Advice for mule deer field care?

[labnoti]

I've got two boys with mule deer tags for this coming season. We don't have much experience field dressing, so I'm thinking about a plan.

I haven't hunted big game for more than 20 years and back then I only harvested a couple boar. Hung them and gutted them. Moved them to a walk-in cooler on the ranch and had them processed by a butcher.

The boys have participated in field dressing domestic sheep during two demonstrations intended to teach the process for hunting (done by a 4-H volunteer). They only got to get their hands on a short part of the process since it was shared with other kids, but they watched it all. I was there to watch one of the demonstrations. It was done on the ground by the gutless method. We all helped processing the quarters another day.

Other than that, we've got Youtube videos to watch.

Hang or process on the ground?

There won't be tall trees where we'll hunt. I don't have a tripod or a hitch hoist. I could get something like that, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get the jeep to the kill. I could be in a steep canyon or where I'm required to keep on the trail. But I won't be far from the jeep -- half mile at best because that area is well roaded. If we process the deer on the ground, I think we'll want to use the gutless method or it will be hard to keep the entrails separate from the meat.

Keep the head? cape?

We're going for the experience and the knowledge. We might keep the capes to tan them, and we might keep the heads for European mounts, or maybe just the antlers. If we decide to keep the capes, I won't want to cut them up the spine, but on the abdomen and pull back to get to the backstraps and tenderloins.

I'm thinking to put the quarters, backstraps and tenderloins in game bags and then put them in coolers fairly soon (again, the walk is not likely to be more than half a mile).

Disposable game bags or reusable?

Coolers? Ice?
I've got a couple of 120 quart Coleman coolers, but I'll need to buy more because we'll be camping too. Not gonna spring for Yeti even though I saw the sticker on your rig. I was thinking of getting more 120 quart "6-day" coolers at Walmart for $60 each. Those are about 20" x 20" x 36". I was thinking I'd get four quarters and the back meat per cooler, but probably not the cape. Should I get three coolers for two mule deer? or more?

I'm probably not going to take the ribs or a lot of neck meat this time. I'm not on my game with this stuff yet and I'll probably have my hands full guiding the hunt and camping.

The drive home is 6 hours. I was thinking of using dry ice or maybe the 18 deg. F cooler packs. I might be able to buy something locally within the first hour of the drive, but I need to go ready to keep a deer cool for possibly a few days before we get the second deer.

I'm trying to think ahead. I appreciate any advice.

 

[.308 Norma]

Hang or process on the ground?

There won't be tall trees where we'll hunt. I don't have a tripod or a hitch hoist. I could get something like that, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get the jeep to the kill. I could be in a steep canyon or where I'm required to keep on the trail. But I won't be far from the jeep -- half mile at best because that area is well roaded. If we process the deer on the ground, I think we'll want to use the gutless method or it will be hard to keep the entrails separate from the meat.

Labnoti, I'm not sure what the "gutless method" is, but we have always field dressed our mule deer on the ground. In fact, I've killed a mule deer or two that were so far down in some "black hole" I couldn't drag them out, and had to quarter them, and haul them out in 3 or 4 trips in my backpack.
It's not hard at all to keep the entrails separate from the meat when you're field dressing a mule deer on the ground. The fact is, I can't think of a reason why a person would have a hard time doing that.

Keep the head?

Except for "youth" (under 16) hunts, most of Idaho is "antlered only" for mule deer hunting. You're required to leave the head (with antlers) connected to the carcass until you get the deer home or to the butchering place. You can get by with detaching the antlered head from the carcass and carrying it out, but you have to leave "proof of sex" attached to the carcass if you do that.

Disposable game bags or reusable?

We've had the same reusable game bags since I can't remember when. The first thing we do when we get back to camp is hang the deer in a nearby tree, get its skin off, and pull one of those lightweight, cotton game bags up over it so it will cool.
Where you're hunting might be different than here as far as temperatures go. In October (deer season) here, it seldom gets above 80 during the day, and it usually frosts every night. A deer carcass hanging in a tree in a lightweight game bag will be fine for 4 or 5 days here.
Sorry I can't explain the whole field dressing process to you over the internet, but it's not hard. My granddad taught my dad, my dad taught me, and I taught my wife and daughter. Then our daughter in turn taught her sons - my grandsons.

 

[labnoti]

Gutless method is where you leave the entrails intact in the carcass. You process one side at a time. You pull the cape off, you take out the backstrap and tenderloin from above, then separate the ball joints at the hips and remove the rear quarter. Then remove the front quarter. Flip the carcass over and repeat the mirror image of the process. The ribs and spine remain in the field with all the entrails still attached.

Do you gut it in the field on the ground? Just roll the entrails out and drag the carcass away from them? I was just thinking that if the deer was hung first, when you gut it the entrails would drop out and you wouldn't have both the carcass and the entrails on the ground. I guess it can be done either way.

This is a youth hunt, 12 and 13 yo. It is either sex, but they have a pretty good chance at bucks (high success rate unit/zone) and we have the time to take our time. Evidence of sex is the testicles. But when I asked about keeping the head, I meant for posterity, for the trophy. I'm thinking maybe a Euro-mount but not trying to skin the face for taxidermy. If we do euro-mounts, we just need to take the head with the skull and antlers and whether anything else comes with it I don't have to think about saving it.

As for the internet, there's video. I've seen just about all the methods I think.

This guys hangs, skins, guts, and takes the legs and head off.


This guy demonstrates the gutless method:


This guy rolls the guts out on the ground. I imagine he'll hang it and skin it later.


So I'm just trying to decide how I should do it. Since I don't have a way to hang it anywhere, I'm leaning toward the gutless method. If I get the cape off and quarter it, it will cool as fast as practical. It should be cool weather, end of October, fairly north. This guy details the gutless method with a longer video:



He removes the rear quarters before skinning them. I've seen them skinned first and then removed. Seems like it will work either way as long as it comes off and cools soon enough.

Grand-dad died when I was an infant. Dad quit hunting after his high school, never taught me. I hadn't even so much as heard of hunting. I'm trying to teach my boys and start a new tradition, but I barely know anything myself. They'll kill deer before I do. I put in for tags last year because if they didn't win them, I'd go myself. Turns out none of us won anything. This year I knew they would win for sure (they got points for their failed draws last year, plus youth have higher odds), so I took points-only because I knew I'd use all my time off work helping them get their two deer.

 

[.308 Norma]

Do you gut it in the field on the ground? Just roll the entrails out and drag the carcass away from them?

Yes sir, that's the way we do it. It's easier to roll the entrails out if you pull the carcass around so its head is uphill.
Because we like deer liver, after we got the deer "gutted," and before we started the drag out, we used to go to the gut pile and get the liver. Then we would put the liver inside the carcass for the drag out.
It never did work that well - the liver would fall out a half dozen times before we ever got the deer carcass back to the truck or camp. So we eventually learned (duh!) to just carry a gallon zip lock bag to put the liver in, then stuff it in our pack, or the pocket on the back of our vests.
We learned a long time ago to carry along a 20 or 25 foot long piece of parachute cord tied to a belt loop and tucked in a pocket. You can use it to tie a tree limb through the antlers to make the dragging easier. Or if worse comes to worse, you can use it to hang the carcass in a tree so the coyotes can't get to it if you have to leave it overnight.

But when I asked about keeping the head, I meant for posterity, for the trophy.

No man, I'm not a trophy hunter. Never have been. My wife and I have a half dozen trophy size mule deer racks piled in a corner in the basement. Maybe we'll do something with them someday, but I doubt it. We like venison.

Evidence of sex is the testicles.

The testicles are evidence of sex here in Idaho too. But if you remove the antlered head from the carcass before you get it home or to the butcher, you still have to have it along with the testicles still on the carcass or you can be cited in an antlered deer only hunting area - which is pretty much everywhere in the state. Besides that, it's rare, but there have been antlered does killed occasionally.