[jcchartboy]

As I was doing some research for my post concering the size of NJ deer, I found myself once again consulting Dr Leonard Lee La Rue III's book, The Deer of North America.

In this book there is amazing amounts of interesting information.

I learned that what many hunters collectively call "field dressing" is actually divided into two different terms when it is discussed in biological circles.

The term "Field Dressed" is properly used as follows.

..the skin on its belly is opened and its paunch, intestines, and reproductive organs are taken out. The liver,heart, and lungs are left in, whith the diaphragm intact.

The term "Hog Dressed" is properly used as followed.

..the carc [no swearing please] is usually split open from the throat to the upper sternum to the pelvic arch. The windpipe is cut off as high as possible, the heart lungs, diaphragm walls, liver, paunch,intestines, and reproductiive organs are all taken out.

The reason for the need to deliniate these two forms of dressing is so that biological statistics and ratios that are made in comparison to live weight can be calculated properly.


I have always "hog dressed" my deer. However I have always refer to it as field dressing. It never even occured to me that someone would use the first method and righfully call it field dressing.

My question is...when other members use the term...field dressing...which method are you really using...Hog Dressing, or Field dressing?

 

[wojtowicza]

i use the term field but i guess i actually hog dress.

 

[jrhunt]

I "gut" my Deer.

 

[wojtowicza]

i knew someone was going to say that.

 

[Guest]

who cares what we call it....WE HAVE MEAT TO EAT BABY[up]

 

[Hawkeye525]

hog dress but have used field dress as the term, never knew that.

 

[jcchartboy]

Jrhunt,

When you gut, do you remove anything from the chest cavity?

 

[jrhunt]

Yes jcchartboy. I guess the term Hog Dress applies to my style.

 

[bob825]

i always said feild dress but i guess i was hog dressing

 

[jcchartboy]

I actuallly do a variation of hog dressing, I usually don't split the breast bone . I just reach up inside and cut the windpipe instead. I also usually dont split the pelvis either, I am able to pull the end of the intestines out without cutting them by simply working around them with a knife.

By splitting a little less bone I think it is a easier to drag the deer out and they stay a little cleaner inside.

 

[yoda4x4]

My procedure for dressing the deer is like icchartboy. I do not split the hips nor the breast bone. As it has been explained to me, by splitting the hips, you expose more of the meat to air, thus you'll have to discard all of that dried up meat. No matter what, I'll still call it either gutting or field dressing.

David

 

[Matty]

I actuallly do a variation of hog dressing, I usually don't split the breast bone . I just reach up inside and cut the windpipe instead. I also usually dont split the pelvis either, I am able to pull the end of the intestines out without cutting them by simply working around them with a knife.

Same here, always called it field dressing though.

Leonard Lee Rue III, now theres a whitetail genius! I remember being a little kid in the 6th grade and taking out his books all the time. So much deer knowledge, and some of the most amazing deer photographs, you have to wonder if he has hooves!

 

[mpemt24]

I don't care what it's called as long as I don't spoil the meat.

 

[El Jefe]

I don't know what you call what I do. I just leave what I'm going to eat. The serious part now. Eons ago I use to belong to a very big Gun Club, some of you are still members of that club (Barbertown) some of the best years of my life were spend there with a lot of good friends. Some of them have passed to happier hunting grounds.
On opening day of BUCK SEASON, we use to have an old timer that used to cook that night for the whole gang, and let me tell you there were a lot of us. Actually my bed was the pool table for the week. Back in those days if you shot a Buck you only took out the pauch, intestines and anal cavity, you put the Liver in a bag and you left the Lungs and Heart in the deer. It was easier to transport back to the club house this way. That night we would collect the Liver and Hearts and make one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Included was pasta with venison meat balls. They use to fried the whole thing in butter bacon and onion, wow my mouth is watering.
After they came out with the report about not to eat deer Liver we stop doing it. I wonder if there is any truth to that, the part about eating the heart and liver?????

 

[mysticguido]

What they call field/hog dressing I call Gutting.

 

[Elmo]

Gut It!

 

[OutlawJT]

Eons ago I use to belong to a very big Gun Club, some of you are still members of that club (Barbertown) some of the best years of my life were spend there with a lot of good friends.

Back in those days if you shot a Buck you only took out the pauch, intestines and anal cavity, you put the Liver in a bag and you left the Lungs and Heart in the deer. It was easier to transport back to the club house this way. That night we would collect the Liver and Hearts and make one of the best meals I have ever eaten.

El Jefe - Some of the guys still save the hearts for me, and I save all of the hearts from the deer I shoot, but most of the big "B" members don't eat them. Usually we'll throw on some backstraps &/or shoulders on the grill for a nice "snack"!!! I ran out of my own "homemade" Cajun rub, but we wen't through two containers of that last season, and will probably do the same this season!!!

I always go into the field with a few Ziploc bags just for the hearts and occasionally a liver or two after I "hog dress" the deer!!! [up][up][up]

 

[230grain hollowpoint]

I gut my deer also.

Actually I sort of hog dress. I remove also the heart & lungs, but I don't split the sternum.

I don't split the pelvis either. I tie off the intestine with those wire things that come on bread packages.

 

[JerseyJim]

I call it field dressing but I guess it's actually hog dressing.... I don't cut the ribs but I do remove all the insides including the heart lungs and most of the wind pipe!!! I do split the pelvis..