Field Dressing Larger Game and Transporting Game

Field Dressing Larger Game

Here are some additional tips for dressing large game.

• Because it’s harder to move larger animals, you may need to skin and quarter the animal to pack it out, particularly in a remote area.
• If you’re unable to hang the animal for skinning, begin by making a lengthwise cut and removing one side of the hide. Then turn the animal onto the skinned hide and skin the other side.
• To keep dirt off the meat, use the inside of the removed hide as a protective mat as you quarter the animal.
• Put each quarter in a game sack and prepare for the hike out.

A clean kill improves the flavor of game meat. A wounded animal that has to be chased down yields strong-flavored meat because waste products, produced by stress, accumulate in the flesh.

Transporting Game

• Be sure to keep proper “evidence of sex” as required by your game laws.
• Most hunters take their game to a commercial meat cooler, where a typical deer can be properly aged up to three or four days at 40° Fahrenheit.
• Before shooting an animal, determine if you can get it back to camp. Distance from camp is critical. Make sure you are capable of retrieving all of the meat before it spoils or you become exhausted from carrying it. If you can’t, don’t shoot!

When transporting game, be sure to keep it covered to avoid offending others.

Oregon Law States . . .

• No person shall waste any edible portion of any game mammal, game bird or game fish or the pelt of any fur-bearing mammal (ORS 498.042)
• Waste means to allow any edible portion to be rendered unfit for human consumption, or fail to retrieve edible portions except internal organs.