Essential Gear for Wild Game Recovery and Harvest

Essential Gear for Wild Game Recovery and Harvest 

Don't take up the blood trail without these tools. 

By Darron McDougal 

We all hunt for different reasons. Some hunters enjoy the peace and solitude. Others eat nothing but venison and rely entirely on hunting for nourishment. Others hunt for trophy antlers and donate the meat to needy people. Regardless of why you hunt, we can't ignore the ultimate goal, which is to successfully take an animal and harvest its bounty.  

Taking an animal is a sacred event, but when the emotions begin to fade, the job at hand becomes reality. Not only is harvesting all the meat from the field and getting it to your freezer the ethical thing to do, but most states also enforce wanton-waste laws, which make it illegal to leave the meat or even parts of it in the field.  

Regardless of where you're hunting or the species pursued, recovering an animal always requires some level of effort, and the effort required increases the farther you are from vehicular access. When you take an animal, having the right tools in your arsenal is the key to a successful and enjoyable recovery. Here are some suggestions. 

Blood-Trailing   

When it's dark, insufficient light is detrimental to seeing blood droplets and downright frustrating. That's why it's important to have more than one flashlight ready to go. I suggest a headlamp or cap-brim light, such as the Cyclops Orion 45-Degree Title Clip Light, for basic navigation, as well as a bright handheld flashlight like Cyclops' Tactical 1,500-Lumen Flashlight to illuminate the smallest pin drops of blood. In case blood-trailing takes longer than expected, keep extra batteries in your pack so that you're prepared when the batteries get low or even die.     

It's important to meticulously keeping track of your blood trail. This is easy to do with the Track tool in the HuntStand app, which maps a real-time line of where you've traveled along a blood trail. You can save the line at the end of your journey and revisit it if you need to pause and take up the blood trail later, and it helps from checking the same areas twice if you're forced to grid search. 

Field-Dressing 

Once you reach the end of the blood trail of an animal that can be dragged or otherwise transported to a vehicle or hunting cabin, most of the time, you'll be field-dressing it on the spot. A sharp and compact folding knife is ideal for field-dressing. One like SOG's Flare Knife featuring a 3.5-inch clip-point blade and a pocket clip is well suited to the task and convenient to carry.  

When it comes to removing the entrails, some hunters struggle with cutting around the anus and removing the anal canal. It can also be messy, which can lead to meat contamination. Hunter's Specialties' Butt Out 2 Field Dressing Tool simplifies the job. Keeping your hands and arms clean throughout the field-dressing process is also important, and Muddy's Field Dressing Glove Kit, which features full-length plastic gloves and short latex gloves, accomplishes exactly that.   

Retrieval 

Retrieving an animal from the field, especially on a public-land hunt without vehicular access, can be a slog. But a high-quality game cart can reduce the effort required to get the animal out whole or in quarters. Hawk's Crawler Multi-Use Cart is rigged with large tires that can roll right over small logs and make a long retrieval far easier than dragging. Not only is it effective for game retrieval, but it can also haul campfire wood or hunting gear. Muddy's Mule Game Cart makes another fine option and uses a slightly different configuration.   

Skinning and Quartering 

Skinning can either take place with the animal hung up at camp or home, or it unfolds on the ground right where the animal expires on a remote hunt. If you don't have a skinning shed or garage, you can hang your deer to be skinned just about anywhere once you retrieve it from the woods with Boss Buck's Tripod Header With Pulley or HME's Truck Hitch Game Hoist Kit.  

If the animal expires in a more remote area requiring skinning and quartering, have some Hunter's Specialties Quarter-Size Game Bags handy in your Tenzing TNZW 2300 Whitetail Hunting Pack. Then, get to skinning and quartering with a Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter S35VN Black Folding Knife. On long pack-outs in a smaller pack, deboning the meat will reduce weight and save space, and Cold Steel's Medium Luzon Folding Knife can make short work of the deboning process. 

Harvest Complete 

Harvesting the meat from an animal is the ultimate goal of hunting, and once you take your shot, you have a job in front of you. Having the right tools, such as those outlined above, can make the process of finding your animal, recovering it, retrieving it, and breaking down the meat an enjoyable experience that doesn't detract from the excitement of the hunt.