question about skinning/field dressing

[gfaherty3]

Hey guys, I want to start by thanking all of you for your insight and experience, i am a new hunter and have been pouring over this site for about a month now and have learned so much just by reading your posts.  What a great community.

I did read Shadow Cat's post on field dressing an elk (actually printed it out) but I have a question.  When you field dress an animal, do you need to pack out the entrails and the organs?  I don't know the rules or the etiquette. 
thanks.

[saylean]

Some people keep the heart, liver, etc..as they like that stuff (its up to them). We kept the liver of the elks last year.

Entrails/lungs etc...no, you can toss em...

Welcome to the site man, enjoy.

[robodad]

Take everything you are going to eat of coarse and the rest you just leave, but please don't leave it on a trail or hanging in the trees or on a road or in a parking space (if you gut the thing after you get it to a road) Just be mindfull of the other users and everything will be great !!!

[bow4elk]

by law, you must take all edible "meat" but feel free to leave the entrails for the bear, coyotes, and birds.  it is legal to hunt over a carcass for bears and cats; I know a few folks who've taken nice bears the day after boning out their elk.

Read the regulations and call the WDFW if you have specific questions.  The number one rule of thumb for early season bowhunting is getting that meat cooled as quickly as possible.  Send me your phone number and I'll gladly share my techniques with you over the phone...too much to write down at the moment but maybe I will for another post later.

Enjoy the site and all the great info!

[MountainWalk]

.  it is legal to hunt over a carcass for bears and cats;

Isn't that baiting?

[saylean]

this has been discussed on here before...i think the opinion was it was illegal for bears to sit over a carcass...

however, it is not illegal to bait for kitties...which is a fact.

[huntnphool]

this has been discussed on here before...i think the opinion was it was illegal for bears to sit over a carcass...

Is this only true for the person that harvested the animal? Are you telling me that if you came upon a elk rib cage in the field with a bear eating on it, you couldn't harvest it?

[saylean]

That was the supposed concensus at the time, which was news to me, since the first bear I ever killed a bear it was eating maggots off a buried deer carcass.........(which I didnt know was there, till I came up on it)

I will try to find the link to it..

In my opinion, sitting over a gut pile is no different than sitting over a berry patch.

[billythekidrock]

I don't see how they could do anything if you just came upon it. If you knew it was there and they could prove that you were sitting over it then that might be another story.

[huntnphool]

In my opinion, sitting over a gut pile is no different than sitting over a berry patch.

Well let them try and prosecute me for that, if I happen upon a bear eating on someone elses old harvest its going down.

[saylean]

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,1646.0.html

here was the link i was referring too...looks like we didnt quite come to a consensus.

Im with you on that huntnphool

[billythekidrock]

In my opinion, sitting over a gut pile is no different than sitting over a berry patch.

Yea, but the berry patch grew there. They could argue that the gutpile was "placed" there.

[saylean]

I agree with ya there billy, as well. However, it was not placed there with the intent (nor would a naturally killed carcass be placed there)...of course..now we are hijacking this poor thread...

I will stop now..

[billythekidrock]

 

[sirfunkeybut]

.  it is legal to hunt over a carcass for bears and cats;

Isn't that baiting?

I stopped and talked to a fish cop one time and he said it was alright to use hay for deer and elk. but i didn't think it was legal to bait bears.

[robb92]

According to the hunters safety instructors here in Maryland when I took my daughter through the class said that you are to take the guts with you and I asked him why and he said it was because the smell would cause the other animals to shy away from the area and other people didn't want to have to walk in the mess. I told the guy he was full of it and that was the dumbest answer I have ever heard. I have shot a deer in the morning and then went back the same afternoon and shot another one in the same spot.

Here is what I do, bow season opens here on the 15th and as an average the temps have been in the mid 80's on opening day.


Take the meat and leave the guts minus the heart, and liver if you want to keep them. During the early part of the season with the temp so high here I take three coolers with me and fill the smaller of the three full of ice and then I get some clear unscented garbage bags and will skin and gut the deer and 1/4 it up and place the meat into clear bags and leave it loose enough so the heat will escape the bags, take and place a layer of ice on the bottom of the empty cooler and then make a layer of meat and then more ice and do this until the cooler is full or the meat is all in the cooler, leave the drain plug out so the water will run out, nothing worse that trying to cut up meat when it is soaked in water. Add ice as needed to keep the cooler topped off until you want to cut the meat up.