All depends on where they fall. If I have a decent spot to do it where they fell then that's where it gets done. Otherwise I won't go too far to do it. Besides, where I hunt I have to walk about an acre's length back to the truck so the lighter the deer, the better!
On public land this year my plan is to go gutless, and boneless. I'm gonna debone the meat right from the body so I can pack it out easier Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Unless it is in a really hard place to get to I usually load deer up and hang to gut/skin. I'll field dress if I have to drag up a huge hill. Then hang and skin. We process everything ourselves. Otherwise I would just field dress right away everytime. Having it hung up is easier to work with and skin. I have wanted to try the gutless method sometime when a deer is in a bad spot. Hopefully I'll try it on an elk someday.
Often it's where they lay. However, if accessible, we will pick the deer up in my dad's FEL, and then hang the deer and gut vertically into a bucket.
Where they lay. One friend I hunt with always drags them away to gut elsewhere but I am not convinced it makes a difference.
I used to always gut where they lay but more than once I've gone back the next day or two to hunt and the crows had found the gut pile. They make so much noise I can't stand it. I've got to believe any deer would avoid all that commotion. Now if I plan on hunting that spot anytime soon I pull them out of that area a little ways. It's amazing how they find those piles. I'm always in the woods and a lot of times it's been in the bottoms. They still find it. Once they find it, they'll be back first thing in the morning until it's gone.
I have a spot on the property that I take them to, it's a very short distance. I gut them there, and normally kill a coyote the next day.
We have a skinning shed on the property. We just load the deer on the 4 wheeler, take it back to the camp, then clean and gut all at once We've never actually "field dressed" any of our kills
Usually where they lay but on my uncle property I bring them to a little stream bed and throw everything in the stream where it will wash down
I usually take them out of the woods and gut them back at the shop. It's one block around the corner and convenient to just load them up and get out of the woods. I'm not all that concerned about the gutpile being in the woods, but it's just what I tend to do. Would rather just get out of the woods and leave as little commotion as possible. Let the crows and yotes feast on the 9th fairway instead of around my treestand :p
I have to move the deer to a good spot to get trophy pictures. I don't want to gut before I can get that done, so usually I will haul it to the back corner of my property.
Haul it in and gut it where there is a good water source to wash the body cavity out with. Depending on the property that could be at the pond , shed or back at camp.. We have lots of coyotes and I don't want them on a gut pile close to where I am hunting..
I get mine out ASAP and don't gut at all. I have a pre-positioned spot with gambrel, I hang it, zip the skin down the back and get it off first. Then, I cut the meat off the bone while hanging, make a little slit in the stomach to get to the inner tenderloins. Lower into the back of my truck and dump. You dont get guts and everthing all over the place. I keep a kit for cleaning deer in my truck: gloves, knife, cooler, baggys. The only thing I have to do is wash out the back of the truck so it doesn't look like a murder scene.
