Field Dressing Wild Game

**GunRunner** · 03-22-2011, 01:17 PM

Ill be the first to admit Ive never had the distinct pleasure of dressing out wild game (With the exception of an alligator and random fish

). This is an extremely important piece of information when planning on "bugging out" and living off the land. I figured I would start a list of sites with "how to's" according to animal...

Hogs:
How to Field Dress a Hog | eHow.com

Turkey:
The Wild Turkey Zone: Cleaning / Dressing

Deer: (FYI - Deer and hogs are very similar in dressing out methods.)
Wild Deer | eHow.com

Rabbit:
How to Field Dress a Rabbit - wikiHow

Fish:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2080_clean-fish.html

Thats it for now. Will add more later upon request

**The Stig** · 03-22-2011, 01:50 PM

Great stuff.

Are there other "game" that you can dress and eat that are perhaps less obvious? Ground Hogs? Feral Pigs? Coyotes? Beaver (IIRC they are nasty disease laden critters)?

**Kodiak** · 03-22-2011, 03:30 PM

An over looked topic that most dont think much about. Its been about 15 years since ive dressed out anything, but its a skill that anyone who is serious about surviving should know.

**bacpacker** · 03-23-2011, 01:44 AM

Other than cleaning fish, I've never had the opportunity. Excellent thread and it could be crucial if TSHTF. Beaver and coons while they have a good amount of meat also can be disease carriers, rabies, etc. Some other I can think of are bear, squirrel, and some tame game, chicken, and small birds.
I'll bet there are others.

**beginner** · 03-23-2011, 04:59 AM

Excellent info. I bookmarked it to read later. Ever seen someone use a truck to skin a deer? I can't remember the method or the kit required..... But, when I watched the video it seemed to make the process pretty straight forward...

**GunRunner** · 03-23-2011, 01:21 PM

also imperative would be to keep a small dress out kit.Mine has a skinning knife, shears, a "hunting" knife (fold out that has 3 seperate blades). I also keep a supply of latex gloves and would highly advise utilizing them when dressing game. Some game has evil little parasites. (PS: The Stig, Feral Pigs = Hogs). You could probably eat other smaller animals (Rats, Squirrels, so forth) if you really had to, I would refer to the "rabbit" field dressing how to for something like that. Squirrels down here in the south always seem like theyre one meal away from starvation, so I dont think theyd be worth the effort of killing/dressing (Although if your starving its take what you can get I suppose

) . Dressing game is fairly the same between different animals. Ill put a gator one up at some point for us southern folks (PS: If you have never dressed out a gator Ill give you a hint...It sucks.). They are vastly different. Also edible which most people would never consider is Iguana. In fact in South America they call it the "Chicken of the tree". Ive never ate one, but I believe you eat the tail meat, similar to an alligator.

**mitunnelrat** · 03-23-2011, 10:59 PM

On a related note, this thread reminded of a cookbook I was given for wild game. It includes such delicacies as possum, racoon, and various other little critters. I'll have to find it and post some up.

**LUNCHBOX** · 03-25-2011, 03:53 AM

I agree that other than the size from the squirrel to the deer they are very similar to dress out.

Also....IMO having rubber gloves should be a must in all gear bags.