Story by Tom Claycomb III

Bow season is upon us and the general rifle season for whitetail deer in Texas opens November 2.  Some may have already been out west to hunt elk and mule deer.  Back in the Lone Star State mule deer seasons will open November 23 in the Panhandle and November 29 out in the Trans-Pecos.  To the mix add in exotic game, free range escapees and wild hogs which all adds up to a lot of animals that need to be field dressed, butchered and processed.

Field care of game, muscle structure guidelines for breaking down the carcass plus a few tips on how to cook them is this month’s article. That’s a lot of ground to cover — so let’s get started.

FIELD CARE

Here’s an old wife’s tale. As a kid I was told to cut off the scent gland (patch of thick hair on the inside of the back hocks on a buck) or else it’d taint the meat. We did this religiously, forever.  Today I think back on this tradition and don’t believe I’ve done it in the last 30-40 years! It must not be that crucial.

The first thing you want to do is to gut your deer as quickly as possible. Even in semi-cool weather they will bloat pretty fast. When that happens, you’re a lot more likely to pop a hole in the intestine when making the belly cut, spilling paunch all over the meat since it is being pressed outwards due to stomach gases. You don’t want to do this as it ends up being a stinking mess.

On some ranches there’ll be a place to hang deer so you can skin and even eviscerate it. Some ranches will have a winch to lift up the animal and work on it or maybe just a favorite cleaning tree.

As a kid we gutted them in the field and then hung them up in a tree at the ranch house. If one was shot on the evening hunt, we’d pull off the hide and let it hang until the next morning provided it was a cool night, then bone it out after the morning hunt.  If it was shot in the morning and going to be a warm day, we’d skin and bone it after breakfast.

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