The gutless method. Why aren't you doing it if you have to pack out?

[Marshfly]

You just break the rib in the proper spot then reach in to get the heart?

Sounds like some Indiana Jones type stuff but I'm doing that this year to try it.

 

[butcherboy]

I didn't realize it was a fad, seems kind of weird to call it that. Maybe bragging about it online as if it's some big deal is a fad but the process itself has plenty of merits. I've been doing it that way for a very long time, before the YouTube influencers started putting out instructional vids or whatever. I just like to keep things clean while I'm working, then go in for the heart/liver/tenders afterwards and don't care about a mess. I do it backwards from everyone else though, I split the skin from ankles to pits with the gut hook and connect the cuts with a long belly slit that goes all the way up the under side of the neck, again with the gut hook, then I start at the two top-side ankles and skin the top layer skin all the way back. This allows me to do all my "hair cuts" before any meat is exposed and I'm not cutting through the thick/hairy back skin. Then pull both quarters, brisket meat, neck meat, and the backstrap, then when I roll it over I pull out that section of skin as a ground cloth so none of the animal is touching the ground in case I missed some trimming. Once I finish the other side I just go ahead and quickly yank the guts out to grab the insides, no sense in doing the rib thing if I'm opening the cavity for heart and liver anyway.

This is how I take care of animal as well. The only difference is that I take all the rib meat in one big piece as well as the whole flank. Roll the guts out and pull both tenderloins. Roll the animal over onto the stretched portion of the hide and repeat the skinning and quartering process. I also hand all meat on a game pole about 20 yds or so from the carcass. I let it cool out overnight and come back the next day for quarters. The backstraps, tenderloins, and other loose portions come out with me when I leave the rest to cool.

 

[svivian]

You just break the rib in the proper spot then reach in to get the heart?

Here’s a pic where you can see the gaps I made to get in to remove the heart on this raghorn

 

[Hardly_Hangin]

Around here (north ga) everyone traditionally guts the deer then drags it to their truck, unless they can drive right up to it. Then struggle to lift it into the bed, or have an elaborate crane rig on their hitch to lift it. Usually they have to call a buddy to help them. Then hang out at home on a gambrel, skin it out, and debone it. Then you have to make another trip to the woods to drop the carcass, and clean up the mess at home.

Not only do i abhor dragging a 100-200lb deer (usually up a mountain) only to yield 40-60 pounds of meat, but not having to deal with the logistics and dealing with carcass afterwards is way more trouble than it's worth.

I peel the hide off from the spine down, remove shoulders whole, debone hind quarters, cut out back strap and extract the tenderloins. On a buck i get the neck meat. Occasionally if i want the liver and heart i just use make a slit in the ribs and use my hands to break the ribs off and get the goods.

Everything fits in one game bag, onto the pack, and into a cooler back at the truck. Everything else stays in the woods, and i only come home with what i eat and horns.

The buck in my avatar is a good example of this- no way one dude was dragging that thing out of that h3ll hole solo and want to ever go hunt there again

With bears, they are way harder to drag and look too much like a person when you hang them up- no thank you. Guttless all day.

ive drug too many deer and bears up and down too many hills to dream of doing it again.

Hopefully i get to try it on an elk this September

 

[ScreamingPotato]

This is how I take care of animal as well. The only difference is that I take all the rib meat in one big piece as well as the whole flank. Roll the guts out and pull both tenderloins. Roll the animal over onto the stretched portion of the hide and repeat the skinning and quartering process. I also hand all meat on a game pole about 20 yds or so from the carcass. I let it cool out overnight and come back the next day for quarters. The backstraps, tenderloins, and other loose portions come out with me when I leave the rest to cool.

Yup, I end up leaving all that attached to the front quarter then sort through it later. The less I have to put in the loose meat bags the better.

 

[z987k]

If I'm packing it out, we're using the gutless method. I've never had issues getting to the heart or tenderloins.

If we have some sort of machines/motors I'm just gutting it and taking it home to do the whole thing hanging.

I've actually done nothing to blacktail where I just throw them in and get them home in under an hour from being shot and do the whole thing in the shop.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Or the gate keepers who will say you “don’t backpack hunt” unless you use the gutless method.

That's hilarious, but unfortunately, seems that a large percentage of millenials and gen z'ers believe that nonsense. Go figure ...... But, as for me, personally, I prefer to gut most if not all the big game animals I kill, before butchering. I then carry the pieces anywhere from a mile to fifteen miles, to a waiting plane or four-wheel-drive vehicle.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

That's hilarious, but unfortunately, seems that a large percentage of millenials and gen z'ers believe that nonsense. Go figure ...... But, as for me, personally, I prefer to gut most if not all the big game animals I kill, before butchering. I then carry the pieces anywhere from a mile to fifteen miles, to a waiting plane or four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Too much time on the tik toks and instagrams and not enough time in the field for them sadly.

 

[Marshfly]

Seems to be gatekeeping from one side here for sure...

 

[medvedyt]

i d like to do the gutless method on caribou especially the woodland ones as within 30 minutes they will bloat and when im far from civilisation always take my time with blades to avoid any bad cut ... on moose i might try this fall as im getting older and lazyer and and youngests are interested by meat but not the collecting part ...

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Seems to be gatekeeping from one side here for sure...

The question in this thread is, “why are you not doing it”. So you’re getting various answers to your exact question accordingly.

I would assume most folks who exclusively use “gutless” are scrolling right on by as this doesn’t pertain to them or what they do.

I didn’t take this as an “argumentative” thread, maybe you could start a gutless vs gutted thread and see how that one goes?

 

[Marshfly]

The question in this thread is, “why are you not doing it”. So you’re getting various answers to your exact question accordingly.

I would assume most folks who exclusively use “gutless” are scrolling right on by as this doesn’t pertain to them or what they do.

I didn’t take this as an “argumentative” thread, maybe you could start a gutless vs gutted thread and see how that one goes?

Saying that people don't have enough time in the field if they are doing gutless is lame and laughable. I appreciate your reasonings. They are valid. Cheap shots are not. Nobody is gatekeeping anything about "backpack hunting."

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Saying that people don't have enough time in the field if they are doing gutless is lame and laughable. I appreciate your reasonings. They are valid. Cheap shots are not. Nobody is gatekeeping anything about "backpack hunting."

It’s been mentioned in multiple threads (not this one) that “nobody who backpack hunts” guts their animals anymore. This is a good thread to show otherwise.

I’ve noticed that the folks who state this as fact on this site and in person, the vast majority of them, are a one big game animal per year hunter. Which isn’t a bad thing, but making strong claims as they do is what’s laughable.

 

[Marshfly]

It’s been mentioned in multiple threads (not this one) that “nobody who backpack hunts” guts their animals anymore. This is a good thread to show otherwise.

I’ve noticed that the folks who state this as fact on this site and in person, the vast majority of them, are a one big game animal per year hunter. Which isn’t a bad thing, but making strong claims as they do is what’s laughable.

Fair point. On the alternative, I rarely backpack hunt. I just don't have the time and my family doesn't love it. Almost all of my hunts are day hunts. Last year I field butchered 7 animals. 4 my kills and the rest family and friends. All were gutless. I was genuinely curious if there was something that I was missing. Turns out, for what I want, there's not.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Saying that people don't have enough time in the field if they are doing gutless is lame and laughable. I appreciate your reasonings. They are valid. Cheap shots are not. Nobody is gatekeeping anything about "backpack hunting."

You’ll get used to it.

I haven’t gutted an animal in years. Only cut up 12 animals last year. I identify as the Tik tokker that doesn’t kill anything tho!

 

[rayporter]

we each killed a bull on our first hunt. skinned and gutted it then had to haul it.

next year we each killed and did not gut them. we had never heard of gutless and there was no YT back then just us trying to do less work and keep meat cleaner.

i prefer to get the legs off with the hide on if i am packing meat on panniers. i can remove the hide with a leg hanging after i get to camp or do it at home.

if i can get a wheeler to a deer i will leave the guts in the field.

 

[Ross]

In the 80s it was gut everything and split the carcass with two hatchets. The sound was joyous, but the process was slowww and many hatchets broken. When I ventured on my own in the early 90s it was time to learn new tricks ie gutless. When I told the old crew the new and better method they scoffed and it They never changed and unless it is required I don’t gut

 

[HighUintas]

I'm curious how many of you guys gut an elk if you're solo hunting a long way from your vehicle.

I always backpack hunt my rifle elk hunt a really long way in. I would like to gut it, but haven't gutted an elk and it seems really daunting to do by myself and then do the quartering, etc. just a gutless quartering job on a bull by myself wears me out

 

[Mykolaivka887]

I'm curious how many of you guys gut an elk if you're solo hunting a long way from your vehicle.

I solo hunt, exclusively. More often than not, I end up killing animals right before dark, toward the last day(s) of the season, and typically far removed from motorized transport.

But to answer your question, I always remove lungs, heart, liver, stomach and intestines from the body cavity of the bull elk I kill, before dismembering them, bone-in. It's my preferred way of doing things.

 

[JFK]

Does it matter what type of weather you are hunting in? Oftentimes it’s hot here in Ca and getting the animal cooled down quickly is priority #1. For deer, I’ll gut them to start cooling and make them lighter, drag them to some shade…probably take a second to drink some water myself, then get to work.