Field dressing’s toughest task may be unnecessary

The dust is settling on another Wisconsin gun deer season, and as always, there are two general discussion camps: Where are all the deer or what a great season it was.

My able-bodied sports editor said he had the first discussion covered. No matter how many deer are ultimately harvested, I’ve never had a season I didn’t enjoy. I hope that’s the case for you, too.

I’ll be the first to admit that if there’s a deer or two hanging from the meat pole at deer camp or being processed at the meat locker, I feel all those days afield paid off more than those seasons where I went home without venison.

This season, I dropped a fawn doe on Nov. 3 with my crossbow, then took a 100-pound doe on opening day afternoon with my muzzleloading rifle.

The season’s still early, with muzzleloader season continuing until Dec. 11, then a four-day antlerless season, then the resumption of the archery (bow/crossbow) season. And I have two tickets to sub-zero paradise in the form of two antlerless permits for Outagamie County, which wisely extended its archery season through Jan. 31! If you didn’t get a deer yet, you have many more chances.

I’ve been deer hunting since 1974 and have hunted them in three states. I never look forward to field dressing them, but it’s part of the hunt. The fawn doe was easy, especially since a good friend of mine, Lance Stratton, of Oshkosh, volunteered to do the knife work since he’s never dressed one before. With my guidance, he did a great job. The dreaded pelvic bone was easy to open on that one.

Twenty days later, I found myself dressing another doe, this one a mature animal with more rigid bones. I used to carry a small hatchet for cracking the pelvic bone in order to get the intestinal tract out, but can’t locate it in my stashes of gear.

Another friend once taught me a trick to cracking that bone easily: Locate a small bump on the inner side of the pelvis and then use the tip of a knife to easily cut in that spot a few times until it cracks. It worked great on one deer that year, and it snapped the tip of my knife on the second one.

So I opened the chest cavity of this year’s second doe, removed the yummies and left the pelvis intact. I let the meat processor remove the inside tenderloins for me at his shop. I asked the butcher if he had a trick for opening the pelvic bone and he said he didn’t.

I consulted lake-link.com, a great Midwestern website for hunting, fishing and other outdoors forums and information. I also looked at the Archerytalk.com website forums. I learned that many hunters don’t bother opening the pelvic bone, especially if they butcher their own deer.

Some use a small saw (one hunter bought a small, folding hacksaw at Home Depot, then cut the blade down for a handy pelvic-bone whittler), many use a hatchet and one suggested a pruning shears (I always carry one of those in my pack for quietly trimming shooting lanes).

A few others mentioned the Butt Out tool, something I’ve seen but never tried. After watching the product video from Hunter’s Specialties, I want to get one of these. It quickly disconnects the anal alimentary canal from the deer without needing to cut the pelvic bone or around the anus. It avoids the problem of puncturing the bladder, too. Here’s the link to the video if you want to see what you think: www.hunterspec.com/product/butt-out-2

I talked to another good friend, Tom Walters of Bettendorf, Iowa, who spent many decades as a professional meat cutter for a Midwest grocery store chain. He said cutting the pelvic bone would make no difference to a butcher.

With Chronic Wasting Disease continuing to spread, it seems like a good idea to avoid cutting into the bones of a deer these days (the prions that carry the disease concentrate in the brains, spinal column and bones of the animal). Rather than searching for my ideal tool to crack the pelvic bone, I think I’ve found the perfect tool for avoiding that chore in the first place!

To crack or not to crack: That is the question. Let me know if you have strong feelings on this issue. I’m sure the debate on the state’s deer numbers isn’t settled, and I’m betting neither is this one.

Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.