you forgot the best method, someone else to do it. 1 good reason for having kids, or taking young newbies out.
It take more to drag than to pop it up on your shoulder. I really don't want to do either anymore.
floating them out is not bad.
Gutting in the field does NOT lead to meat contamination. All that natural gunk that's left over acts like a barrier to anything that gets in. Besides, I've drug gutted deer and hogs and have never ended up with much of anything inside, maybe a leaf or a piece of grass. Are you rolling it around in the mud or draggin them on their bellies?
If you gut it wrong you will lose meat. Dragging a deer gutted out of a Florida swamp and there definitely contamination. I am fanatical when i butcher them i literally get 40-45 percent of the deer weight in meat. If you get intestine- stomach ooze on anything that meat is trash. It will taint the meat.
Also most wma here don't allow it to be gutted in the field. Actually every one around east Orlando that has a check station does not allow field dressing a deer, hog yea.
