Field Dressing question

[7mmfan]

I have field dressed about 15 deer and half a dozen elk in my life, but I have always used a small bone saw to cut the pelvis in order to pull everything out the back. Last year my saw bit the dust and I field dressed 2 elk and a deer by just fleshing out the anus to a depth where I could pull it through the front and roll all the guts out. This worked well, but each time I punctured the bladder. Luckily I was in a position to tip and then immediately flush the area out thoroughly. I didn't notice any issues with any of the meat.

My question is, for you guys that field dress this way, how to manage to not puncture the bladder, but flesh out enough of the anal canal to pull it all through? I want to look up videos but I'm at work and videos of field dressing animals are frowned upon. 

[HUNTaHOLIC5]

Learn the gutless methods and this problem doesn't exist. 10000x better. No mess and also a lot faster. 

[bobcat]

Learn the gutless methods and this problem doesn't exist. 10000x better. No mess and also a lot faster. 

 

[Woodchuck]

I have field dressed about 15 deer and half a dozen elk in my life, but I have always used a small bone saw to cut the pelvis in order to pull everything out the back. Last year my saw bit the dust and I field dressed 2 elk and a deer by just fleshing out the anus to a depth where I could pull it through the front and roll all the guts out. This worked well, but each time I punctured the bladder. Luckily I was in a position to tip and then immediately flush the area out thoroughly. I didn't notice any issues with any of the meat.

My question is, for you guys that field dress this way, how to manage to not puncture the bladder, but flesh out enough of the anal canal to pull it all through? I want to look up videos but I'm at work and videos of field dressing animals are frowned upon. 

Find the high point where the two halves of the pelvis come together. drive your knife right into that seam (may need to do it a couple times, especially on elk) then push the legs further apart and the pelvis will break along that seam. 

[7mmfan]

I tried breaking the pelvis of my deer with my knife last year but failed. I understand the gutless method is great, but realistically, it only takes a few minutes to field dress an animal and then you don't have to worry at all about the guts when breaking the animal down. That's how I prefer to do it anyhow.

I've seen plenty of videos of people removing the anus the way I described (fleshing out the back and pulling it through the front when you dump the rest of the guts) but no one explains how they do it without puncturing the bladder. Is just a matter of controlling the depth of your cut?

[PlateauNDN]

Control the depth of your cut and cut along the an us to dump from inside with the guts. Or just learn the gutless method, much easier and faster. I switched couple years ago to gutless and haven't looked back.

[bobcat]

It helps to use a small, and extremely sharp knife, like a Havalon, and also it makes it much easier if you can find a large rock, log, etc. to set the rear end of the animal on.
This gets it up off the ground so you can access it easier and see what you're doing.

[7mmfan]

Alright, well I feel that the question has been answered, I just have to control my blade better. I have been considering switching to a Havalon knife after seeing how well they work on a few animals over the last couple years. Probably make that switch this year. Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it.

[Igor]

It's easy, and relatively quick to do it this way. 

First, do not cut the throat of the animal.  Cut the wind pipe from the inside after opening up the body cavity, reaching up as far as you can.
Then, use a very small knife to cut around the anus on the outside, just to remove connecting tissue.  Then, using your finger, remove as much of the remaining connecting tissue as you can.
You can now reach up inside, grabbing the intestine connected to the now-free anus, and grab the wind pipe with the other hand.  It will take some tugging, but the entire pile of guts will come out in one fell swoop !!

I've done this on both deer and elk.  It helps to use a very small knife for all of this, not some big Bowie knife which many hunters seem to think is necessary !!

[7mmfan]

I also do believe that smaller is better when talking knives. I've been slowly decreasing the size of my knives the last few years.

Does anyone have a great, go-to video link for the gutless method? Curiosity has gotten the better of me

[jaymark6655]

+1 on the small knife.  Almost anything sold in stores for hunting is too big.  I carried a saw one year, but it seemed to take too long.  Now I just carry a Fiskars hatchet and just smash the bone, its unbreakable and its light.  I probably only have to worry about losing it because I walked off not realizing that I wasn't carrying it. Have never punctured anything with this method so I will keep doing it for now.

[PlateauNDN]

I use a 3 inch blade for entire cut process. Also, youtube has ton of videos on gutless method

[7mmfan]

Can't do Youtube at work unless their embedded into another site... like this one.. 

[TSLPE]

My partner and I bought the" butt-out" this year and are looking forward to trying it out! They are like 10 bucks on amazon. Maybe try that.

[wreckerman5288]

My partner and I bought the" butt-out" this year and are looking forward to trying it out! They are like 10 bucks on amazon. Maybe try that.

When the butt-out works it works well. I have one. I have used it 4 times with excellent results, the other two times I wasn't able to get it to bite and it wouldn't do its job.