Gutless Field Dressing

[endurance]

It works great on smaller animals and organs and then I can put everything in my pack without making a mess.  Keeps everything squeeky clean.

[GotCox]

Im curious, I've never field dressed an animal using the guttless method in the OP, but with recent discussion about it contributing to the waste of meat, how many don't take organs?

It was brought up that leaving the ribcage is "want & waste" and may even be considered in some States a ticketable offense.  I'm on the fence about it being waste, only because I normally take it with me (but not always) and have no problem with others who don't (there's not much meat there).  I also disagree that an honest hunter would ever need to worry about being ticketed for it.  With that in mind, there is much more good usable meat in the organs (liver and heart especially) that most (whom I know) always make a habit in leaving behind.  I would think that if there was ever a thought that you would be ticketed for leaving a ribcage, you would certainly get ticketed for leaving the liver and heart.

Personally, I think the heart is BY FAR the best meat on any game species.  What say you?

.

My thoughts are more traditional than most, but i was taught to use as much of an animal as you can. Rocky mountain oysters, heart and liver are all great when cooked right. The gall bladder is valuable to people who make home medicines, dogs and pigs love grissell and bones, hides make good leather or rugs (depending on the animal), heck you can even learn to make great wood glue from the hooves of deer and elk. If you do any crawdad (crayfish) fishing even the stomach and intestines can be saved for bait.

I have seen other people who fancy them selves sportsmen end up with 100 pounds of meat off of a 500 pound elk and everything else is thrown away and goes to waste. If you don't like heart i will bet you can find someone who does, if you don't know how to tan a hide i bet someone around you would love to have yours to tan. Do i support a government who makes laws to tell you how to do your thing as a sportsman? Hell no. I wish they stayed out of it completely, but i do wish everyone would learn to be less wasteful and get more from the animals they take.

Here is a great read on what i feel is a good job of processing. It shows the tenderloin that you would not want to leave or miss, and the gutless method would leave to rot.
http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56251&highlight=Ron+Kulas

[nelson96]

It works great on smaller animals and organs and then I can put everything in my pack without making a mess.  Keeps everything squeeky clean.

Ah. . . .  So you're not hauling quaters that way.  I pack gallon ziplocks for that reason.  I don't mind asking people for their organs when I walk up on a kill and see the heart in the gut pile. 

[nelson96]

I wish they stayed out of it completely, but i do wish everyone would learn to be less wasteful and get more from the animals they take.

Sure, but it's an individual sport with perks (meat) and if a person doesn't use ALL that stuff you listed or know someone who does, I for one am sure as H double hockey sticks not packing it. . . .  I'm happy you do, that's great.  It would be better if more did use all that stuff, but I won't put that on them as a responsibility.  The reason we got on the subject of wasted meat was over the ribcage, not much lost there.

Thankfully it's a rare thing for me to find carcasses with much meat left on them.  I do see more and more whole animals dead where the person couldn't find them though and the entire animal went to waste. 

.

[trekker111]

I hate liver, no one in my family will eat it, therefore, it goes with the rest of the guts. The whole family loves heart, which is why I usually hold a little high on lung shots. Get the arteries, leave the heart intact.

Somewhere a line has to be drawn, the kidneys are edible, intestines for sausage casings, or a bow string, or cordage. Sinew for cordage. If cwd isn't a concern the brain is edible, or can be used to tan the hide. Bones for stock. I could go on, but I think the point has been made.

To get fined for waste of game, requires both an officer to write the ticket, a judge to agree, and if it comes to it, a jury to unanimously agree.

Just the rib cage doesn't have much meat, especially if a good job was done when removing the front legs. The neck has a decent amount of meat. The loins on the underside of the spine, near the pelvis, is some of the best meat on a deer/elk/pig. I see no easy way to get it with a gutles method.

[nelson96]

The loins on the underside of the spine, near the pelvis, is some of the best meat on a deer/elk/pig. I see no easy way to get it with a gutles method.

To be clear, I'm not advocating the guttless method, but did think it was pretty cool, not having seen it done before.  As I remember, the video showed him removing the loins.

[nelson96]

UPDATE:
I heard back from the ODFW and this is what they said. . . .

Waste is defined on page 82 of the Big Game Regulations.

“Waste” means to allow any edible
portion of any game mammal (except
cougar) or game bird to be rendered
unfit for human consumption, or, to fail
to retrieve edible portions except internal
organs of such game mammals or game
birds from the field. Entrails, including the
heart and liver, are not considered edible.

While the “waste” regulations for game mammals have not been changed recently, it is true that a hunter could be cited for waste of a game animal if they left the meat on the rib cage.

[DDJ]

The rules in Ohio used to be that the only thing you were allowed to remove before the final tag was attached to the harvest was the entrails (field dress).  The final tag was applied at a check in station.  They had to see the whole head and all of the carcass.  With the new call in/web check in I am not sure if those rules changed.  I still practice that method.  However we are dealing with Whitetail that top out (a monster) at 200Lbs dressed and never too far from a road it may not be where you parked but never more than a mile from a road at least anywhere I have hunted in Ohio.

[armymars]

  GotCox talked about the poles. A friend of mine showed me another trick. When I got my last dear on his farm, we used one of the cheap plastic sleds that look like a tobagon. Even with no snow it worked.

[SelfSufficientPath]

I can see the advantages.  That said, it looks to me like you would be leaving a lot of meat.  The neck roast comes to mind, as well as a decent amount of grind meat.  I guess for me it would depend on a number of things; how cold is it, how big is the animal, how far am I from the vehicle/house, etc.  Still a good method to keep in mind for the right situation.