How to Field Dress a Deer After a Kill
- 1). Unload your weapon and set it to the side. Remove your jacket if you wish, though you should hang it on a nearby tree branch or wear a blaze orange hat in order to warn other hunters of your presence. Put on your plastic or latex gloves.
- 2). Roll the deer onto its back and tie one end of your rope around one of its hind legs. Then tie the other end of the rope around a nearby log or tree. This will help keep the deer's legs open, giving you better access to the underbelly while field dressing.
- 3). Unsheathe your knife and carefully make a small incision just below the deer's sternum/breastbone. Then slip the knife into the incision, with the blade facing upward. Also, insert two fingers from your free hand beneath the blade. One finger should be on either side of the blade, forming a "V."
- 4). Use your fingers as a guide for the knife as you cut down the belly of the deer, towards the hind legs. You mustn't pierce the entrails. Use your fingers to keep the point of the knife angled upward and to push the entrails aside. Cut carefully and slowly towards the pelvis, stopping when you reach the reproductive organs.
- 5). Cut around the reproductive organs. Use a small bone saw to cut through the pelvic bone. And then continue cutting away the connective tissue around the reproductive organs and anus of the deer, with your knife. Cut only connective tissue. Do not puncture the intestine or urethra.
- 6). Tie the deer's rectum and urethra off with rubber bands and pull the anus, urethra and intestine into the deer's body cavity.
- 7). Reach into the chest cavity and pull out the heart, lungs and esophagus. You may need to use your knife to cut away the connective tissues holding the organs in place. If you wish to save the heart and liver, place them to the side.
- 8). Loosen the rope from the deer's leg and roll the deer onto its side, spilling its entrails onto the forest floor. If you must, cut away any connective tissues holding the entrails in place. You can then place the heart and liver back into the chest cavity if you wish to keep them.
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