How to Dress a Deer

First swing him around so that his head will hang over a small log or nubble with hind quarters down hill. Spread his hind legs well apart, make a careful incision in the belly right where it curves up from the legs, cutting through the skin and the very thin layer covering the paunch. Remembering that the hide and membrane is very thin here and that you do not want to cut into the paunch. Place the point of your knife between the first two fingers of your left hand, so that the back of the hand will press the paunch down and the point of the knife will cut the skin. Cut forward until you have an opening from twelve to fifteen inches long. Roll up both sleeves above the elbow, insert both hands, one on each side of the paunch, well forward and roll it out through the opening. Do not make this opening any larger than is necessary in order to do this. The bowels and liver will follow the paunch. Now reach way forward with your right hand and you will strike a membranous wall. Puncture this with your fingers and on the other side you will find his heart and lungs. Reach beyond this and cut windpipe with jackknife. Now pull out the heart and lungs and you have a deer that is known as “woods dressed.” It is not necessary to cut the throat to bleed him. In most cases all the blood will escape through the shot hole. If not, the dressing operation will bleed him thoroughly. It is a good idea to remove the end of the intestine at the rectum. By doing this you will make a drain. By drawing a small bough through this hole all the blood will drain out.
Open up your deer and remove the hide as soon as possible to let the animal cool down. Take care to keep the hide and hair separate from the meat. These measures will preserve the meat’s flavor.