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Is it legal in your state to gut a deer on public land?

Is in legal in your state to gut a deer on public land?

  • Yes

    Votes: 53 91.4%

  • no

    Votes: 3 5.2%

  • Indeterminable

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • Total voters
    58
Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
10,066
Location
Where the skys are so blue!
I'm in Alabama and the answer is no. I find it to be a backwards policy for several reasons:

  • CWD. It makes no sense now that we have CWD in the state to remove a deer carcass from where it fell. If I've read the rules right, they changed it last year for the CWDMZs, and we haven't allowed brain/spinal tissue into the state for years. But thousands of carcasses get transported across the state every year.
  • Public relations. Instead of butchering a deer where it fell (as far away from humans as it could get) on a WMA, standard practice seems to be to either illegally clean it and dump the remains in a parking lot, or drive to the nearest bridge and give it a heave. I've seen dozens of bridges with hundreds of vultures perched nearby eating rotted carcasses. Hardly a good look for hunters.
  • Hunter access. My wife and I believe most women would be very hard-pressed to drag a deer out of the woods. My dad is getting to the point where he can't do it. My granddad hasn't been able to do it for decades. I believe there are way more individuals that can pack out deboned meat on their back than can drag one.
  • Conservation. As we continue to develop the countryside, WMAs become islands. You're already not allowed to remove soil, mulch, leaf litter, plants, etc from the WMAs here, which makes sense. You're exporting biomass off the site. But you can absolutely take a 100lb chunk of processed vegetation off the site. Leaving the remains ensures at least a partially closed loop.
The only reasons I see for insisting that the deer be removed from WMA boundaries are to:

  • Allow for harvest data collection. I'm only aware of 1 WMA in our state that actually has you weigh and age your deer, and a few SOAs. I think you could fairly easily keep collecting data without dragging out whole deer.
  • Keep people from dumping carcasses at the edge of the parking area. Again, easy problem to solve I'd think.

Curious to see how other states handle it and what y'all's thoughts are.
 
Everyone I know guts their deer where it falls in PA, but I don’t know anyone who quarters it and packs it out or if that’s even legal and I can’t find anything about it in the game commission digest.
 
ketch22 said:
Everyone I know guts their deer where it falls in PA, but I don’t know anyone who quarters it and packs it out or if that’s even legal and I can’t find anything about it in the game commission digest.
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2X. I’ve only ever heard of PA hunters quartering deer when the hike out is too brutal to drag it. Gut it where it falls and hang up the buck balls on a tree branch.

Edit: And dragging it over a mile and up hills, down ravines to the road, etc. is not too brutal.
 
Marmuzz said:
2X. I’ve only ever heard of PA hunters quartering deer when the hike out is too brutal to drag it. Gut it where it falls and hang up the buck balls on a tree branch.

Edit: And dragging it over a mile and up hills, down ravines to the road, etc. is not too brutal.
Click to expand...

longest drag I’ve done was 2 miles and change, mostly downhill but through a lot of downed trees and creek crossings.
 
ketch22 said:
Everyone I know guts their deer where it falls in PA, but I don’t know anyone who quarters it and packs it out or if that’s even legal and I can’t find anything about it in the game commission digest.
Click to expand...

Same here in IN. If you’re lucky they die in a cut field and you just drive out there and get them. Private land of course.
 
I’m pretty sure the amount of time/effort/bodies it would take to bring some common sense into these regulations is nowhere near as large as we think. It just requires someone with the will and discipline to stay focused and organized long enough to effect change
 
ketch22 said:
Everyone I know guts their deer where it falls in PA, but I don’t know anyone who quarters it and packs it out or if that’s even legal and I can’t find anything about it in the game commission digest.
Click to expand...

It is legal and a lot of guys up here in the mountains do it and some of the guys that kill elk and bear do it also, and those all go to PGC check stations. I asked a warden at a bear check station about it and his response was that the regulations define that the carcass must be tagged until it is processed. They don't define processing, at what level of breaking down the animal or where that has to take place, so by quartering it in the field you are processing it and from there you are transporting meat for consumption, not a whole carcass.

But it is clear as mud in the regs so who knows, the possibility exists you could run across some a-hole deputy that sees it differently.
 
Nutterbuster said:
I'm in Alabama and the answer is no. I find it to be a backwards policy for several reasons:

  • CWD. It makes no sense now that we have CWD in the state to remove a deer carcass from where it fell. If I've read the rules right, they changed it last year for the CWDMZs, and we haven't allowed brain/spinal tissue into the state for years. But thousands of carcasses get transported across the state every year.
  • Public relations. Instead of butchering a deer where it fell (as far away from humans as it could get) on a WMA, standard practice seems to be to either illegally clean it and dump the remains in a parking lot, or drive to the nearest bridge and give it a heave. I've seen dozens of bridges with hundreds of vultures perched nearby eating rotted carcasses. Hardly a good look for hunters.
  • Hunter access. My wife and I believe most women would be very hard-pressed to drag a deer out of the woods. My dad is getting to the point where he can't do it. My granddad hasn't been able to do it for decades. I believe there are way more individuals that can pack out deboned meat on their back than can drag one.
  • Conservation. As we continue to develop the countryside, WMAs become islands. You're already not allowed to remove soil, mulch, leaf litter, plants, etc from the WMAs here, which makes sense. You're exporting biomass off the site. But you can absolutely take a 100lb chunk of processed vegetation off the site. Leaving the remains ensures at least a partially closed loop.
The only reasons I see for insisting that the deer be removed from WMA boundaries are to:

  • Allow for harvest data collection. I'm only aware of 1 WMA in our state that actually has you weigh and age your deer, and a few SOAs. I think you could fairly easily keep collecting data without dragging out whole deer.
  • Keep people from dumping carcasses at the edge of the parking area. Again, easy problem to solve I'd think.

Curious to see how other states handle it and what y'all's thoughts are.
Click to expand...
That’s one of the dumbest laws I’ve ever heard of. Here in Oklahoma you can gut or quarter it up.
 
I believe Michigan read you can't leave the carcass. I don't recall anything about the gut pile.
 
Marmuzz said:
Another hunter finds your field dressing remains. Gut pile = doe. Gut pile + buck balls on branch = buck, and bragging rights.
Click to expand...
I gut the ones on private near the road. I toss the boys back into the woods. I don't want anyone to know I shot a buck. Wouldn't leave them on display in public either. If I did I would hang them next to someone else's set up.
 
In Florida at most wma's that have a check station it is discouraged, however if the walk out is to far or your at risk of ruining the meat you can gut it however you can not dismember the game deer or turkey, and all evidence of sex myst be left intact.
 
I’m in Missouri and the answer is No.. I apologize! I read the initial question wrong thought it said illegal!!! My bad! It is totally legal to gut deer on public.
 
Last edited:
Many many moons ago we used to have to leave the male organs on the skin but you could gut it. Thankfully they have stricken that from the rules. Its unclear in the NY regs as far as I can tell. I know in our hunter and bowhunter classes that are a requirement of the state, field dressing and game care is an important topic..... deducing from that, I would think "gutting" or field dressing is certainly allowed. I am unclear about quartering but I know some guys who do. I think it all comes down to the impact on wanton waste. They want to make sure people just aren't hunting to kill and let it waste away. I would think a carcass with just bones and a gut pile would satisfy that requirement but who knows.
 
woodsdog2 said:
For the record, I'm one of the guys who will quarter a deer out if I can't drag it but I haven't had to do it much at all.
Click to expand...
I packed out a deer and a hog on private last year cause it is was easier than the drag to where we could get a wheeler. I for sure am packing every kill on public unless I am really close to a road or boat.
 
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