28 December 2006
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
-
[…] For anyone interested, there is a Steve Johnson video available here on how to properly field dress a white tail deer. It about 7 minutes long. […]
Pingback by Black Bear Blog » Blog Archive » Field Dressing A Deer Video — 29 December 2006 @ 9:37 AM
Facsinating stuff … good to see it done so professionally!
Just read his website too, interesting stuff too!
Cheerz
Silver Satori
Comment by Silver Satori — 28 December 2006 @ 5:05 PM
What about the heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs?!
He forgot the most important and nutritious parts!
Comment by Devin — 28 December 2006 @ 7:41 PM
Well, I might have to rephrase. I doubt he “forgot” them, he just doesn’t see them as “meat”. That’s sad, especially on a freshly-killed deer that he shot himself.
Comment by Devin — 28 December 2006 @ 7:43 PM
Devin, I didn’t see anything to suggest he forgot those parts, or doesn’t see them as edible, even tasty — the video ends before he takes the meat home. He may well have taken the liver and kidneys home as a treat, we don’t know from the video.
Modern civilized deer hunters probably have little use for things like lungs and intestines or stomach anyway, though. Similarly I doubt most modern hunters keep sinews and bones.
Comment by Willy Lee — 28 December 2006 @ 10:29 PM
I made myself watch it, as I know should I be lucky enough not to perish in the die-off (and that’s far from being a given), I’ll have to get used to this kind of thing if I’m going to survive or contribute to some sort of community. I actually expected there to be a lot more blood.
When your making your incisions, no doubt you should be careful not to cut too deeply or forcefully in order not to puncture the large intestine where the feces are.
Comment by venuspluto67 — 28 December 2006 @ 11:05 PM
Well, one would substitute the gun with a sling, but what would the future hunter substitute the bonesaw with?
Comment by Dan — 28 December 2006 @ 11:44 PM
Yeah, I know. I was just “correcting” this video for the intended audience. Aspiring primitives/natives/hunter-gatherers will want to know how to field dress a deer while retaining the most important parts.
But of course you’ll also want to not be learning how to do this from a YouTube video.
Oh well.
Comment by Devin — 28 December 2006 @ 11:49 PM
Oh — the bonesaw isn’t really necessary, Dan. Cutting or breaking the pelvic bone just aids in keeping feces off of your meat, because it makes removal of the intestines easier. It takes a bit more skill, perhaps, but it’s easy to just cut around the butthole and then remove the intestines, without even needing to break the pelvic bone. If you get feces on the meat you can just wash it off and/or cut that part off.
Comment by Devin — 28 December 2006 @ 11:53 PM
I like how he scrapes the shit off the deers leg with his clean knife, and you can see the “whoops” look on his face right afterwards. Other than the comments already made by Devin, this was interesting. I was kind of hoping he was going to suck the fermented greens out of the guts, but what do we expect from a guy using a bone-saw. FREE THE ANUS!
Comment by Urban Scout — 29 December 2006 @ 8:29 PM
Lots of civilized folk don’t like organ meats, despite their nutritional benefits. Such is the waste that wealth encourages. But hunter-gatherers were keen to be equally wasteful without thought to future well-being, so American hunters are hardly alone.
I believe he mentioned at the beginning that he’d shot the deer with an arrow–granted, it was probably one of those expensive, store-bought bows, but it was at least in the same family. As for a bone saw, this is where stone tools come in. A good obsidian knife will be far sharper than any of his tools in the video.
Which is why I don’t really write about skills. There’s not much to write about. They’re all pretty easy to understand, it’s the practice that’s essential, and there’s nothing anyone online can do for you on that account. I find these YouTube videos helpful to the most extreme novice who might not know the basics. They shouldn’t be taken for anything more than the most absolute introduction to the most general form. As Devin and others have pointed out in each case, they often suffer from significant problems in the details.
That’s a practice pretty much restricted to the Inuit and other polar groups, no? Most groups are able to get their greens in much more palatable ways.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 2 January 2007 @ 11:04 AM
“As for a bone saw, this is where stone tools come in. A good obsidian knife will be far sharper than any of his tools in the video.”
no matter how sharp your obsidian knife is I wouldn’t recommend trying to hack through the sternum with it. Its just too brittle. Maybe an obsidian hand ax would work, but I don’t think it’s necesary. I’ve field dressed deer, antelope and elk and I don’t cut through any bone. this just means “freeing the anus” like Urban Scout said, and being willing to reach into the chest cavity up to your elbows. A little messier, but then it’s a messy job to begin with, and the edge on your knife will stay sharper.
Comment by Jake — 3 January 2007 @ 1:10 AM
“That’s a practice pretty much restricted to the Inuit and other polar groups, no?”
Yeah, I don’t know. Here is an interesting quote from the guts and grease article:
“According to John (Fire) Lame Deer, the eating of guts had evolved into a contest. “In the old days we used to eat the guts of the buffalo, making a contest of it, two fellows getting hold of a long piece of intestines from opposite ends, starting chewing toward the middle, seeing who can get there first; that’s eating. Those buffalo guts, full of half-fermented, half-digested grass and herbs, you didn’t need any pills and vitamins when you swallowed those.”15″
Don’t know what tribe that is, how far north did the buffalo roam?
Comment by Urban Scout — 3 January 2007 @ 8:18 PM
Interesting… I know some people who should watch this.
Comment by Cory — 26 March 2007 @ 12:11 PM