I try to gut immediately, 30 min to the corner store, shove a couple bags of ice in the cavity then home or the processor.
If in on a WMA and dragging it i will gut it and bring the game cart to it and cart it away. IF i got no game cart i dont hunt far from the road so dragging is not a task.. I will drag it to the road and gut it in the woods near the truck so its easier to pick up.
If im on my lease i never gut it cause i ride my 4 wheeler right up to it and load it up. If i cant lift it on to the four wheeler i drag it into the woods behind the four wheeler and gut it then lift it up onto the four wheeler.
And yes allen is right. When your hunting especially for hogs they are the nastiest thick mudd with piss and crap all mixed in 2 foot of swamp mud and water. You DO NOT want that in the body cavity. After you get it away from all of that and feel theres just no more mudd or water around then gut it and drag if thats your last resort.
It varies on the outside temperature for me. If it's cold out, or the animal is smaller, I don't worry as much and will get to it within a couple hours. If it's warm out, they might still be twitching when I start gutting them. As far as the inside of the body cavity goes, I don't usually eat the ribs off wild game, so other than the baby loins, there isn't much to worry about inside, as long as you ain't floating them out through the swamp and muck....but even with that...you probably blew a hole through it's body cavity and nasty stuff can get in through there.
I am pickier with my deer than hogs, as I refuse to cook deer all the way through, but hogs always get cooked through.
You at least reach in and pull out the baby loins dontcha? It's worth shooting a hog just to eat those little pieces.
Cut them into little medallions, lightly flour them, fry them, then make some brown gravy. :rockon :eek So good.
