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How to Field Dress and Skin a Deer
You have bagged the big one, what do you do to ensure that the meat will taste good? Field dressing is the art of preparing the deer to be butchered.
Pete Tulley loves the outdoors and likes to travel with his wife Tina. Pete runs a camping and fishing blog
Contrary to popular theory do not cut your deer's throat to bleed him off. If the heart is not pumping then blood can't circulate and will not bleed out. The only thing that will happen when you cut the throat is to ruin the deer's cape. The cape is the area around the neck, shoulders and head of the deer and if you choose to mount the deer you might spoil this area. Also the open wound is more susceptible to bacteria making it useless.
Hang the deer head down and cut at the lowest point in order for gravity to pull out the blood if you want to bleed the deer. You also don't have to cut off the tarsal glands ' there is no benefit to doing this. If the deer is not dead you must shoot him again being careful when approaching a wounded deer.
Use a sharp knife to field dress your deer. The sharper the knife the easier the task will be and actually prevent you accidentally cutting yourself. Lay the animal on his back and cut from the genitals to the rib cage. You can cut through some of the ribs if you find it easier to reach into the deer's chest. Try to avoid the sternum if you do cut the ribs. Do not cut too deep, as you only want to cut the hide and stomach muscles and not the intestines. Do not cut past the sternum if you want to have the deer mounted.
Allow the guts to fall out by placing the deer on his side you will need to cut away the fat to allow them to fall out. The fat is located near the spine at the top of the cavity. Avoid puncturing the bladder that is located where the cavity narrows in the hip area. It is difficult to remove the intestines intact. What works well is to cut out the diaphragm when half the guts are out of the body. Reach up into the chest and grasp the esophagus working the knife up to cut the esophagus and cut to be able to pull out the lungs and heart along with the intestines. Clean up everything and drag the deer to the truck to take home to skin.
You can skin him by hanging him with his head down or up. If you hang him head up then you start by making a circular cut around the neck and connect to the cut made in the stomach. Grasp the skin and pull down with both hands to remove the hide. Use your knife to help free the hide without cutting the skin. Avoid pulling off flesh. When the hide is down to the shoulders you can cut off the front legs. You can use a hacksaw and cut above the deer's knees. Cut on the inside of the legs towards the chest and connect to the cut through the abdomen and chest. Continue down the deer's back after working the hide free from the front legs using your knife when necessary. That's it, not so bad for your first time.
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