“Gutting” also known as “field dressing” is the act of removing the inner guts from the belly of a freshly killed animal, and also letting it bleed out. It is something all experienced hunters realize as a vital procedure. The “guts” are known as “offal” by those who regularly work in slaughter situations, or with hunter game.
The reason field dressing is important is it releases the heat from inside the body. The faster you get the meat cooled down, the less likely it will spoil. If the body is completely closed up, a dead body can take hours to cool down below its normal live temperature, and the inner core is the hottest area of the body, several degrees warmer than skin temperature. Opening the body cavity lets cool air in, and hot air out. Taking the guts out removes unnecessary material that you are not going to use anyway. The intestines carrying fecal matter and any inner fat around the organs can be disposed of.
To field dress any size animal lay it on the ground, belly up if possible. Take a sharp field dressing knife and insert just under the skin under the very bottom of the breast bone at the center of the rib cage. You must insert just the tip in a very shallow motion because the intestines are just beneath the skin and piercing them will spill fecal matter inside the abdominal cavity.
Make a slicing cut from breast to the bottom of the stomach where the hind legs meet. Reach in and grab the large intestine where it attaches to the anus and tie it off with a shoe lace or other sturdy tie. Cut around the anus to let the intestines fall away.
Once the stomach cavity is open and the anus is cut away, the guts will spill out onto the ground. Scoop them out quickly making sure to preserve the liver, and not disturb other inner organs.
Once the body is open and the guts removed, the organs will be the first to cool down because of their comparative size to the rest of the carcass. Remove all remaining organs you wish to keep including the heart, liver and kidneys. Take a sharp field knife and slice around the gall sack that is attached to the underside of the liver. Make sure you remove it in one piece and none of the contained bile leaks out onto the meat as it will taint anything it touches.
Hang the carcass from a tree by the head to allow complete drainage of all blood and fluids. Leaner meats keep better than carcasses with large amounts of fat. Game meets like deer are leaner than heavy animals such as bear, and can last several days when field dressed and hung, so long as the temperatures are reliably low.
Bear in mind that no carcass will remain unspoiled for long and that skin holds temperatures in more than skinless carcasses will. You can attempt a full day’s hunting after field dressing a large carcass if the temperatures are in the 40s or 50s. Higher temperatures will accelerate bacterial growth and require speedy refrigeration.
Do not attempt to skin the animal before, or after dressing if you have more hunting left to do. This will keep the meet cleaner than if you remove all of the outer covering. However, if you are done hunting for the day and will be putting the carcass in storage immediately following a dress-out (field dressing), start the entire process by removing the skin.
In warmer temperatures when time is required to get back to civilization and refrigeration, use ice to pack the carcass and keep it cooler. Even in cooler seasons it is a wise move to pack organ meets in ice to preserve them until you get them in storage.
Always wash your hands both before and after handling raw meat and the inner organs. If running water is available, or a fresh stream is present use cool water to rinse out the inner carcass after removing the guts to cool it down even faster.