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i do it with a little bone saw but not till they are hangin in the shed while skinning.always was taught to get er done as soon as one was shot.lotta people get cut messin with it in the field,poundin on a knife or something.

For over 30 years. Sagen saw.

Hatchet

Hatchet works great on the pelvis, bigger knife like the Buck 120 for the sternum, if i open either.

Small trapper hatchet for the pelvis. It lays in the bed of my truck all deer season. . As for the sternum , I don't if going to mount it. But the shrade hunting knife I have carried for 35 years will slice right thru a sternum with one quick pull. Back to the gutless method. It may be great if you kill a small deer or don't have to drag it out of a deep holler. BUT if I can drop 20 -30 % of USELESS body weight from an animal I have to drag the guts are coming out. Plus I have sit in a tree as little as 30 minutes after I have killed a deer and they will already start to bloat.

I use a pocket knife the way you describe using a fillet knife. I dont open the strenum either. On deer. Just field dress with my case mini trapper

I can cut up thru the sternum with a knife but never found it to be a straight cut and I have great difficulty doing it. My knives are shaving sharp so perhaps my technique is poor, I don't know, but I can't do what jbyrd63 describes (slice right thru a sternum with one quick pull).

A small hatchet for the pelvis works well for me but often I don't bother. Cut the muscle away at the pelvis to let the rear quarters flop out to the sides. The colon can be removed with the rest of the innards if you core well enough around the anus.

I used to carry a packable folding bone saw but no longer split the pelvis in the field, or the sternum. I don’t split the pelvis at all anymore even when butchering. I do cut the the sternum with my big bone saw at home in the butcher shed.

I don't split either. No need to, and it just allows more dirt to touch the meat.

I can split the pelvis of a moose with a knife. I don't usually do that but it is easy enough. There is a seam right down the central ridge. Just push the knife in and cut .

The Sternum...or brisket can be removed the same way if you want to. Don't cut up through the center. Disjoint it at small joint at the end of each rib. You come out with one large Y shaped chunk and the entire thoracic cavity is open. All you need is a knife

I was never big on opening up the sternum, and seldom do. As for the pelvis, if I do that at all I use the little saw on my Leatherman Supertool. 99% of the deer I kill these days are shot within a short distance of my home, or if not that close, are close enough that I can drag them quickly to where the quad or tractor can go. They are then quickly taken to the pole barn, hung, and dressed as they hang. The loader bucket on the tractor can be handy to lift them up to dress in the field also.....no bending over and getting on old, sore, fat-guy knees! Before I became un-young and un-limber I would split the pelvis using the tail jerk method......get the deer mostly gutted and then spread it's hind legs to the ground as the deer lays on it's back. Stand on each leg, reach down and score the pelvis a couple times with the knife, grab the tail as you stand on the gambrel/hock area of each leg...and jerk UP hard!. It usually pops the pelvis the first pull.

Heavy duty tree branch loppers for both.

always been my thoughts

But if you split the sternum it is a lot easier to get to the heart and lungs. I cut the wind pipe at the base and the lungs just fall out. If you don't split you get blood up to your elbows.

As for the dirt issue unless you are dragging them flat on their bely with the front legs spread eagle the cavity pretty much closes shut when the deer is on its side.

I use my small bone saw to split the sternum. I ream the bunghole and pull it into the stomach cavity. It gets pulled out along with the rest of the innards in the field. I split the pelvis at home with a meat saw.

I wait till i'm home and have them hanging.cordless sawsall makes fast work out of it!

No need to split either. Pull the butt gut through. Reach up and cut in front of lungs, to pull out main guts. Leave heart to pull out at home for eating.

Tomahawk. Feels good and looks cool in your belt. Keep her sharp you can do anything a knife can do.

Stout knife and a strong wrist. I used to split the sternum, but took to cutting up one side, easier to split cartilage, and I go all the way up to the mouth so's to cut out the esophogus (sp). I noticed that when left in, decay starts really fast there. Pelvis: I kneel on the inside off both thighs and split the pelvis at the cartilage line, pull gut thru the slot and cut around anus to free it. Easy peasy!

Used to use a knife for both, graduated to a small hatchet for the pelvis, light taps, you ain't splitting wood,lol
Now.... I hang, skin and debone, no gutting,... no decent tree?, I'll skin and bone on the ground.
Meat goes in game bags, bags go into the pack, walk the critter out. Dead to done in maybe 30 minutes,
No more dragging.

The splitting allows you to open up the carcass more to facilitate cooling.

Me neither,,I just gut them properly.Gut them,,then open the bung hole and yank whats left out of there.

Which doesn’t need done until its hanging in the garage. But by that point I have it skinned and its not needed.

Years ago a Game warden showed me how to gut a deer without getting blood on your watch with a pocket knife.

A serrated blade helps for the big sternums but no need to split the pelvis, IMO.

I just drag the deer to where I can drive up to it, load it and drive to a scaffold to hang it on. Cut off the head at the first vertebra. Cut off the 2 lower front legs at the joint. Expose the hocks. Hang the deer by the hocks and skin it. Take off the front legs under the shoulder plate. Take out the loins. Cut of the other meat on the neck, back and rib sheeting. Cut around the bung and push it in. Cut the abdominal muscle. Plop the guts in a bucket. Cut or pull out and save the liver. Cut through the abdominal wall. Pull the lungs out. Cut or pull the heart out. Cut the tender loins out. Cut off the back at the pelvis.

I then take the edible meat to the house. Cut off the lower back legs and discard them. Clean and package the loins, tenderloins, liver meat scraps and heart. Put the legs in the fridge for Diane to debone later.

Keith

I like to hang a deer to let it age.

Same here, if the ambient temperatures work in my favor I’ll let them hang a week or more. As long as daytime highs are between 32° and 40° and it doesn’t drop too far below freezing at night. I left my buck hang for eight days this past season.

Heck yes that’s what I do. I have a specific pair of tree limb poppers that couldn’t cut limb for anything but works great on deer pelvis. Been using it for 20 years, two chomps from that and the pelvis is gone.

There you go. Up here when I took deer 5 days hanging that got to 45 degrees and then they are ready. As you did Lug, adjust accordingly.

Osky

I don't split either. Heart and lungs are easy enough to pull put without splitting the sternum and opening the pelvis only allows for more debris to get on the hind quarters which you or the butcher need to shave off, wasting a fair amount of good meat. As long as the bladder and intestines are out there is no need to split the pelvis to remove the little "tube".

When I did split it I used a folding saw because they're compact and cut clean. A hatchet splinters the bone, making it too easy to hurt yourself on jagged bone in the field.

My two cents is all because it works for me. Different strokes for different folks.