How to bone-out a deer tutorial with pictures

[OneShotJim]

Thank you for this outstanding tutorial! I just started hunting last season and have yet to harvest an animal.  This will definitely come in handy when I'm handling my first kill.

[ELK SHOT]

Ya know dout that is a good showing on how its done in the field.Not to much dirt and grass and crap, good job for who ever done it.

[DoubleJ]

Still waiting for some people to respond that have actually had game wardens approve of this method.  I would really like to use it but, I am very leery about it.  Seems like too much of a gray area for me.

[BlackRidge]

Great info!! The pictures really helped, and overall, great write-up

Thanks Axel!

[cashmerekev]

Great job!  I learned watching my dad butcher on the farm growing up but like the idea of not gutting..

[Decker]

Excellent, thank you!

[iRem]

I always hunted with buddy of mine that was taught by his father how to cut up game meat for personal use. I never question why and how he did what he did just went along with it.     I always thought that I would be able to process my own deer and elk,    and after reading this tutorial last year before archery season I was able make it happen.    Did I not only process my owe deer and elk last year I was able to process another buddies buddies deer with in about 1 1/2 hours and saved myself and him an extra $100 by doing so.  A big shout out for this tutorial!! Awesome!

[NW-GSP]

Thanks for posting this! Really good info!

[wlandrum]

Thanks for posting this.

[khunter#1]

How to bone-out a deer tutorial

I’m going to do this in several posts so hang on with any replies till I say I’m done so it doesn’t get broken up. I’ll be using a deer I just harvested as the volunteer for this.

I hope you have a knife with a gut hook. If not, then get one. They are great tools.
This bone-out method works on any deer-like animal.

First of all, don’t gut it out. There is no need to and you will see why in this explanation.

1. With the animal on its side, use your gut hook to zip all the way from the rectum up the neck and then up the inside of each leg. If you are saving the cape, then cape it first. Now skin it from the belly to the back bone on one side and skin the upper two legs down to the knees.

[sixty4nhalf]

I must say I have never seen this done before, I have always done it the old nasty way before!

[Elkrunner]

I finally used it this year and it was great.  I am still a bit confused on getting the dang tenderloins out so I ended up pulling the guts at the last moment to get them.  Can someone assist me with that?  I have heard of a few people cracking the ribs at the 3rd rib back to reach in there? 

[jwd7777]

Thanks alot for the info... I hope to use it this year.

[AKBowman]

Last year Dec. 1 I shot a big old fat doe with my bow and used this method. I've always used it and it works great. As far as keeping the head or antlers of a buck or elk naturally attached to the largest part of meat...I hope I run into a gamie that tries to give me a ticket for that one year. I hunt three miles back and I am not going to take an entire deer head out of the woods.

Anyhow hope the pics post

[AKBowman]

ready for the pack out