Suggested Tools and techniques for Field Dressing and skinning your deer

Suggested Tools and techniques for Field Dressing and skinning your deer

Tools
• String for attaching temporary tag and  tying intestines

• Rubber gloves or disposable gloves

• Plastic bag for heart and liver

• Sharp knife, either a pocket or sheath-knife  will work fine

• Hoist system for raising deer off the ground

Make sure deer is dead! The deer may not be dead and may injure you by thrashing about or it may get up and run. Instead, cautiously approach a downed deer from the side away from its legs. Be ready to fire a finishing shot with your bow or firearm.

Unload your firearm, un-nock and put your arrow away, or take the cap off the nipple of your muzzleloader.

Attach your kill tag securely on the deer. Do not get too excited and forget to do this!

Locate the sternum (breastbone). Insert your knife at the bottom of the sternum.

Cut through the abdominal wall (not just the skin and hide). Keep the edge of the knife blade positioned upwards toward the hide (from the inside), not down toward the organs. Cut down the deer towards the groin.Cut around both sides of the penis and testicles or udder. Be careful not to cut the urinary bladder.

Cut deeply in a circular motion around the anus of a buck and the anus and vagina of a doe.

REMOVE THE URINARY BLADDER AND TRACT.

ROLL THE INTERNAL ORGANS OUT OF THE ABDOMINAL CAVITY OF THE DEER. 

Reach into the chest with your hands. With your fingers forward, follow the esophagus as far as you can. Cut through the windpipe and esophagus as far up as you can reach. Pull the windpipe downward, while cutting any attachments to the back of the carcass. Roll the deer on its side to empty the heart and lungs from the chest cavity. Don’t forget the heart and liver. These are excellent cuts of meat that many hunters leave in the field. If you do not have a plastic bag to carry these organs, place them inside the chest cavity for transport while carcass is being removed from the field. Hang the deer in a shady area to drain the carcass and cool down the meat. 

Here is a great complete guide to field dressing deer from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

If you would like a VIDEO guide on how to field dress your deer check out LEM Products Deer Processing Guide  This video teaches you: Field dressing, proper handling of your deer, how to cool your deer without a cooler, skinning, a boneless method of processing, how to make burger and sausage, and proper freezer wrapping. Everything on one tape! (sponsored Link)

Watch this video of a butcher skinning a deer in just a few minutes - via wideopenspaces.com