Hunting Sense

I’ve always found it amazing just how many hunters don’t know the proper way to field dress an animal after they make the kill. For that reason, I’m posting up an excellent field dressing guide I found on the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources website. The entire document is worth reading as it has quite a bit more useful information and tips on transporting and processing game animals. Check it out.

FIELD DRESSING

Look after your own safety first. You will be bending over a dead animal and moving its legs around while cleaning it. Tie some fluorescent tape on a nearby overhead branch to alert other hunters of your presence.
• If the animal is laying in water, mud or other debris, move it to a better location where you can keep it as clean as possible while gutting it. Roll the animal on its back or side. If possible, position it with the head higher than the rump. It is not necessary to bleed the animal, as sufficient bleeding will have occurred from the killing shot and your field dressing.
• Use clean disposable gloves and a clean knife.
• Tie the end of your rope to one of the back legs and pull it back so the animal’s belly and crotch are exposed. Tie the rope to a handy bush or limb to keep the leg back, or have a hunting companion hold the legs.
• Cut a line up from the crotch to the tip of the sternum (where the rib cage ends and the belly starts). The weight of the stomach, or rumen, and intestines will pull down away from the incision, lessening the chance of puncturing them. If you cut down from the sternum, the entrails will push out around the incision, making the job more difficult. It is best to cut with the blade up and out of the cavity, which helps to prevent cutting into the rumen or intestines and also prevents dragging hair into the stomach cavity. Use your free hand to push down on the organs to prevent an accidental puncture. Cut to one side of the buck’s testicles or a doe’s udder.
• Move to the animal’s rump and grasp the skin around the anus. Pull the skin out and cut completely around the anus, inserting the full length of the knife blade between the colon, where intestine is connected to the anus, and the bones of the pelvis, or hip bones. When the colon has been freed from it’s attachments in the pelvic canal, tie a string around the colon just in front of the anus to prevent feces from falling out into the body cavity. Tying off the anus may bring your hands in contact with the animal’s feces. If that happens be certain to clean your hands before handling other parts of the carcass.
• With the body cavity now open, reach up into the chest and cut around the diaphragm. This is a curtain of connecting tissue that separates the stomach cavity from the heart and lungs. Reach further up to the neck and grasp the windpipe. Carefully cut the windpipe free at the throat. Hold the windpipe in one hand and pull backwards. With the other hand, free any internal organs by cutting through the tissue attaching them to the backbone area of the animal. The entrails will spill out onto the ground as you pull. The lower intestine and tied off anus may require an extra tug, but they will pull free and come out from the inside with the other intestines.
• This is messy business, and for larger animals it requires some physical effort. Some of the work inside the body cavity is “by feel” so move slowly and make sure you do not cut yourself with your own knife.
• If you are going to quarter the animal at the kill site for easier transport, it will make gutting easier if you cut the ribs from along the sternum, thus gaining full access to the heart, lungs, windpipe and esophagus. If you want a trophy mount, you must decide before quartering the animal. There will not be enough cape, or hide, on the front shoulders of a quartered animal to do a proper mount. If you do decide you want a trophy mount, the head, neck and front part of the front shoulders should be skinned out before quartering. Once the skin is cut, it cannot be put back on without a flaw in the finished mount. Always take more, not less, to the taxidermist.
• When the entrails are removed, turn the carcass on its side or belly and allow all the blood to drain out. With smaller deer or bear, you may want to use your rope to pull the animal partially up a tree to permit better drainage. Inspect inside the body cavity and make sure all the entrails are removed.
• Do not wash out the body cavity. Any water you find at the kill site will most likely be full of bacteria, which will promote spoilage. Care must be taken not to puncture intestines, stomach or bladder. However, if rumen, intestinal or bladder contents have spilled onto the carcass, wipe off with clean paper towels. Leave any washing until you get to the camp or home where there is clean potable water. Keep the exposed surfaces of the meat as dry as possible.
• Remember the importance of cooling the meat as soon as possible. This will be discussed in more detail later on.
• In warmer weather, it is best to get the skin off the animal as soon as possible. Leaving the skin on slows the cooling process and encourages bacterial activity. Lightweight cheese cloth bags or specially designed meat bags will help keep debris and litter from getting on the meat and not interfere with cooling. Cheese cloth bags are inexpensive and you should use new ones each year. If you do reuse bags from a previous year, make sure they have been washed and are clean. In cold weather the skin can be left on the carcass until you get to camp or home. If you are leaving the carcass or quarters in the bush for transport at a later time, use your rope and a handy tree branch to pull it/them up off the ground. Another option is to place the carcass or quarters on some poles to lift the meat off the ground. This allows air to circulate and cool the meat. Left on the ground, it will not cool and may spoil, even in cold weather.

Outdoor stores and pharmacies sell inexpensive disposable latex gloves that extend the full length of your arms. They are a good choice for gutting large animals because they keep your coat and shirt sleeves clean. Take your time and think through each step of the cleaning process. Many hunters have set their knife down only to lose it in the gut pile or mistakenly grab it by the blade, causing serious injury.

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