Stupid game cleaning questions #s 2 & 3

[campergeek]

Okay, perhaps I obsess about these details a bit much. If I had property in the country or had my pick of friends with private land to hunt on, these would be no-brainers. As it is, I reside in the 'burbs and, for right now, much of my hunting will take place on state properties. So, diving right in:

When cleaning doves, what do you do with the de-breasted carcasses? I'm sure that varmits would clean them up, to a degree, but on public lands with heavier hunting pressures, it seems like there would be some tendency for the carcasses to pile up faster than the critters can clean them up. Can any Missourians help me out with standard protocol? I suppose, if nothing else, I could throw the whole birds on ice and de-breast them when I get home, sealing the remnants in a trash bag and letting the garbage man worry about it - but I'm concerned about the quality of the meat if I wait too long before cleaning the birds.

The bigger question, (literally and figuratively) has to do, again, with cleaning deer. When I talked to my bride about processing a deer, she said "you're not going to cut that thing up in the garage, are you?". When presented with either that option or paying to have it processed, she decided that having a carcass in the garage wasn't such a bad thing after all. Should I bag a deer, I plan to retain the hide, the meat and (when suitable) the antlers (no room or spousal approval for a head mount). This leaves the head, bones & other sundry remnants to dispose of. Is this another job for a sealed garbage bag at the curb?

Yeah, I know, I think too much about things.

 

[mete]

Doves - see my previous post on cleaning doves. Deer ,again dress out the deer immediately. DO NOT age your deer in the garage, process it immediately .If you haven't done it before get some books on the subject. You need a saw , a hacksaw will do in a pinch, a butchers knife , 8-10", a boning knife. It isn't all that messy since the blood is already gone. Cut it up, your wife will tell you what cuts she wants, wrap it and freeze it. Any waste goes to the garbage.

 

[Art Eatman]

Unless your country has a heckuva lot higher number of excellent shots, there will be more empty hulls around than dove carcasses. Breast and toss; little poredators will do an overnight cleanup.

Working over a deer carcass in your garage: I suggest an el-cheapo blue plastic tarp and some oil dry or such, placed under your deer before starting to work. There will be some amount of dripping...

, Art

 

[cordex]

Recently dead critters (or gutpiles) generally don't hang around for very long in the wild. Way too many things are interested in eating 'em.

 

[243_shooter]

Circle of life thing, and all that... I can't imagine a place where game animals live that wouldn't have a sufficient number of other critters running around looking for an easy meal..

As for the byproducts of processing a deer, typically we save the leftovers (bones, etc...) and use it for bait (coyotes / wild dogs). If we weren't going to do that, I'd be tempted to find a secluded spot to dump it, nature will clean it up. Or bag it and toss it

Leo

 

[4v50 Gary]

Gutpile stays in the woods where the vultures and other scavengers can feast. As for bones, the dog gets that.

 

[TallPine]

I left a deer head on my carport floor one night, after a long day of hunting and butchering.

Next morning, stray dogs had dragged it off somewhere ....

Works for me

And this was back when I lived in town.