How to Field Dress a Deer for a Shoulder Mount

You've just bagged a good-sized deer with a great rack. The rack is so good, in fact, that you want to have this deer shoulder-mounted. A shoulder mount includes the head, neck and upper shoulders of an animal. Field-dressing a deer can help remove excess weight and allows the meat to cool quicker, lessening your chances of ruining either the meat or the mount. Field-dressing for a shoulder mount requires a different process from normal field-dressing, in order to save enough of the deer for the mount to work.

Things You'll Need

  • Protective gloves
  • Hunting knife
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Use a very sharp knife when field-dressing a deer. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the knife and sharp bones.

    • 2

      Start your incision below the breastbone and continue down to the pelvis. Work carefully to avoid cutting into the body below the skin. Insert the fingers of one hand into the beginning incision and lift the skin away from the body as you continue the cut.

    • 3

      Cut a circle around the genitals, beginning and ending the cut at the end of your previous belly cut.

    • 4

      Cut a circle around the rectum, inserting the knife deep enough to free the rectum from the body while being careful not to cut the intestine. Grab the rectum with your hand and pull sharply, pulling the rectum and a length of intestine outside of the body. You can either tie the intestine into a knot or, if you have string handy, tie string around the intestine to keep it closed.

    • 5

      Find the diaphragm at the bottom of the rib cage. Cut the diaphragm away from the ribs and from the back wall of the body cavity.

    • 6

      Insert your hand into the chest area. Find the esophagus and the windpipe and follow them up as far as you can. Cut the esophagus and the windpipe as high as is possible. Make this cut with care, as it is difficult to maneuver your hands and knife in this area. By cutting the esophagus and the windpipe from inside the deer, you can remove these organs without cutting the neck skin, providing you with an intact neck for a shoulder mount.

    • 7

      Pull the esophagus and the windpipe into the body cavity. At the other end of the deer, pull the rectum back into the deer.

    • 8

      Grab the esophagus with one hand and the intestines with the other. Pull, with force, to remove the deer's innards neatly.