts, bacon-cheddar cheeseburgers, jerky, ring baloney, or others. Backstraps and tenderloins I keep whole. and the remainder burger.

I've only used the gutless method.

I mostly hunt remote areas in the Southwest USA, and the animal is usually downed miles from a vehicle, no reason to carry back bones or organs I am not actually going to eat, plus with a center mass shot or two from a high powered rifle using an expanding bullet the whole chest cavity is a soupy bloody mess anyways.

It depends. If I’m transporting the animal whole then ya I’ll gut. But most of my hunts involve packing the animal out in pieces on my back. So gutless method for me. I will reach in to grab the tenderloins and the heart though.

For deer sized species, I prefer to hang the animal from a tree and remove the backstraps, hindquarters and frontquarters from the outside and place them into plastic bags strait away.

Afterwards I open the animal, in order to:

• Inspect for signs of disease
• See the effect of the bullet
• Remove the tenderloins and any organs I wish to eat

I haven’t had to drag a deer more than 50 yards since I quit hunting Colorado years ago! 4 wheeler or a side by side will get anywhere I can walk in our part of East Texas.

Hang ours by the rear legs, but still don’t gut. Inside filets from the top.

Hogs we dont gut because ga swamps is always hot. And we kill alot of hogs.

But deer i always gut as deer season in nc is always good for time being onbmy side

I can have a Deer or Pronghorn skinned out, quartered and de boned(where allowed) back straps and tenderloins in the bag in 30-40 minutes depending on the terrain and if I am working in the dark or the daylight. I am not the quickest person, but I keep alot of hair off the meat and my taxidermist has never complained. If I am hunting local to home and it’s an easy drag to the truck or side by side I will bring it out whole gutted and skin it out at home.

I’ve become intrigued by the gutless method however, I believe the heart to be the best cut so I’ve always gutted to remove that organ.

mdwest said:

With whitetail, no... The distance from my furthest blind to my cleaning station is less than a 10 minute drive by UTV.. from the time I shoot the animal to the time I have it hoisted up on a gambrel is well under an hour, and thats again if I shoot it from the furthest blind and then have to spend time looking for it..

I use the gutless method on whitetail.. basically hoist it up and get the hide off of it quickly (can usually have the entire thing skinned in 30 minutes tops.. then remove the backstraps, then the neck roasts, then the front quarters, then then reach inside from the back and take out the tenderloins, and then remove the rear quarters last.. its less messy, and everything is processed and in the cooler in plenty of time before there would be any spoilage..

For larger animals or animals that are going to take some time to recover I'll still gut.. but.. thats not to obtain more meat.. its just to prevent potential spoilage..

there are lots of quality videos out there on youtube showing you how to get the tenderloins out from inside the carcass using the gutless method.. just search gutless method..

Works on pigs, deer, elk, pronghorn, etc..etc..

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I swear I am going to make a video this year about this. Unfortunately, in the first video, the guy is standing on the wrong side of the animal when skinning and cutting the dorsal cut towards himself. He should be on the other side (where the cameraman is) and cuttiing/skinning away from his body. What he is doing is a good way to stick a knife in his thigh and bleed out in the backcountry. His method also makes for a zigzag cut that the taxidermist would not like to sew up. He should stand on the opposite side and push his knife away from his body and just unzip the hide in a nice straight cut instead of a bunch of small cuts towards his body.

I’ve guided Randy (yes he has hunted with outfitters) and his video is a little better but talks too much.

I rarely gut an animal unless hunting a ranch with a processor nearby.

For elk and large animals, I usually use the gutless method and make true “quarters” by removing the front shoulder, neck meat and meat on the outside of the ribs all in one big piece and then drop it in a game bag. Then remove the rear quarter, followed by the backstrap. Then remove the internal loins near the short ribs from the outside or just open up the abdomen a bit to get to them. Then I put the rear quarter, backstrap and interior loin in one game bag. Then roll the carcass over and repeat on the other side.

This gives me big, heavy front “quarter” bags that each weigh the same and rear quarter bags that also match for weight. When packing with horses, you must evenly weight each side of the horse so therefore, both rear quarters go on the same horse, one on each side, and the front quarters go on each side of another horse. The head and cape go on top of the load on the horse packing the rear quarters.

I often break down deer, sheep and antelope in the same manner for hunters who brought big coolers to take the meat home to cut themselves or if they want to use a processor near their home.

I can go either way, when we cull heavy and I have help we’ll gut 6 and let them hang overnight so I can make the back strap as bone in racks that I use to demonstrate how you can eat deer prepared in ways other than fried.


If we’re just wanting camp meat there is no reason to gut.

After watching my Argentine guide skin out the quarters and backstrap of red deer years ago, I haven't gutted a whitetail since. My processor is also thrilled not having to deal with the whole carcass. And no, I do not do organs or the ribs themselves.

In New England we normally gut the animals and drag them out. Course dragging on snow isn’t that bad for deer.
Bears drag like a pallet of cinder blocks. Moose many guys use block and tackle, I prefer quartering

My local processor charges $25 to "gut" a deer.

If I have time, or need to drag the deer very far, I will field dress it.

If I'm in a hurry, for some reason, I will pay the $25.


When my son was in high school, he killed a deer, but for some reason didn't want to field dress it. (I was able to drive my truck within 25 yards of it).

I told him that he would have to pay for it when we got to the processor.


When we got to the processor, a girl in his class at school gutted the deer for him and he had to pay her to do it!

He's been "gutting" his own deer ever since...