Field dressing your deer
This is probably the most important thing you will need to do after retrieving your deer. It is not as messy as you might think if done the right way. If you are new like a lot of hunters it will take some time to perfect a technique but, don’t get discouraged.
The first thing you will want to do is prop the deer up slightly on one side and with a sharp knife grab the stomach and lift up, this will enable you to make an incision and not cut any of the intrails. If it is a buck and you are going to have it mounted you will need to be careful not to cut up any farther than the breast bone. The most important thing to remember when doing this is to not cut into the bladder or the urine tract as this could taint the meat.
When you have cut as far up as you are going to go you need to reach up inside and cut the esophagus, note that you need to be very careful as not to cut yourself doing this. Then you will need to go down to the pelvic and tail area. At this point what you will need to do is hold any entrails out of the way while cutting the pelvic bone with a bone saw. Once that is done go back up to the esophagus and get a good hold on it and pull everything toward the tail area. Everything should come out with very little trouble.
Once you have pulled all the entrails out you will need to flip the deer over on it’s stomach to drain any excess blood from inside. If there is a stream near by it would be a good idea to wash out the best you can the chest and stomach cavity.
Remember by removing the deer entrails it will enable to start the cooling process of the meat because the heat generated can ruin the meat. You owe it to the animal to do this because the worse thing you can do is to harvest a deer and not be able to enjoy the food that it will provide because the insides were not clean out properly and timely.
I have added a field dressing video that might help as well so take a look and save for future referance.
Tools that will be needed are very basic. I use a Gerber hunting knife and a small bone saw for the pelvic area and a plain pair of Latex gloves.