How long does it take to field dress a mule deer?

[RCL]

I will admit that I am slow compared to many of the above.
Usually by myself and I hate hair on meat so usually lay out tyvek.
Oh well, I enjoy the precess.

 

[whoami-72]

Take the time to do a quality job. The butcher will appreciate it.

In my experience the number one factor slowing me down is dull blades. Do the cutting that dulls the blade last, or be aggressive about changing out blades.

I can do an entire deer with one Outdoors Edge blade, but if you're after speed then 2 or 3 might be better.

Good point on the knives. I forgot that my main knife apparently hadn’t been fully cleaned before being put away so I ended up doing the entire job with a buck 135 paklite.

 

[Jxferg7]

Assuming everyone is different. My first year doing the gutless method I had 3
Deer tags filled. First one was almost two hours. The third one took me 45 minutes….I will also note I am not “neat”. All I care about is getting it off the bone and into Gallon zip lock bags as I grind all my venison.

 

[cuerro viejo]

Good point on the knives. I forgot that my main knife apparently hadn’t been fully cleaned before being put away so I ended up doing the entire job with a buck 135 paklite.

I did a whole elk with that little capper last year.. it’s quickly become my favorite knife. Takes to second to strop it back razor sharp. Weights nothing

 

[Ridley]

This year was my first time going gutless, all animals before were gutted. I pulled the trigger at 8:10 and was back to the truck at 11:24. So considering the after the shot wait, couple of photos, drag to a cool shaded spot and the time sorting everything out ( knife, game bags, pack prep for the haul) and the hike itself, I’m fairly happy with my 1 hour estimate. It felt way longer than that but it wasn’t. Like others have said, take your time, do it right and safely (cutting yourself would be a big downer), and enjoy and learn from the process. It’s extremely rewarding.

 

[JEck]

Takes me about two hours to fully debone the whole thing, a little longer if I cape it out. Seems to get quicker each time I do it.


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[MT257]

45 min to quarter one using the gutless method for me. If gutting it I normally will let someone attempt gutting it once but if it takes ya more than ten minutes I’ll just offer to gut in the future. Gutting should take 4-5mins tops.

 

[Stone]

Never paid attention to the time it takes. I will say for myself the process is a hell of lot faster in an early season hunt in grizzly country.

 

[Indian Summer]

I go gutless with elk because they are so heavy and hard to move and there are lots of guts. I’d gut a deer in about 4 minutes which would make quartering much easier and faster.

 

[fatlander]

It’s like anything else, the more you do it, the better you’ll get. I remember the first time I tried to set up a light weight lock on and portable sticks, it took me more than 45 minutes and I looked like I’d just done a CrossFit workout. I thought there was no possible way to do it and hunt effectively. Now I can be up a tree ready to hunt between 10 and 15 minutes depending on the tree I’m getting in.

Quartering up deer is no different. I’ve skinned and butchered well over 100 whitetails, probably more like 200, throughout my lifetime. When I started out it took me forever. Now I feel like I could do it almost do it blindfolded. Doing it on the ground gutless takes a little more time than hanging from a gambrel but the same principal applies. The more you do it, the better (and faster) you’ll get.

Solo deer on flatish ground: start to finish is less than 20 minutes, add a few minutes if taking the skull.

Elk definitely take significantly more time due to their size and thickness of hide. Deer you can pull a lot of the hide, elk you’ve gotta cut for every bit you get.


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[manitou1]

Solo: Gutless takes me about 40 minutes for deer/antelope. That is just with hacking the head off for a euro later.
Caping, add 15 minutes.
Occasionally if an early morning kill and it is cold, I have boned them out and this adds 20 mins.

 

[WoodBow]

Take the time to do a quality job. The butcher will appreciate it.

In my experience the number one factor slowing me down is dull blades. Do the cutting that dulls the blade last, or be aggressive about changing out blades.

I can do an entire deer with one Outdoors Edge blade, but if you're after speed then 2 or 3 might be better.

I started using a separate knife for my dulling cuts. It is actually a very small folder that takes a standard utility knife blade. I make all of my hide cuts with that and then change to my another folder with a #60 blade for all of the meat cuts. You can get a lot of mileage out of blade if you only use it on meat and avoid grinding it into bone.

Knuckling out the knee joints is super hard on an edge if you don't really take your time, which i don't. I took a doe a couple of weeks ago and cut all the leg bones above the knee with the UL saw i built for skull capping bucks in the backcountry. It takes a standard sawzall blade. A fine tooth blade performs very very well on bone. I think i'm done knuckling them out.

 

[Dos Perros]

I started using a separate knife for my dulling cuts. It is actually a very small folder that takes a standard utility knife blade. I make all of my hide cuts with that and then change to my another folder with a #60 blade for all of the meat cuts. You can get a lot of mileage out of blade if you only use it on meat and avoid grinding it into bone.

Knuckling out the knee joints is super hard on an edge if you don't really take your time, which i don't. I took a doe a couple of weeks ago and cut all the leg bones above the knee with the UL saw i built for skull capping bucks in the backcountry. It takes a standard sawzall blade. A fine tooth blade performs very very well on bone. I think i'm done knuckling them out.

I also think of my usual first cut, at the base of the skull zipping down the spine, as very hard on knives. The bull in my avatar was like cutting through 3/4" leather. Deer are obviously less.

 

[TSAMP]

I realize speed is the subject here. However the reason your worried about speed is because of temperature. Simply opening that animal up will begin the cooling process and allow you more time to be deliberate in the cuts. Next is hide removal. I only leave the hide on if I'm dragging it or if it's already below freezing Temps out.
I killed a deer Sunday in Iowa, it was mid 60s. Within 2 hours it was hanging and steam coming off it with hide removed. I really wanted to leave it overnight but I was leaving at 5am to drive 3 hrs back to work Monday and didn't want to deal with it early So I packed it in a cooler nearly whole. That morning i had to stop as it melted most my ice overnight. (Went in cooler way to warm still)
Lesson learned.

 

[Travis907]

Don’t be so hard on yourself! Don’t worry how long it takes, just enjoy the moment and do a quality job. The first time is always going to be slow with alot of learning what not to do on the next one! The more you do the better and faster you will get! No need to try to break any last speed records. That’s when accidents with the knife happen!

 

[whoami-72]

I did a whole elk with that little capper last year.. it’s quickly become my favorite knife. Takes to second to strop it back razor sharp. Weights nothing

Haha I like it a lot myself also especially for the price. It’s my go to knife for birds and other small game.I just wish they made one that was double the blade length for the deeper cuts so I wouldn’t have to do multiple passes.

 

[whoami-72]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. At the end I tried speeding up and ended up cutting my thumb. That hurt pretty bad having the deer blood in my open cut lol. Next time I’ll bring gloves since the bandaids just kept falling off. I also didn’t move it to the shade so I’ll do that next time and try to get the backstrap out ASAP.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Bone in with the gutless… either side of an hour. If I’m shoulder mounting, which I haven’t done for a mule deer I’d imagine another 30-45 min for caping. Usually I just take the skull and either cap the horns at home or euro it at home

 

[Broomd]

I realize speed is the subject here. However the reason your worried about speed is because of temperature. Simply opening that animal up will begin the cooling process and allow you more time to be deliberate in the cuts. Next is hide removal. I only leave the hide on if I'm dragging it or if it's already below freezing Temps out.
I killed a deer Sunday in Iowa, it was mid 60s. Within 2 hours it was hanging and steam coming off it with hide removed. I really wanted to leave it overnight but I was leaving at 5am to drive 3 hrs back to work Monday and didn't want to deal with it early So I packed it in a cooler nearly whole. That morning i had to stop as it melted most my ice overnight. (Went in cooler way to warm still)
Lesson learned.

Yep, some things are worth waiting for. Good meat is part of the process. That carcass needed more cool air....

 

[FlareBlitz91]

The gutless method is not advantageous if you’re going to take that long.

I don’t mean that as a slight against you at all, we all dilly dally when you’re learning something and you’re uncertain, but for 4-5 hours you’ve got a huge hot thermal mass sitting in that animal where decomposition bacteria are harbored.

If you care about meat quality and you’re not used to quartering animals take ten minutes to get the guts out, it not only takes away that heat, it promotes air flow through the cavity allowing the meat to start to cool better.

Gutless is great if you’re fast or have a buddy to help wrangle it, but if you’re going to be fiddling around there is no reason to not gut the animal, and in fact many advantages to doing so.