After your deer is tagged and the photos taken, you should field dress it as soon as possible. This will remove potential contaminants as well as helping to speed up the cooling process.

Lay the deer on its back with the tail facing down hill if there is a grade in the land. Stand behind it, between the back legs. It helps to have somebody hold one leg, but you can do it alone. Unless the law in your area requires it be left in place, remove the male genitals, or on a doe the mammary glands. Turn the knife with the blade edge pointing up and, using the tip, carefully make a cut in the lower belly through the skin and the underlying muscle. Be careful not to cut into the stomach or intestines. Open this cut to about three inches long. Insert the index and middle finger of your weak hand (the left for you right handed people; we lefties will do as we have all our lives and reverse that.) Carefully place the knife blade, edge up between the fingers, while holding it in your strong hand. Now lift with your fingers to pull the muscle and hide away from the internal organs and use your fingers to guide the knife as it cuts. Cut to the back of the rib cage. If you are going to mount the deer’s head, this is as far as you should go. But, if you are not going to mount it, life will be much easier if you continue the cut through the rib cage. Straddle the deer with your feet placed even with the back of the rib cage. Turn the knife so it is pointing down toward the deer’s backbone, blade facing forward and the tip angled slightly forward. Position the knife slightly to one side of center on the breastbone. Apply hard pressure to the knife to cut through the cartilage where the ribs attach to the breastbone. Be very careful as you will need to push very hard on the knife. Make sure that if it slips it will not hit anything important, like your femoral artery. Keep well back behind the knife so that there is a “people free” safety zone in the direction you are applying the force. Once you commit, the knife will cut surprisingly fast to open the chest cavity. If you are not comfortable with this, a small saw will also work, but it is much more work.

Back to the rear of the deer, you will need to remove the colon and other undesirable parts from the pelvis. There are two ways to approach this and what you do next is determined by which of those you choose. If you only have a knife then you will need to “core” around the anus and, on a doe, the vagina. Think of the pelvis as a tunnel that you need to clean out. Use the knife to cut a circular “core” out of it, much like coring an apple. The knife blade should be at least three inches long, but four inches much better. Remember that the bladder and colon are in there, so keep the blade well out to the edges to avoid cutting through them.

The other option is to cut through the pelvic bone to allow access to this “tunnel.” On young deer this bone is not fully formed and there is a seam that you can usually cut through with a knife, by prying up from the bottom. But on adult deer you will need a saw or hatchet. If this is your selected method, skip the “coring” process and go to the next step.

Regardless of which process you will use, this is the next step. Extend your cut in the belly all the way back until you hit the pelvic bone. Cut through the skin and muscle up the center of deer’s crotch to expose the bone. On a buck the urinary track extends through here and should be cut free. If you are going to cut the pelvis bone, carefully do that now. Once the bone is split, spread the back legs to open the cut. This allows you to access the “tunnel.” Locate the bladder and twist it off like a balloon, and then carefully cut it free. It’s important that you don’t knick it and spill urine on the meat. But, to be honest, sooner or later you will, so don’t panic, we can address that later. Then cut the colon free and remove it.

Roll the deer on its side and pull the stomach and intestines out, pulling and cutting as you go. If you used the coring method you will need to grab all the “stuff” entering the pelvis and pull. If you did it all right, everything will come free and out the front. But, you may need to make a few more cuts here and there. This takes a bit of practice, so don’t expect perfection on your first attempt.

Find the diaphragm, which is the membrane that separates the chest cavity from the rest of the “guts.” You will need to cut that free all the way around the chest cavity. Reach inside the front of the chest cavity with both hands, being careful you don’t cut yourself with the knife. Locate the windpipe. That’s the “vacuum cleaner hose” running out of the neck. Cut it off as far forward as you can reach. Now, still working in the front of the chest cavity, grab on to what’s there and pull. While you pull, use the knife to cut where needed as you remove the heart and lungs. Roll everything out of the deer and to one side. In the end, everything inside the cavity should be free from the deer and lying on the ground. Pull the deer away from the mess and roll it over to drain the blood. The cavity should be clean of everything from front to back. A lot of hunters leave things in the deer for various reasons, but it’s always a mistake.

A while back I had a young guide who was most interested in impressing us with how fast he could gut a deer. He cut everything off in front of the pelvis, rather than cleaning out the “tunnel,” which is a fairly common practice in the field, but one I do not like and will not do. He promised to finish it up later. But, instead he went off to talk with his girlfriend on his cell phone. Another guide pulled the deer into a shed and it was promptly forgotten. By cutting off the intestines, he opened up a path for bacteria to escape. The deer laid on the floor of the shed for two days before the client who shot it realized what was going on it and by then it was spoiled. Remove everything, cool the meat. It’s simple and the only smart option.

If it’s going to be awhile before you can hang the deer, roll it on its back and prop the cavity open with a stick to help the heat escape. But, do try to hang the deer as soon as possible to facilitate cooling.

Don’t be afraid to wash the deer out if you have a source of clean water. This is a must if you spilled any stomach contents or punctured the bladder. Washing will not hurt the meat, but it will remove contamination and bacteria. Its best if you hang the deer by its head and wash with a hose, so everything is flushed out the bottom. This will also speed up the cooling process.