Field Dressing Larger Game and Transporting 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 attach the sacks to a backpack frame 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

Keep the dressed game cool and free of insects. If you've quartered the animal, pack the quarters in ice chests—don't process the deer beyond quartering until you reach your final destination. By law in Texas, you must keep proper "evidence of sex" if the harvested animal is quartered, or until it reaches its final destination and is processed. See the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's publication Outdoor Annual: Hunting and Fishing Regulations for more information.

Most hunters take their game to a commercial meat cooler, where a typical white-tailed deer can be properly aged up to three or four days at 40° Fahrenheit.

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