I have gutted exactly one deer, a buck, in my life. I did it because I shot it and I had to do it. For me, it wasn't fun or a pleasant experience. I quit deer hunting many years ago. Nothing against the people who enjoy hunting but it's not for me. I'd rather shoot paper targets.
I don't hunt much anymore either. It's a lot easier to find and shoot steel or paper targets. I still haven't found a good recipe for either one, though.
Shot my first in '59. I was 11 at the time. There were a whole 35 deer killed in the county that season. I shot the deer and seriously considered shooting another..They just stood there...deer in the headlights look. I shot the only one that ran. DUH!! Game warden was watching me. He helped me throw it in his trunk and took me home I hung it in a tree and did the dressing. I didn't get all messed up or anything. My mother drove me out to get my bicycle a couple of hours later. My father was a Chesapeake Bay waterman... I still pretty much dislike seafood and I never looked back. Never had to eat oysters or clams again. I just fried up some deer steak or burger. Never missed getting a deer or more till 2 years ago when I pretty much quit deer shooting. This story is kind of amazing to me Google how to field dress a deer. Heck my father didn't even know how. I went home and read it in a hunting book. Stuff now days is so much...easier is a bad word...but a great story. I once took a seriously injured patient to Shock Trauma in Baltimore and as we were getting to the operating room the doctor zipped the poor fellow open and turned to me and said what do you think about that. I said wow...looks just like when you field dress a deer. At least I didn't say gut a deer. Amazingly that fellow ended up living. He came by our fire station to thank us for saving him. Heck the doc did that
When my wife first went deer hunting she had surgical gloves, knife and a plastic covered set of field dressing instructions out of Field & Stream. The closest she ever got to dressing one out was to pin instructions to tree over the deer. Later got her a little air horn but she hunted from a “bunker” that was only a couple hundred yds from camp.
My 23 year old grandson killed his first deer this weekend. He had been hunting in the past but had never been with anyone who shot a deer. His first shot was right in the heart.
His girlfriend was with him and she had never been with anyone who got a deer either. The people he was hunting with were far away so he couldn't ask them . They were were way up north in the woods . He had no phone reception. Luckily his girlfriend did. She Googled how to gut a deer and found a video on how to do it.
