Dressing your harvest??????|General Discussions|Forum|Bow Hunters of Alabama

Back when we had a place and the means to hang it to dress it — we always brought them out “fully loaded.” Drag it to a trail, throw it on the ATV, drive directly to the cleaning shed — clean it, hang the carcass in the cooler, and dispose of refuse in an “out of the way” corner on the property — left for predators. And go back to hunting. Elapsed time — kill to the cooler … Usually under 30 minutes & rarely as long as an hour. It was a nice setup.

Now that I’m older and no longer have those resources available …. I could be tempted to field dress and lighten the load. But since I don’t have the means to do the final dress out anymore, I use a deer processor. So ultimately, I still don’t field dress it. Drag it or put it on a deer cart to drag it out. Keep the carcass clean as possible — and rush it to the processor. The downside is that by not field dressing it — I can’t get the carcass to cool down as quickly as it could have if I had field dressed it. And that delay increases the risk of spoilage.

If I knew I couldn’t get to the processor in a timely manner — I would field dress it to save the meat as best I could. What to do with the gut pile — depends. Bag it & bring it out could be an option. Leave nothing but tracks behind. No trash, no litter. Leave it as clean or cleaner than you had it when you arrived. Leaving a gut pile in the wrong place is a good way to “not get invited back” to hunt again.

So — while I take my time on the way into the stand ….. I’m hustling on the way out with a kill.