How to Field Dress a Deer

Field Dressing a Deer

It is a beautiful autumn day and the deer of a lifetime walks by and you make the perfect shot. Now is when the work begins. It is time to field dress your deer, but how? If you do not get it done right then you are going to ruin the meat. There are three steps in field dressing a deer; opening, removing and washing out the deer

Before you start, you will want to make sure that the deer is dead by watching the chest cavity to see if there is any movement. Once you are sure the deer is dead, you will want to roll the deer over on its back. Once on its back, take out your knife and carefully make an incision at the bottom of the rib cage. Now make the cut from the bottom of the rib cage to the top of the rib cage trying to stay right over the sternum. Once the cut over the sternum has been made, you will want to continue the cut all the way down to the rectum, being careful not to puncture any of the internal organs. If you do puncture any of the internal organs it will make the rest of the process unbearable. Now you have the deer cut open, you will need to break the sternum so you can get inside the chest cavity to the heart and lungs easier. You will need a good sharp knife or a bone saw to do this. Staying to one side or the other of the sternum cut the individual ribs away from the sternum.

Now is when the blood and guts all come out. You will want to start by reaching up into the chest cavity as far as you can and grab the heart and lungs and pull. They may not want to come out so you will need to take your knife and cut them free. Once you have the heart and lungs pulled free; you will need to reach as far up on the windpipe as possible and cut it free. Still being really careful you will need to continue pulling the heart, lungs, intestines, and all the other organs out of the deer. You will need to use your knife to cut the organs loose from the lining of the deer. The last step in getting the organs out of the deer is to split the bone in the hip, just above the rectum.

Once you have all the organs and tissues out of the cavity of the deer, you will want to flip the deer over so the cavity is facing the ground and leg all the blood run out. This is easiest to do if there is another person there to help you. You can pick the head of the deer up and just let all the blood drain out. Once all the blood is out of the deer you can go ahead and