Strange Deer Hunting question

[Mayfly]

Just a quick question. I want to see how people would handle this situation.

Ok...Say you have your core group of hunters, whoever that may be. Every year for however long you all have been going to deer camp togther and having a great time etc...

Well one of your hunting buddies says to you.....I love deer hunting, I love coming up with you guys and the tradition and I am still going to continue to come but one thing has changed. I will still shoot deer if you guys allow me to but I will not gut a deer ever again.


What do you do??

Let your buddy mow down deer and you gut them? Or tell him to take a hike!?

Just thought this would be interesting to see and hear everybodys opinion here.

 

[Ryan]

I wouldn't mind because I love doing it.  I hunt with a group of 9 guys and I think that there are only 3 of us that will gut out a deer.  There is one guy that guts out pretty much every deer we shoot unless I can get to it first.  I am hoping that I can take over for him when he quits hunting.

[Spinach]

I dont see much of a problem here, as long as he is not sitting back eating popcorn  :: while you or the rest of the crew are doing all the work. Find another dutie for him instead of actually gutting  his deer.

In our camp, we always encourage everyone to gut there own deer, but if they are not willing, either me or my brother just do it, if I'm going to be eating it, I'd prefer someone that is willing to learn, rather than forcing them to do it and contaminating the meat.

It's not very difficult to process a deer, but doing it correct and with care takes a little practice. I wouldn't push him too hard, at least he is willing to share the experience of being outdoors with the rest of you.

[WoodChuck]

 real simple ! if you shoot it , you clean it !! if it were a question of being handicapped then that would be a different story. like i said real simple !!

[bowhunter73]

If you want the meat and you do not seem to shoot enough deer yourself, I guess you clean the deer.

If you do not want the meat, you tell him that is part of hunting. And he needs to make a choice. Hunt and gut or stay home and stay clean!

Or he could just come up because you need somebody to cook the food and clean the cabin when the men are out hunting

[tripnchip]

The only ones I kind of push to gut their own are the youngsters . I have 2 reasons for this,1. I want to see if they can handle it . 2. I want them to learn to do it rite so when I cann't do it anymore they can do mine.
  Other wise I do a lot of the other guy's deer just because I don't want to waist my hunting time standing around looking at it. There is plenty of time for that at the end of the day. I would not run a old friend and hunting partner off just because he couldn't or didn't want to gut anymore deer.

[kenhuntin]

In MY own philosophy to be classified a deer hunter you need to be alot of things. You must prepare your own clothing , weapon etc. safely and humanely dispatch the animal,field dress the animal, drag your own,prepare the animal for the table and consume it or donate it to  someone that will.
  I won't hunt with someone that is just a deer or other resource killer that think their job is done after they pull the trigger. Or someone that puts the meat in the freezer only to throw it away when they replace it with next years.
  If someone says they can't gut their own then they better drag mine out as well as their own to stay on board. But they still aren't considered the full package.
 This will probably disturb someone
  I believe deer hunting is an outdoor sport. To me you are not the full package if you drive a vehicle out to a mobile home in the sky with windows and propane heat and then drive over to your kill and drive it out. (fair chase is out the window)
Yes considerations can be made for old timers.
 If you cannot gut a deer the most basic real life sustaining experience there are some other underlying issues you have.
           Love Kenny

[Outdoors Junkie]

Our hunting party is made up of 12 people.  We do allow women in our hunting party.  There are four gals in our hunting party (My grandma, my aunt, my sister, and my cousins wife).  Out of those four I have witnessed two of them gut deer.  Then we have eight guys in our party.  I have witnessed seven of those eight guys gut deer.  The ones that don't gut deer help out with gutting (hold legs or what ever else is needed).  They have weak stomachs when it is them with the knife in hand.  Since we are all family and friends, I don't have a problem with that.  I, like hedrocks, enjoy gutting the deer.  If I get to it first, I will do it.  FYI...next to me, my grandma has gut more deer then anyone else in our hunting party.  She has also killed the largest buck out of all of us (15 point monster). 

We enjoy the time we spend together hunting.  Our party is a very fun group to be around.  I was more hardcore, a few years back.  Then my grandpa (who taught me a lot about deer hunting) had a stroke and lost his ability to walk.  Deer hunting was his favorite thing to do in the world.  So we made him a portable shack that we put out in his favorite place to hunt and would take him out to that shack by 4-wheeler.  He had a little propane heater in that shack.  He also had a 357 pistol with a scope.  For two years 3-4 members of our party would sacrifice our hardcore hunting to make sure he enjoyed his time in the woods.  The second year, he passed away (in the woods) doing the thing he enjoyed the most, at his favorite spot, with the people he loved to hunt with.  So, I try to enjoy things more these days.  I would rather have my cousin, sister and aunt hunting with us then telling them they can't come with because they won't gut a deer.  I would never belittle anyone for not wanting to gut out a deer.  If it was a matter of survival, I am sure they could find the strength inside to do it.

This is just my opinion, I am not saying it is right.

Life is short, surround yourself with people you like to be around (even if they don't like gutting deer).  I'll gut it for them.  They can buy me a beer later, when they are telling me the story about the big hunt.  :cowboy:

[iceman]

you shoot it you gut it ..other wize stay out of the woods..

[Grute Man]

Well my 2 cents is pretty much the same as OJ's and Spinich's.  When my boy got his first one, his uncle field dressed it.  He's not unwilling but unexperienced.  Then another guy doesn't have the stomach for it but can bring us the stuff we need while gutting, cook meals, load and unload equipment...

I also think its important to teach the young ones that we need to be responsible for our actions and take part in the gutting and hopefully they will do their own.  One day I may be like OJ's Grandpa or like my buddy who's a paraplegic.  

I say teach and lead but don't force.   We all need good people with us and pushing them away would be a sad mistake.

Friendships are precious relationships.  Make em last all life long.
Grute Man

[WoodChuck]

 ???  to each there own! as in a hunt when a hunter has an area to hunt with a party and shoots a deer and cant or wont gut or clean it what a waste! to the hunter that did shoot a deer and said i never hit the deer i shot at ? and found by a party member with the foot tracks of the hunter at it,s side to deny the kill and not gut or clean ? not in my party again !! theres always help with the new hunter till they become effective at the task , after that you cant handle it leave the gun at home . ::  woodchuck

[labs4me]

I have a friend who literally throws up everytime he guts a deer, he'll do it if need be, but he'll gladly allow anybody else to do it for him if they would.   

I'd never jepordize a friendship or tip the apple cart if a guy in our party decided he no longer can gut a deer.  BIG DEAL!  There are a million other tasks that need to be taken care of in camp.   The one most everybody hates with a passion is dishes... Sounds like dish duty for those who can't or won't gut a deer.  maybe he becomes the beer b!tch for everyone the night that he shoots his deer but doesn't gut it... we did that with the guys who don't or won't fillet their own fish on a fishing trip... pretty funny actually!  they'd retrieve a beer for someone and just sit back down and pick up their cards and "oops"! "guess mine's empty now too"... back up to get another one and just sits down and someone else says "taste's so good, taste's like another" and so on...  ::cheers:: quite comical and maybe a good way to deal with the situation...

I also have a buddy who won't eat his venison... we don't waste any of it, but should he not be a part of our group or not be allowed to shoot a deer if he himself won't eat it?  I know a bizzilion guys who won't eat fish or ducks and yet they partake in those activities...

I guess a big part (almost bigger than the harvest) is my comraderie with my buddies when enjoying the outdoors.  All people aren't cut from the same cloth and I feel we can usually accommodate anyone who wants to hunt or fish with us no matter what their individual preference or style may be.  I'd rather share my camp with a guy who won't gut his own deer, but more than voulunteer to do other duties than a guy who shoots and guts his own deer but does nothing for the group in camp.   I'd rather make exceptions for your friend and keep him a hunter, than to exclude him and have one less person in our population that we can call a hunter.  We're losing too many already.  Many people who won't do 'the whole package' aren't hardcore outdoors man, but so be-it... I'll take a so-so outdoorsman over another PETA puke anyday!

Go up and have fun with your buddy... lay out some ground rules ahead of time with him and everyone else in camp before the hunt begins... determine who will do what and what the protocol will be for anyone involved and have a fun season!

Good Luck!

Ken

[GRIZ]

A bunch of us 12-14 go on a fishin trip every winter. I make 2 deals. One with a guy that he don't have to clean fish and I don't have to cook. Besides he's terrible at cleaning fish and I'm a bad cook. The other deal is with another guy that he don't have to clean fish and I don't have to do dishes.

This works out great for me I think as niether of these can clean fish anyhow and I get to stay out of the kitchen. 2 of us are always cleaning fish and sometimes a 3rd maybe a 4th. Everybody does somethin, cept we let a couple of the older fellows enjoy a beer. It's all fine with me.

[ChrisWallace]

The only ones I kind of push to gut their own are the youngsters . I have 2 reasons for this,1. I want to see if they can handle it . 2. I want them to learn to do it rite so when I cann't do it anymore they can do mine.
  Other wise I do a lot of the other guy's deer just because I don't want to waist my hunting time standing around looking at it. There is plenty of time for that at the end of the day. I would not run a old friend and hunting partner off just because he couldn't or didn't want to gut anymore deer.

My first deer I shot, I made the second cut and hit the stomach, everyone has done it, nothing like hearing that gut blow out. I puked out three lungs, a kidney and part of my pancreas, plus breakfast, I am sure my dad has a picture. My dad finished dressing that one for me.

Whats a young kid to you? those pre to early teen years are pretty impressionable. If he told me to "man up" and do it, I would have probably finished it out, with a half ass job, which meant my dad would have done it over and I would have probably never picked up a rifle again.

Now, 8 years and almost thirty deer later, I am gutting my own out, I can only think of a hand ful that Ive shot that I didnt gut. Plus road kills we get. 

Up are our deer camp, which is our cousins farm, mass is saturday night. Everyone goes to church but my father and I. Whatever we got in the yard from the evening sit, we tie two at a time on the loader bucket and get em done. Do we have a right to tell a 13 year old who goes to church because his parents make him that he should leave the guts in the deer for a couple hours in 50+ degree weather? Thats bad for the meat and where we hunt, everyone shares the meat.

Its not a big deal in our group and everything always catches up in the end.

[JohnWester]

i'd gut it, no problem.... but I gut it for you, I get backstraps.

[ChrisWallace]

i'd gut it, no problem.... but I gut it for you, I get backstraps.

Trade ya back straps for all of your goose breasts......

[guythathunts]

If your friend has tried this and HATES IT! Tell him he dosn't have to do it. Tell him to PM me and I'll gut it for a case of beer! That goes for all af you! 10 deer @ 24 cans/deer = 240 beers!!!! Just make him/her do someting else that sucks for you ... Simple!
~ Greg

[Spinach]

Chris, you got a deal.

[ChrisWallace]

Get shooting.

[holdemtwice]

 AT our camp  we have all thrown in to help one another out !!  i understand and get the points in this post. i guess if i really wanted to be the hunter and gatherer  i would have to clean my own kill . the true question is  why  does one hunt ???   for sport ??  for food ??  for both ??? i was taught  that if i wasnt going to eat what i shot that maybe i should not shoot it !! anyway  mytwo cents worth .. probably aint worth a wooden nickle    ::hittingself:: ::hittingself::

[WoodChuck]

    so much for old school thinking ? hey em !tread on brother !!

[holdemtwice]

  YEAH MAN   

[schwinger]

I still havn't gutted a deer entirely by myself (I've only shot 2), but I know if I wasn't in there assisting or being assisted I would be sitting at home. It is not fun to gut a deer but I wouldn't feel like part of the group if I didn't atleast assist. I hope to get the process down well enough that I don't have to have someone assist me but I don't feel comfortable enough yet. When I hunt with my father in law I can't believe the number of people in the group that won't gut there own deer. I think if you shoot it you better atleast give a hand in gutting and dragging, its all part of the experience.

[WoodChuck]

   thanks for shareing the real feelings of a true hunter and welcome to my deer camp !!