Gutting / Gralloching / Whatever you call it

[MacAR]

We call the inner: "tenderloins" and the outer "backstrap". While backstrap is good, tenderloins are fantastic...




https://www.buckmasters.com/Hunting...1/Venison-Confusion-Backstraps-vs-Tenderloins

We make a big deal about serving them to the hunter that tagged the deer, hopefully the same day. Tradition sort of thing and it makes the kid's feel special.

Admittedly, they're quite good. But, I must confess that I can't take smell of deer guts, and therefore forego the process of removing them. Shameful waste, I know. But I'm very fond of good old backstrap, especially when paired with my home grown sweet corn, cabbage, and scratch biscuits.

Mac

 

[H&Hhunter]

Admittedly, they're quite good. But, I must confess that I can't take smell of deer guts, and therefore forego the process of removing them. Shameful waste, I know. But I'm very fond of good old backstrap, especially when paired with my home grown sweet corn, cabbage, and scratch biscuits.

Mac

You don’t have to gut an animal to get the rear inside tenderloins.

 

[MacAR]

You don’t have to gut an animal to get the rear inside tenderloins

Oh? I can't figure how you'd go about it myself. Care to share how you do it?

Mac

 

[H&Hhunter]

Oh? I can't figure how you'd go about it myself. Care to share how you do it?

Mac

I did an entire thread on the gutless method. It’s stickied, read it here;

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/gutless-method-of-field-dressing-a-critter.878338/

 

[jmorris]

I have been around a lot of different kinds of poop over the years. Human babies make the kind I don’t like the most. I think cattle, in the spring, make the most likely to get everywhere.

Rabbits, goats, sheep and deer pop is about as tidy as it gets.

I generally do it like #4 but do split the pelvis from time to time, just to show, there is more than one way it can be done successfully. Same for hanging or on it’s side.

 

[MacAR]

I did an entire thread on the gutless method. It’s stickied, read it here;

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/gutless-method-of-field-dressing-a-critter.878338/

Thanks very much. You're a scholar and a gentleman.

Mac

 

[Robert]

Thanks very much. You're a scholar and a gentleman.

Mac

I can confirm it works.

 

[Hookeye]

I lay em on back slightly uphill to open em, then on side to do one side of diaphragm, then roll and do the other.
Cut the esophagus and pull it all out.
The meat at pelvis cut to bone.
Cut around anus and pull through.
Done.

My back doesn't work as well as it used to, that and blabbing to my bud holding the front legs.....took me 8 minutes.
No blood on clothes, none past wrists.

Buds and fam have killed plenty of deer.
They still struggle with it, every season. More mess, takes longer and sometimes an oops.

I don't get it.

Seriously. Its a deer. Things are big and easy to get ahold of.
I think they are easier than rabbits or squirrels.

Your first can be intimidating.
Your second is lesser.
By the 3rd you're a pro and its no big deal.

IMNSHO doing a nice job shows respect for the critter.

Have seen horrible stuff at the check ins/ processors.
SMDH

My buds just shake their heads when I do mine, they call it "speed surgery".
Guess is my blades a bit sharper than theirs

Got a new Behring Pro EDC for my next deer, if I zip one w my new Blackwidow PSA2.
Seeing as I didn't see a buck this yr (bad season, weather and medical).......that poor knife might be stuck in the safe and never used LOL
Ran a home built for decades but switched to a local Bladesmith (shot bows with him)
Bush knife. Its a bit big but its spooky sharp and while the handle shape is a little too straight for my hand, its cool somebody I know made it, and it zings through a deer.

So run it, til I do a P&Y from the Widow, w the Behring.

 

[Hookeye]

No need to go gutless where I currently hunt.
My bud shot a 177# 145" net and I drove my beater 4x4 to it.
But if Im someplace way off, no wheels, will try the gutless.

Another bud tried it for the first time this yr and loved it.

 

[Chuck R.]

I've got to admit, the gutless intrigued me, right up until you opened up the abdominal cavity to get at the tenderloins. After that, I don't see a whole lot of difference.

The process still makes sense IF you're packing out, but around here, "packing out" is a 30 yd drag to a 4 wheeler or tractor.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I've got to admit, the gutless intrigued me, right up until you opened up the abdominal cavity to get at the tenderloins. After that, I don't see a whole lot of difference.

The process still makes sense IF you're packing out, but around here, "packing out" is a 30 yd drag to a 4 wheeler or tractor.

Theres a huge difference between gutting and making a small dorsal cut to extract a tenderloin. The guts stay in the abdominal cavity vs being removed. Not even close to the same.

However I do it both ways as well depending on the situation.

 

[Patocazador]

No, unless you're talking about the inner tenderloins. The outer tenderloins come off very first thing

Just a note: there are no "outer tenderloins". The backstraps are loins and the "inner tenderloins" are the tenderloins. Ask your butcher, he will straighten you out.

 

[Sav .250]

All have gone through the learning process. You learn through mistakes. The more you do, the better you get.

 

[IdaD]

Gutless is the way I've done it for several years. I find it a lot cleaner and easier, and I don't care about leaving the ribs. Plus where we hunt we generally have to carry out game on our backs, so it just makes sense to use the gutless method since we have to break the animal down in the field anyway. Skin off one side and remove the quarters and backstrap, flip it over and repeat, and then cut into the top of the body cavity to pull out the tenderloins and take off as much neck meat as you want. I generally take the antlers also and everything else stays in the woods. Easy peasy.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Gutless is the way I've done it for several years. I find it a lot cleaner and easier, and I don't care about leaving the ribs. Plus where we hunt we generally have to carry out game on our backs, so it just makes sense to use the gutless method since we have to break the animal down in the field anyway. Skin off one side and remove the quarters and backstrap, flip it over and repeat, and then cut into the top of the body cavity to pull out the tenderloins and take off as much neck meat as you want. I generally take the antlers also and everything else stays in the woods. Easy peasy.

Pretty much every serious back country hunter uses this method now days.

 

[buck460XVR]

Pretty much every serious back country hunter uses this method now days.

Because of CWD, it is illegal to leave/dispose of the carcass, on any public land in the state(Wisconsin). Gut piles and any other field dressing debris is allowed. One can on private lands with permission, but we are heavily advised against it. The suggestion is, if you dispose of it there, you bury it deep enough that is not accessible to scavengers and/or other deer. Most private land is easily accessed and even if one cannot get directly to the animal with a vehicle or ATV/UTV, the drag to that spot would be short. I'm gonna guess that 60% or more of the folks that deer hunt here, do not process their own deer. That means they take the deer whole after field dressing, to a processor, who hangs it, skins it and then butchers it. Even processing it myself, I still prefer the carcass whole till I get home/back to the cabin. Just what works for me. While I certainly understand why "every serious back country hunter" would do the "gutless" method(and I did too in certain scenarios here back when it was allowed), for the most part, it's pretty much unusable(and illegal) here. Grouse, woodcock and pheasant tho.....I do "gutless" in the field.

BTW.....now because of Covid-19 and the knowledge that it is carried by deer, the state DNR advises wearing a face mask while field dressing.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Because of CWD, it is illegal to leave/dispose of the carcass, on any public land in the state(Wisconsin). Gut piles and any other field dressing debris is allowed. One can on private lands with permission, but we are heavily advised against it. The suggestion is, if you dispose of it there, you bury it deep enough that is not accessible to scavengers and/or other deer. Most private land is easily accessed and even if one cannot get directly to the animal with a vehicle or ATV/UTV, the drag to that spot would be short. I'm gonna guess that 60% or more of the folks that deer hunt here, do not process their own deer. That means they take the deer whole after field dressing, to a processor, who hangs it, skins it and then butchers it. Even processing it myself, I still prefer the carcass whole till I get home/back to the cabin. Just what works for me. While I certainly understand why "every serious back country hunter" would do the "gutless" method(and I did too in certain scenarios here back when it was allowed), for the most part, it's pretty much unusable(and illegal) here. Grouse, woodcock and pheasant tho.....I do "gutless" in the field.

BTW.....now because of Covid-19 and the knowledge that it is carried by deer, the state DNR advises wearing a face mask while field dressing.

Different situations require different methods.I don’t know what the situation in Wisconsin is in regards to “serious” backcountry hunting, areas that are remote, roadless, primitive access only hunting. But I’m sure it has places that makes hauling a deer to nearest vehicle very difficult. We do what we have to do.

In many places that I hunt, hauling out a whole elk or even a deer would be absolutely impossible. I’ve heard that Pennsylvania has similar whole carcass rules but I’m not sure that’s right.

 

[buck460XVR]

Different situations require different methods.I don’t know what the situation in Wisconsin is in regards to “serious” backcountry hunting, areas that are remote, roadless, primitive access only hunting. But I’m sure it has places that makes hauling a deer to nearest vehicle very difficult. We do what we have to do.

In many places that I hunt, hauling out a whole elk or even a deer would be absolutely impossible.

...and I completely understand this.

Any place in Wisconsin that one could realistically consider "serious backcountry hunting", is going to be Public land. I'm sure this is true in most parts of the country anymore. Out west is the exception. Yes, there are still places where hauling a deer to the nearest vehicle is very difficult at best. My point was, regardless of the difficulty, that doing anymore than field dressing is illegal. Up till a few years ago, one had to have the complete animal(minus field dressing) to take to a registration station to register. I once almost got in trouble and lost a nice 10 point bow buck via confiscation, because I removed the lower legs to make the lone 3/4 mile drag thru heavy cover a tad easier. Knowing the local Game Warden personally probably saved my butt. For a few years before CWD, the state changed it's rules so you could "pack" your animal out in up to 5 different pieces. You still needed the head to determine sex. Then one needs to consider, that carrying the quarters and a head on your back is not any easier for most folks than dragging a 100-150# carcass, especially if there is snow. Now, the state does not want the spine and other CNS parts left where they will be accessible to scavengers and other deer, at least on the lands they control. So while we could certainly do the "gutless"method, we would still have to "gut" the remains and bring them back. As you said, "we do what we have to do". That means doing what is legal. Kinda why I suggest others know what the laws are in their state about removing game from the field.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Buck,

“Then one needs to consider, that carrying the quarters and a head on your back is not any easier for most folks than dragging a 100-150# carcass, especially if there is snow. “

I wouldn’t take that bet on flat ground or even rolling hill country in the snow. Dragging is a very good option in those conditions. In broken steeper terrain dragging doesn’t work.

 

[MacAR]

Not to get too far off topic, but:

Just a note: there are no "outer tenderloins". The backstraps are loins and the "inner tenderloins" are the tenderloins. Ask your butcher, he will straighten you out.

In the part of the world that I live in, any of the meat that comes off the deer's back is called tenderloin, and that's all I've ever heard it called throughout my life. Of course, just because it "is" doesn't make it right, and your are exactly correct in this case. But, different parts of the world often call the same thing by different names, and conveying regional mannerisms over the WWW can be very difficult. So please, overlook my ignorance if you can. THR and it's members have been very helpful in teaching me lots of new and helpful things regarding guns and hunting; a guy like me just thinks he knows a lot until he starts reading here!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Mac

 

[buck460XVR]

In the part of the world that I live in, any of the meat that comes off the deer's back is called tenderloin, and that's all I've ever heard it called throughout my life.

^^^ The same is mostly true around here. Growing up, I was taught that the backstrap was indeed a "loin" and thus we called both cuts "loins" when it came to venison. Inner and outer. Venison, while having some similarities to beef when butchered, is not identical. Where-as the loins kept with the bone in beef cuts are called T-Bone or Porterhouse(depending on the size of the tenderloin part), for the most part there is no inner loin kept with bone in venison loin cuts and are generally called "Chops", similar to pork. Similar to venison, many times the "loin" and/or "Loin-eye" from pork is referred to as "tenderloin". When I get local butchered hogs, I get pork chops with tenderloin, similar to a t-bone. From the store, I never see tenderloin on pork chops.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Back straps are loins, inside loins are tender loins. But yes I’ve heard people call them all kinds of different things.

 

[Emmanuel of Arms]

You know this thread turned out pretty good considering it started with “is venting stomach farts in my face a good idea…”

Having finally read/watched everything here, I am going to have to do my own butchery next year. The processor did fine. All my stuff was tagged with my customer id, but the deer sticks were not good. A shame because deer/beef sticks should be about the most delicious thing on earth. Till next year…

 

[Chuck R.]

You know this thread turned out pretty good considering it started with “is venting stomach farts in my face a good idea…”

Having finally read/watched everything here, I am going to have to do my own butchery next year. The processor did fine. All my stuff was tagged with my customer id, but the deer sticks were not good. A shame because deer/beef sticks should be about the most delicious thing on earth. Till next year…

Pretty good thread here about what guys have put together for kits:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/home-butchering-kit-contents.895145/

Friend and I just went halves on an LEM meat mixer, should arrive Tuesday, then we're doing a bunch of venison sausage next weekend.

 

[J-Bar]

Two comments:

You are using a sharp knife. Don't get in a hurry. You are miles from the nearest emergency room. Don't force any cut. I am an old fart and wear an emergency medical bracelet because I am taking a prescription anticoagulant. If we cut ourselves we will be in deep poo, and I don't mean deer fecal material.

Packing houses often spray carcasses with a mild acid, vinegar, lactic acid, etc., to prevent bacterial growth. The bacteria are on the exposed surface, not the deep muscle tissue. Try to be sanitary of course, but stuff happens. A vinegar mist on the exposed meat will not alter the flavor, and it helps prevent bacterial growth until the meat is less than 45 degrees F.