Monte Burch - The Pocket Guide to Field Dressing, Butchering, and Cooking Deer: A Hunters Quick Reference Book

Copyright 1986, 2015 by Monte and Joan Burch

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2015

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Jacket illustration: Thinkstock

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-450-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-468-3

Printed in China

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

To many hunters, the joy of the hunt stops when the deer is down. Many inexperienced deer hunters often look at dressing and butchering as hard, complicated work requiring special tools, skills, and knowledge. The job also appears messy and smelly. Actually, field dressing, butchering, and cooking venison is quite easy. It can be done by the first-timer with very little hassle if done properly. Learning the proper steps and doing them in order prevents problems. This book lists all the steps in order in an easy-to-read manner with full illustrations. It can be used right in the field, allowing even the first-timer to enjoy the satisfaction of preparing his own venison. Old timers may also discover some new tricks.

1. YOUR DEER IS DOWN

The quality of your venison begins with proper care in the field.

The hunt is over and your deer is down. The first step is to make sure the animal is dead. Approach the animal with your gun or bow ready. You may need to shoot again. Stunned animals and even those mortally wounded have gotten up or thrashed around and injured hunters. Approach slowly and carefully, then touch the eyeball with your rifle muzzle or a stick. If the animal doesnt move, unload your gun or case your arrow and set aside. Then tag the animal with the appropriate tag or license.

Stop, take a breather, and relax a bit. The steps you take next will ensure your deer will turn into delicious venison your entire family will enjoy.

2. COMMON FALLACIES ABOUT DEER DRESSING

There are several fallacies that are quite common about dressing deer. Some have been touted for years as necessary to prevent the tainting of the meat. In fact, some may cause more problems than they alleviate.

The first is bleeding the animal. For years many writers suggested that the animal should be bled in the manner of pork and beef. That simply isnt true. Pork and beef are killed by a blow to the head or a low-power pellet in the brain and dont bleed at death. For that reason their throat must be cut and the blood allowed to escape from the body to prevent tainting of the meat by blood.

Deer are killed by either gunshot or arrow wounds that cause the animal to die from loss of blood, and there is no further need to bleed the animal. In fact, cutting into the throat and chest to bleed the animal allows more meat to be exposed to dirt, hair, flies, and so forth.

The second fallacy is that the scent glands must be removed from a buck because the strong odor will taint the meat. These glands are located on the hocks and are not apt to touch any of the meat during field dressing. The best approach is to leave them alone. If you remove the glands youll get the scent on your knife blade and that will cause problems as it contacts the meat.