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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
Being a MN hunter, the idea of not gutting a deer where it falls - or reasonably close to that place - is baffling to me. Especially in someplace as hot as Alabama, I'd think to prevent spoilage (and wanton waste) you'd be encouraged to gut and cool the carcass ASAP. Every now and again you'll find a ribcage or processed bones near an access point, which I've always thought was tacky and trashy. I'll either take mine to the dump or, more likely, dump the bones in my woods where I can keep an eye on what critters are nibbling on it.

Coyotes, crows, and other scavengers will make quick work of a gut pile, they'll rarely last more than 12 hours in my experience. I wonder what advantage Alabama sees to this restriction.
I'm in Rochester so it's mandatory testing here.... good part about that is there's a tripod with a gamgrel hoist at every sample station so if there isn't a line, you can fully skin and portion out your deer on site. Submit the head and then throw the rest in dumpsters they provide.

I can't imagine dragging adeer in the heat either. I feel like I'm about to overheat when it's 45 out and I'm dragging a deer.
 
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.
Good luck finding anything that makes sense about a law in the game commission book lol!
 
Being a MN hunter, the idea of not gutting a deer where it falls - or reasonably close to that place - is baffling to me. Especially in someplace as hot as Alabama, I'd think to prevent spoilage (and wanton waste) you'd be encouraged to gut and cool the carcass ASAP. Every now and again you'll find a ribcage or processed bones near an access point, which I've always thought was tacky and trashy. I'll either take mine to the dump or, more likely, dump the bones in my woods where I can keep an eye on what critters are nibbling on it.

Coyotes, crows, and other scavengers will make quick work of a gut pile, they'll rarely last more than 12 hours in my experience. I wonder what advantage Alabama sees to this restriction.
Yeah the not gutting thing seems weird to us in the north. Then again deer down south tend fo be glorified goats so they arent hard to pack out whole.
 
Legal in my state of MD. If it's good hunting land, that gut pile will be completely gone by the next sunrise anyhow, nothing more than a stain on the ground, so I've never given it much thought.
Are you the same Spartan on Marylandwhitetails.net?
 
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.

I would never leave the balls. Or at least the sack. They make great coozy covers or coin purses or pen holders. Very versatile piece of skin. Just dont try to put one on a beer without drying it with the coozy inside. Gets all soggy and dont really do much. We got em all over the house and my office. Non hunters have no idea. Usually hunters have to scratch their head for a min before they figure it out too haha. My taxidermist showed me. He was all excited I left the balls on the deer one time.Screenshot_20220622-120913_Gallery.jpg
 
Dry it around a beer can or water bottle. Just dont smell it til it's off the beer you let it dry around for at least a week if there's a coozy too. You WILL puke. God it's bad. If you let it dry without a coozy it won't stink at all. Sorry for the derail nutters. Felt important to discuss buck nuts/sacks a little more
 
For my VA peeps:
It is unlawful to destroy the identity (sex) of any animal until it is reported. After the appropriate tag is validated, the hunter may dismember the carcass to pack it out as long as all parts of the carcass (excluding internal organs) are present when the animal is reported.
HOWEVER! We have disease management areas due to cwd so check the areas you’re hunting in. Basically if you’re in one area you may not be able to transport certain parts(typically brain/spine) into another area, say from areas 1&3 into 2.
 
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.
You 100% can pack out deer in PA, I've done multiple times in pa and wv. I talked to both state game Wardens. Now, say the question of sex comes up, you just have to be prepared to possibly walk a warden to the kill sight. . . But again 100% legal
 
Minnesota and Wisconsin everything except the gut pile has to come out of the woods. I think in both it has to be a maximum of 5 pieces. So you could take quarters and then the spine/head/hid in one piece.
 
You 100% can pack out deer in PA, I've done multiple times in pa and wv. I talked to both state game Wardens. Now, say the question of sex comes up, you just have to be prepared to possibly walk a warden to the kill sight. . . But again 100% legal

awesome to know thanks man!!! None of the guys I know do it and the digest doesn’t say. Personally I’m fine dragging up to two miles where I hunt so I don’t see a need for it unless I’m in some super nasty area I can’t get out of
 
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I always save the nuts. It's a multi-generational tradition in my group that someone who did not shoot a buck opening day of rifle season will find a deer sack in his boot the next morning.
 
A buddy of mine likes to tell this story of one season when he was a youngster. HIs boss had promised him opening day of rifle off but come the day before he changed his mind and made my buddy work. Needless to say he was really po'd. Opening weekend a couple of days later he was lucky enough to take a buck.

Before he went in to work the following Monday he stopped at McDonalds for lunch (he worked afternoons) and picked up a couple of burgers. He walked in and set one on his bosses desk. "I got you a Big Mac" he hollered across the room and then he walked out the door. Inside the bosses Big Mac box he had written "I Quit" inside the top cover and placed his buck's junk in place of the burger. One of the most unique ways to quit a job I ever heard.
 
In Virginia, it is not illegal. In some of the literature it's actually encouraged, right after tagging.
 
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