Great Venison Cooking

How you field dress your deer is the first, and most important, step in harvesting venison for the table. Our friend and expert hunter, Bob Jones, was kind enough to share his field dressing technique with us. He has field dressed hundreds of deer, and refined his technique over time. This process is quick and easy, and is the most hygienic way to start processing your meat.

Field Dressing a Deer: Video

For those of you who like to see what you’re learning, here is a short video of how to field dress your deer, staring our friend Bob and narrated by Rick.

Field Dressing the Deer: Step-by-Step

Everybody has their own way of doing this, and this article describes just one way. After using this method to harvest many deer (sometimes two or three in one day), I find this to be quick and easy and it keeps the meat from being contaminated.

Your knife

All you need is a 3–4 inch blade. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive knife out there; what it needs to be is extremely sharp (sharp enough to shave with). A slight curve back at the end bit with a good point is my favorite. It’s easy to control, the tip pierces through the hide easily, and with the slight curve it cuts through the hide well without diving into the gut (extremely important for tasty meat).

Step 1: When you find your animal make, sure it is dead. The eye should be open, and if you stick you gun muzzle or arrow to the eye ball and touch it the animal should not blink. Position the animal on it’s back.

Step 2: Cut the anus and vagina free from the outside and interior pelvis. Insert the knife between the tail and the anus. When putting the knife in, try to keep the point angled toward into the bones of the pelvis and not into the pelvic cavity. Cut a hole around the anus and vagina if it’s a doe. Once you have cut all the way around, stick your fingers into the cut and try to separate the intestines and vagina from the wall of the pelvis. It’s all held together by some thin connective membranes. If you need to use your knife, do so carefully. You don’t want to cut the urine bladder or tube. Once you think it is pretty free, cut up to the chest bone.

Step 3: Make an incision through the hide down to the breast plate, starting at the top of the breast bone (Sternum). Continue the incision to the soft spot just below the sternum. Carefully puncture through the hide here, but without puncturing the stomach. You can lift the hide below the puncture area to help keep the knife from hitting the stomach.

Take the knife out and stick two fingers of your non-knife hand into the incision and lift the hide away from the abdominal organs.

Using your fingers as a guide, put the knife between them and run an incision down to the pubic bone. Your fingers will be pulling the hide up and away allowing the knife to just slide down the hide. Be careful of your fingers! Don’t cut the hide past the pubic bone, if you do it will pull up the legs exposing the meat to possible contamination. If this happens, you just need to more careful about keeping that meat clean.

Step 4: Cutting the Sternum. Depending on the deer size, you can either cut through the sternum to open the chest or cut the ribs free on one side of the sternum. Small deer can be cut through the bone. I like to use a pulling motion to achieve this. It is counter to what you are taught about cutting away from you but I find you can control your knife better and not have it twist and accidentally cut something you don’t want cut.

Now, standing over the deer, facing the tail, put the knife either along the side of sternum or right at the bottom depending on whether you plan to cut the ribs or the bone. Using the weight of the deer, pull toward the head and slice up to the top of the sternum. It may take a couple pulls.

Step 5: Removing the insides. The organs are anchored in place by a connective tissue membrane, the food/windpipe, and the diaphragm muscle.

After you cut these free, you will dump them out to one side. We are first going to cut free the diaphragm on whichever side will eventually be down when you dump.

The thin muscle between the chest and the abdomen is the diaphragm. While the deer is still on its back, cut the diaphragm free from one side starting at the middle and working down to the back bone. You may need to tilt the deer slightly. Pull the organs away from the knife while you cut. Then cut the lungs free from that same side, working along the inside of the ribs. They should fall away easily. Repeat on the other side as much as possible.

Reach into the neck, find the windpipe and esophagus. Slip your fingers under them pushing through the connective tissue that holds them to the backbone. Once you have a good hold of them, you cut them off above your hand. Holding firmly you should be able to pull them back toward the tail. You may need to free part of the lungs with your knife, but I find a good steady pull works fine. Let the deer fall to the side you cut free earlier, pulling the chest organs out. The abdominal organs should follow, but you may have to free them from the back wall with a knife as you pull. You should be able to pull everything free all the way to the pelvis.

Removing the bladder and intestines from the pelvis: To do this, reach into the pelvis, grab the intestines at the very end and pull out. Don’t squeeze the bladder. If you cut them free earlier they just pull out. If they aren’t coming, carefully use your knife to scrape along the inside walls and free up the membrane holding them in and try again.

Everything should be out now. I like to cut out the heart and liver to make treats for my dog. If you take the liver, put it in a separate container from any other meat. I keep a zip log bag with my gear just for that.

Step 6: Turn the dear over on it’s belly, and put the head back on it’s shoulders. This will drain most of the blood out. While that’s draining, clean up and put away your dressing equipment.

Now you need to get your deer out of the woods.

How to Get the Deer Out of the Woods
After you’re done field dressing your deer, you have to get it out of the woods. This is the hardest part of the day. It helps to have hired sherpas or teenaged boys on hand at this point, but most often you’re on your own.

Removing in a Vehicle

Depending on terrain, weather, and so on, you may choose to get it out any number of ways. If getting a vehicle close is an option, I will flip the deer back over, put a clean stick between the halves of the chest and open it up to allow air circulation, then go get the truck, bringing everything with me except the deer. If the vehicle is close enough, my buddy and I pick the deer up by the legs and carry it to the truck (this is the best option for us in Northern Virginia because the foxes are very, very quick here).

Dragging it Out

If I have to drag the deer out of the woods, then I tie the front legs together with a piece of string and make a cut through both lower legs just above the hooves between the Achilles tendon and the leg bone. I pass my drag rope through these cuts and pull the deer by the rear legs.

I like doing it this way because it tends to keep the meat away from the dirt while dragging. And if it’s a buck, the antlers are less likely to catch things when dragged backwards.

Deer Carts

The ultimate tool however is the deer cart. I would rather hike back to my truck, put all my gear away, bring back a deer cart, and haul the deer in that. The deer stays out of the dirt and it is much easier to get them through the woods. The exception to this is stream crossings or deep snow.

Transporting the Deer

Once back at the truck, ice the deer as soon as possible. I carry a cooler with bagged ice whenever I go hunting any distance from home. I can keep some cold drinks in there for after the hunt, and if I got anything then I place the bag of ice in the body cavity of the deer for the trip home. If it’s a big deer I stop a soon as I can for a couple more bags. If you are in a warm climate, throw a couple bags on top of the deer as well.

Don’t stop to show off your deer at the local bar or VFW. If you want to show it off, tell your friends to meet you where you will be processing it. Not only can they admire it, they can give you a hand processing.

If you’re taking your deer to a processor, you’re done with your part. If you have to wait for the processor to open, keep cooling the deer with the ice. If you’re processing yourself (which I recommend), read the articles on how to do that.

Enjoy your venison!