re: To Gut or Not to Gut

If its cool enough to let one hang I gut them and leave it hanging as long as possible!

Haven't gutted in many years. Just debone on rack. Not gutting almost completely removes the chance of contaminating the meat with e-coli.

Reasons I might gut are: long drag back to truck, if I develop a taste for heart or liver, if I had a walk-in cooler in hang.

For those that are bitching about being wasteful: You fillet your fish? You compost and recycle everything? Use paper products?...ect ect...

There are currently plenty of deer where I hunt so that it's not necessary to get every little scrap. Nature will keep churning em out like always for the foreseeable future.

Ive always gutted, to be honest I don't know how to clean a deer without gutting. I split rib cage start at wind pipe and let stomach fall in bucket. It doesn't bother me and not too much of a mess.