Gutting a buck vs a doe

[Opia]

For the type of hunting I typically do I will most likely use the gutless method on a deer/elk and then pack them out. However I would still like to be proficient in gutting a deer or elk for certain situations.
When it comes to bucks I understand how to gut them and have done it before, but when it comes to does or cow elk I have a few questions.
1. If you have to leave evidence of sex do you just leave part of an utter on one of the hind quarters?
2. If a doe has a milk sack is it removable without spilling any of the milk? Do you completely remove it before finishing the gutting process?
3. The thing I have been most confused about is how to remove the reproductive organs from a doe. Do you cut around both the anus and vagina in one single incision to release the colon and urethra? I'm not worried about romoving the colon but i don't know the anatomy of where a does urethra is located and would like to avoid cutting the urethra if possible.
4. Which leads to my next question, if for whatever reason you do cut the urethra. Where do you make the cut to minimize urine dripping on meat or pulling through the carcass as you remove all the insides?

I'm probably overthinking it but most videos I see on gutting deer are on bucks. If it is a doe it either ends up with milk everywhere or I can't even tell how they removed the urethra and genitals without contamination.

Any advice from your experiences would be much appreciated!

 

[Boarmaster]

I cut around both. And pull both anus and urethra out thru the abdominal incision. They will come out together. I cut away all of the utter. It is possible to get the utter out with a milk mess just cut around it not thru it.
I have always said hang up 100 deer , get 100 hunters and you will have 100 different best knives and a 100 different best methods for dressing a deer. The more you do the more you develop your own way.

There are several videos on you tube that specifically show how to field dress a doe. Just search for“how to field dress a doe” or ”how to gut a doe”.

 

[Tod osier]

For the type of hunting I typically do I will most likely use the gutless method on a deer/elk and then pack them out. However I would still like to be proficient in gutting a deer or elk for certain situations.
When it comes to bucks I understand how to gut them and have done it before, but when it comes to does or cow elk I have a few questions.
1. If you have to leave evidence of sex do you just leave part of an utter on one of the hind quarters?
2. If a doe has a milk sack is it removable without spilling any of the milk? Do you completely remove it before finishing the gutting process?
3. The thing I have been most confused about is how to remove the reproductive organs from a doe. Do you cut around both the anus and vagina in one single incision to release the colon and urethra? I'm not worried about romoving the colon but i don't know the anatomy of where a does urethra is located and would like to avoid cutting the urethra if possible.
4. Which leads to my next question, if for whatever reason you do cut the urethra. Where do you make the cut to minimize urine dripping on meat or pulling through the carcass as you remove all the insides?

I'm probably overthinking it but most videos I see on gutting deer are on bucks. If it is a doe it either ends up with milk everywhere or I can't even tell how they removed the urethra and genitals without contamination.

Any advice from your experiences would be much appreciated!

Evidence of sex if different in different states, I'm not well versed in all states, so you just have to look that up for the states of interest.

Milk sack can be cut around and flopped to the side or completely removed (if you don't want it retained), cutting through can make a mess, depending.

Just cut around everything external in one big oval, the benefit of the doe is the larger opening in the pelvis (birth canal) - even a small doe has more room to work than a buck. I cut around everything to an inch or two of depth and then push/pull/tear the connective tissues until deep enough into pelvis/body cavity. Occasionally something especially resistant needs cutting, but there is plenty of room to get in there and nip it with the knife without hitting anything.

I zip tie the entire package immediately after cutting it loose and before doing any other work. No leakage. Once abdomen is open I pull it inside, it is usually more or less free.

 

[ikesnipecity]

drink the milk

 

[realunlucky]

drink the milk

Don't be like this

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[Bearwhisky]

I just reach in there and tear shit out man. Not performing surgery or anything.


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[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I just reach in there and tear shit out man. Not performing surgery or anything.


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I'm the exact opposite. I try to be as meticulous as possible. My high level steps for a whitetail are below, YMMV.

1- Tag the animal first, and then cut around butt hole as deep as the length of my knife blade (4-5")
2- cut/skin around stick and berries or udder sacks and work backwards, laying it all behind the butt hole.
3- cut straight down, all the way to the pevis, and work backwards, freeing up the urethra on bucks all the way to it's terminus, and pulling the skinned out portion all the way back and away from the carcasse.
4- re-visit the pelvis cut and carefully push it forward as close to the abdominal wall as possible, without knicking the guts.
5- set your knife in a safe location, and with a hand on each inner ham, press down firmly to spread the legs out flat
6- with a very sharp knife, slowy flay the abdominal wall near the pelvis until a small slit opens up from internal pressure.
7- insert an index and middle finger into this opening palm-side up and make a peace sign.
8- with a very sharp knife, carefully and patiently "unzip" the opening towards the brisket, blade edge up, pressing down on the innards first and then the paunch with the back of your hand.
9- when you reach the breast bone, move to the front of the carcasse and turn around, and with the knife blade edge down, push down and begin splitting the breast bone. With a stout and sharp knife, you should be able to use body weight alone to pop through each rib joint as far north to the neck as you want. However, some guys elect to use hatchets and saws here..
NOTE: if you plan to head/shoulder mount the animal, stop cutting at the breast bone. You will need to reach all the way in to cut the trachea, and this is very often a step where guys can cut themselves with a knife. An alternate method is to skin out the cape to the neck first to reduce the risk of cutting the hide and then open up the chest.
10- turn back around, and reach in and grab the trachea with one hand and loosen it from connective tissue. With your knife hand, cut the trachea north of your off hand.
11- put your knife in a safe place near the head of the carcasse, and with both hands, start pulling on the trachea to loosen the lungs and heart.
12- retrieve your knife and slice through the diaphragm on both sides, all the way to the spine, careful not to pierece the paunch or guts.
13- put your knife in a safe place and grab the trachea again with both hands and continue pulling down to loosen the heart, lungs, liver, paunch, and pull the whole lot out the side, in front of the pelvis. Stretch the gut pile as far from the carcasse as you can without putting too much strain on the large intestine/rectum, bladder. Remove the heart and place it in a safe place.
14 (optional)- with most of the guts out of the body cavity, return to the pelvis, and push down hard with a very sharp knife to start splitting the pelvis. Some guys use a saw or hatchet here.
15- remove the rectum, butt hole, and urethra either out the back or with the gut pile. I was taught to squeeze the rectum and pull any poop "upstream" towards the guts, kind like squeezing the juice out of an icee
16- once the guts are fully removed, and knife is in a safe place, I typically move back to the head of the animal and lift it up, encouraging pooled blood to run out the pelvic cavity and away from the carcasse. To make this process more efficient, and to improve "flow", it helps to remove any large blood clots first.
17- once the guts and blood are removed, load the carcasse into the pickup.

 

[Rich M]

The urinary tract and poop shoot go thru the pelvis. Most guys I know will saw thru the pelvis and then stand on the legs and pull up on the tail to spread the bone. Then you can cut the tubes without anything spilling in cavity.

I'd leave the two rear holes on a hind quarter instead of the udder. - easier.

When gutting, we open the stomach and either split the sternum or reach up and cut the tubes to the stomach, lungs, heart at the base of the neck. Grab em and pull. You may need to cut around the diaphram. Then flip deer over and shake the guts out, let it drain for a tad. Then yer good to go. 10 minutes or less.

After shooting a couple that ended up with blown up insides - a little pee or poo or stomach juice will not wreck any meat - just rinse it when able. Not a biggee.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

After shooting a couple that ended up with blown up insides - a little pee or poo or stomach juice will not wreck any meat - just rinse it when able. Not a biggee.

Our methods are similar, but I disagree with this statement. Digestive enzymes and intestinal bacteria can ruin exposed meat if not immediately rinsed thoroughly. Meat may be okay if the layer of outer fascia is intact to form a barrier, but my understanding is that exposed cut meat (inner hams near pelvis) is vulnerable to spoiling/infection. Plus it's just nasty and I hate to lose any meat off the hams.

If you hunt long enough its inevitable, and nothing worse than a shot up deer that looks like a grenade went off in its guts- green, grainy, corn, beans, and alfalfa goo, mixed with brown poo and urine all over everything.

 

[Macintosh]

Lots of good info here, and I agree 100% with the 100 hunters/100 different methods post up above.
Regarding proof of sex, most states I have hunted in actually don’t care what sex it is, they only care if it is antlerless or antlered—only if antlers are not present or its cut into pieces do they start asking about proof
of sex. If you are cutting it up in the field and not carrying the head, you probably need to leave proof of sex attached, but if you are dragging it out in one piece as the reason for gutting it, I don’t recall any states I’ve hunted that also require proof of sex. Obviously check that in the states you’re hunting in, but that’s been my experience.

With deer, I generally make a belly incision first, from bottom of rib cage to pelvis. Then I’ll cut and pull through the diaphragm, and I can usually just roll up my sleeves and reach far enough up inside to cut the trachea without having to deal with popping rib joints. I have long arms though, so ymmv. Then I’ll make a incision out an inch or two onto the tail below the anus, and fillet that up to the base of the anus leaving this flap attached which provides me a handle to pull on. While pulling on that i’ll cut around both openings—pulling on it provides tension and allows a cleaner, deeper cut. From the inside I’ll then squeegee everything upstream toward the guts and pull back into the cavity, and then use that to pull the guts out of the cavity with the animal on its side.
I don’t recall having a bad milk spill, and I probably wouldn’t worry as much about milk as I would guts or feces anyway. If you do spill some guts or whatever, don’t worry about it too much, just get everything out, dump the carcass over to drain and then clean it up as best you can with a paper towel, leaves, or (best case) snow. If you are dragging the whole animal, I imagine that means you will be out into civilization pretty quickly, so just rinse it off well when you get home and then let it dry. If there’s water nearby, I would not hesitate to use water to clean it out, it’s going to dry and not sit in pooled water, so to me there’s no issue with that. I’ve had several deer that had weird shots or whatever and there was guts spilled in the cavity. One time our local warden brought a deer by that had been hit by a car, helped me hang it up in my garage and tag it, and then waved goodbye. That deer was so busted up inside, it was like one big sloshing pool of guts in the cavity—total mess . We just dumped it out and hosed the cavity out, let it dry, and it was just as good as any other deer I’ve ever had. As long as it was cleaned up relatively quickly it’s always been fine tasting for me.

My guess is if you’ve done a bunch of bucks you’ll wonder what the big deal was.

 

[Rich M]

Our methods are similar, but I disagree with this statement. Digestive enzymes and intestinal bacteria can ruin exposed meat if not immediately rinsed thoroughly. Meat may be okay if the layer of outer fascia is intact to form a barrier, but my understanding is that exposed cut meat (inner hams near pelvis) is vulnerable to spoiling/infection. Plus it's just nasty and I hate to lose any meat off the hams.

If you hunt long enough its inevitable, and nothing worse than a shot up deer that looks like a grenade went off in its guts- green, grainy, corn, beans, and alfalfa goo, mixed with brown poo and urine all over everything.

Agree. it is just sometimes we have little or no control over it. I will trim an inch or two off of expised meat that gets nastified. We do what we can as we can. Not worth getting overly excited as a newbie imo.

 

[4090Sharps]

I'm the exact opposite. I try to be as meticulous as possible. My high level steps for a whitetail are below, YMMV.

1- Tag the animal first, and then cut around butt hole as deep as the length of my knife blade (4-5")
2- cut/skin around stick and berries or udder sacks and work backwards, laying it all behind the butt hole.
3- cut straight down, all the way to the pevis, and work backwards, freeing up the urethra on bucks all the way to it's terminus, and pulling the skinned out portion all the way back and away from the carcasse.
4- re-visit the pelvis cut and carefully push it forward as close to the abdominal wall as possible, without knicking the guts.
5- set your knife in a safe location, and with a hand on each inner ham, press down firmly to spread the legs out flat
6- with a very sharp knife, slowy flay the abdominal wall near the pelvis until a small slit opens up from internal pressure.
7- insert an index and middle finger into this opening palm-side up and make a peace sign.
8- with a very sharp knife, carefully and patiently "unzip" the opening towards the brisket, blade edge up, pressing down on the innards first and then the paunch with the back of your hand.
9- when you reach the breast bone, move to the front of the carcasse and turn around, and with the knife blade edge down, push down and begin splitting the breast bone. With a stout and sharp knife, you should be able to use body weight alone to pop through each rib joint as far north to the neck as you want. However, some guys elect to use hatchets and saws here..
NOTE: if you plan to head/shoulder mount the animal, stop cutting at the breast bone. You will need to reach all the way in to cut the trachea, and this is very often a step where guys can cut themselves with a knife. An alternate method is to skin out the cape to the neck first to reduce the risk of cutting the hide and then open up the chest.
10- turn back around, and reach in and grab the trachea with one hand and loosen it from connective tissue. With your knife hand, cut the trachea north of your off hand.
11- put your knife in a safe place near the head of the carcasse, and with both hands, start pulling on the trachea to loosen the lungs and heart.
12- retrieve your knife and slice through the diaphragm on both sides, all the way to the spine, careful not to pierece the paunch or guts.
13- put your knife in a safe place and grab the trachea again with both hands and continue pulling down to loosen the heart, lungs, liver, paunch, and pull the whole lot out the side, in front of the pelvis. Stretch the gut pile as far from the carcasse as you can without putting too much strain on the large intestine/rectum, bladder. Remove the heart and place it in a safe place.
14 (optional)- with most of the guts out of the body cavity, return to the pelvis, and push down hard with a very sharp knife to start splitting the pelvis. Some guys use a saw or hatchet here.
15- remove the rectum, butt hole, and urethra either out the back or with the gut pile. I was taught to squeeze the rectum and pull any poop "upstream" towards the guts, kind like squeezing the juice out of an icee
16- once the guts are fully removed, and knife is in a safe place, I typically move back to the head of the animal and lift it up, encouraging pooled blood to run out the pelvic cavity and away from the carcasse. To make this process more efficient, and to improve "flow", it helps to remove any large blood clots first.
17- once the guts and blood are removed, load the carcasse into the pickup.

This is almost the exact method I follow, but I don't bother splitting the pelvis. Once you find the soft joints of the ribs, a tiny little Havalon will split the brisket with ease.

I'll simply add that deciding where that "safe place" is beforehand and setting up your site in a repeatable manner (to the extent possible) every time you field dress an animal is extremely helpful. It helps me be safer, faster, and less likely to leave a piece of gear lying in the woods (it does still happen on occasion).

 

[mt terry d]

Did someone utter the word "udder"?

 

[mi650]

Agree. it is just sometimes we have little or no control over it. I will trim an inch or two off of expised meat that gets nastified. We do what we can as we can. Not worth getting overly excited as a newbie imo.

I tend to think it's not a huge deal, but another reason why I drag them to my house and gut them hanging from a 4x4 between 2 trees; besides gravity helping, I have a hose right there. I rinse them all out, whether I got into anything nasty or not.

 

[Rich M]

When i was hunting up north we unzipped em at kill site. Down south we tend to do gutless method back at house or check station

 

[Bearwhisky]

Interesting. What is the point of steps one through 6 first? I start at the sternum and cut towards the anus, skirting around “stick and berries”. Reach in and cut esophagus and pull all out like you describe, them trim all the reproductive parts and away with the gut pile. Last thing connected is the anus and i squeeze the poop up the tube and cut it as close to the pelvis as i can. Theres is sometimes a pellet or two that i dont get out with the squeeze and i just pick em out. Dont bother with sawing the pelvis til i get it hung up and quarter it.


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[Bearwhisky]

I'm the exact opposite. I try to be as meticulous as possible. My high level steps for a whitetail are below, YMMV.

1- Tag the animal first, and then cut around butt hole as deep as the length of my knife blade (4-5")
2- cut/skin around stick and berries or udder sacks and work backwards, laying it all behind the butt hole.
3- cut straight down, all the way to the pevis, and work backwards, freeing up the urethra on bucks all the way to it's terminus, and pulling the skinned out portion all the way back and away from the carcasse.
4- re-visit the pelvis cut and carefully push it forward as close to the abdominal wall as possible, without knicking the guts.
5- set your knife in a safe location, and with a hand on each inner ham, press down firmly to spread the legs out flat
6- with a very sharp knife, slowy flay the abdominal wall near the pelvis until a small slit opens up from internal pressure.
7- insert an index and middle finger into this opening palm-side up and make a peace sign.
8- with a very sharp knife, carefully and patiently "unzip" the opening towards the brisket, blade edge up, pressing down on the innards first and then the paunch with the back of your hand.
9- when you reach the breast bone, move to the front of the carcasse and turn around, and with the knife blade edge down, push down and begin splitting the breast bone. With a stout and sharp knife, you should be able to use body weight alone to pop through each rib joint as far north to the neck as you want. However, some guys elect to use hatchets and saws here..
NOTE: if you plan to head/shoulder mount the animal, stop cutting at the breast bone. You will need to reach all the way in to cut the trachea, and this is very often a step where guys can cut themselves with a knife. An alternate method is to skin out the cape to the neck first to reduce the risk of cutting the hide and then open up the chest.
10- turn back around, and reach in and grab the trachea with one hand and loosen it from connective tissue. With your knife hand, cut the trachea north of your off hand.
11- put your knife in a safe place near the head of the carcasse, and with both hands, start pulling on the trachea to loosen the lungs and heart.
12- retrieve your knife and slice through the diaphragm on both sides, all the way to the spine, careful not to pierece the paunch or guts.
13- put your knife in a safe place and grab the trachea again with both hands and continue pulling down to loosen the heart, lungs, liver, paunch, and pull the whole lot out the side, in front of the pelvis. Stretch the gut pile as far from the carcasse as you can without putting too much strain on the large intestine/rectum, bladder. Remove the heart and place it in a safe place.
14 (optional)- with most of the guts out of the body cavity, return to the pelvis, and push down hard with a very sharp knife to start splitting the pelvis. Some guys use a saw or hatchet here.
15- remove the rectum, butt hole, and urethra either out the back or with the gut pile. I was taught to squeeze the rectum and pull any poop "upstream" towards the guts, kind like squeezing the juice out of an icee
16- once the guts are fully removed, and knife is in a safe place, I typically move back to the head of the animal and lift it up, encouraging pooled blood to run out the pelvic cavity and away from the carcasse. To make this process more efficient, and to improve "flow", it helps to remove any large blood clots first.
17- once the guts and blood are removed, load the carcasse into the pickup.

Interesting. What is the point of steps one through 6 first? I start at the sternum and cut towards the anus, skirting around “stick and berries”. Reach in and cut esophagus and pull all out like you describe, them trim all the reproductive parts and away with the gut pile. Last thing connected is the anus and i squeeze the poop up the tube and cut it as close to the pelvis as i can. Theres is sometimes a pellet or two that i dont get out with the squeeze and i just pick em out. Dont bother with sawing the pelvis til i get it hung up and quarter it.


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[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Interesting. What is the point of steps one through 6 first? I start at the sternum and cut towards the anus, skirting around “stick and berries”. Reach in and cut esophagus and pull all out like you describe, them trim all the reproductive parts and away with the gut pile. Last thing connected is the anus and i squeeze the poop up the tube and cut it as close to the pelvis as i can. Theres is sometimes a pellet or two that i dont get out with the squeeze and i just pick em out. Dont bother with sawing the pelvis til i get it hung up and quarter it.


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I probably do 1-6 first for same reason as you do it "backwards" to me. LOL! That's the way I was taught, and it gives very good access and control to the abdomen for the riskiest cut. After dozens of deer, it's never let me down.