The way your meat will
taste on the table greatly depends on how you take care of it in the field. If this is
your first time at cleaning out a big game animal then it will truly be an experience you
won't forget.
 You may want to roll
your sleeves up and take off your watch if it can't be washed. Some hunters even put on
plastic disposable gloves which especially in today's world fits right in. The thing you
don't want to do is get blood on you if you have a cut or wound on your skin. You never
know what that animal might be carrying.
Try and dress out the deer where you kill it if all possible. The sooner you get the
insides out the better. Drag as little as possible for it can cause hemorrhaging. You can
start at the top, poke a small hole right below the breast bone. Gases will escape and
probably won't smell the best. After the gases escape, penetrate the  skin completely but not so deep that you
cut the intestines. Make an incision all the way down to the pelvis. Now you need to open
up the cavity and start cutting the intestines away from the belly of the animal. Cut the
windpipe (trachea) and cut away all the attachments of the heart and pull out the chest
contents. Detach the heart and liver and put them in a bag if you like those parts.
 Turn the animal to the side and let all the blood drain out. All
of the insides should fall out. If not, cut the parts that are still attached tot he
insides. The intestines will still be attached to the body by the rectal tube. It is very
important that this tube should be completely and cleanly removed. Encircle the rectal
tube a few times until it is completely detached. You may have to cut from the inside also
to detach it completely. Be very careful of the bladder and the stool tube. Getting either
of these two waste material on the meat can make the meat sour. Pull the tube through the
hole and completely drain the animal by rolling to one side. The vent hole will serve as a
drain when you hang the animal up to skin it out.
 The scent glands do
not need to be removed nor does the neck need to be cut. If you cut the neck and it's a
trophy, forget about using the same cape. The scent glands are inside the skin and will
not harm anything. You run a greater chance of harming your meat by cutting the scent
glands out and then touching the meat than you would if you leave them alone.
If your animal has been gut shot, good luck! Do the best you can.
|
----->