I just read where Okla is trying to pass a bill that would make a hunting license good for 365 days from time of purchase. I think this might not be a bad thing. Buying a hunting license then tags for hunting get pricey. This may spread the cost out if you buy your license early in the year.I wish they would consider changing opening day of deer season to the end of October instead of the first so it isn't so dang hot. Also let retired hunters use ATV's on public land as most public lands don't allow it. Dragging a 150 pound deer out of the woods in your 70's is tough. Daddy always said, wish in one hand and crap in the other, See which one fills up first.

Is it legal to use the gutless method to debone and quarter a deer and backpack the meat/antlers out? When Telecheck was instituted in Missouri in 2006 it became legal and practical to debone and quarter deer in the field and pack them out. I had used that method in western states to get game out of the mountains and it is just as useful in the Ozark mountains as it is in Wyoming. I hate dragging deer and haven't done it in a long time now and have no wish to go back to that. ATV's are illegal off marked roads on public ground in Missouri and I hope it stays that way. Using the backpack method of getting usable meat/antlers out if I can walk in I can pack a deer out much easier than dragging one in the rough, steep Ozark terrain.

Yep, that is how I do with the deer I shoot. I have not gutted a deer or pulled muscles in my back loading them in a truck in a long time. I quarter them out and get the back straps and E-check them before I leave The field. I always make sure I have my name and check-in info written on a piece of paper and attached to whatever I have the meat in as soon as I cut it up. As a kid part of the fun was showing off your deer at the checkin station, kids these days will never know...

Sadly, aint many kids that hunt anymore.

I've never boned out a deer in the field. Always dragged em out whole but gutted.

But it does have my interest now as I aint as young n strong as I used to be.

Another advantage to doing what I described is there is very little waste that needs to be disposed of back at home. If a guy lives in town and brings a gutted deer carcass home then he has a lot of waste to get rid of. The head, hide, lower legs, spine, ribcage, ect. are bulky and heavy to try to bag up and set in the trash bin. Plus if it is warm, that can get plenty ripe if it's several days before your trash runs. The gutless debone and quarter method leaves all that mess right where you killed it and you never have to handle it and dispose of it. I hunt big blocks of public ground, the coyotes, possums and crows gotta eat too.

I have a 120 qt. cooler that is the perfect size to span the bed of my truck and the cooler lives right under the back window and tight against the end of the bed there by the cab. When I get the game bags full of meat back to the truck I drop them in the cooler. On the way back home I'll stop by a gas station and dump a few bags of ice in there. Now when I get home, no matter the outside temperatures, there is no rush to get the meat processed. When I do process the meat it is chilled, which makes it much easier to cut than warm meat. What little bit of trimmings and small bones I have goes in a standard trash bag and fits in the bin on trash day with no troubles or stink. The only way to beat this method is if you hunt private property and can bring your animal back to the barn with a motorized vehicle of some sort, hang it there and skin it whole then put it in a walk in cooler to age. I don't hunt farms.

I have always hunted private land and we used to hang them in the barn to skin and cut them up. Looking back it was almost like a 3 ring circus compared to how I do it not. We would gut them, drag and load them into a truck, hang them up, skin and process them.

Now I drag them far enough I can drive my truck up to them. It’s almost like fileting a fish with them laying on the ground. I start with the front shoulder, do one side then flip it and do the other, you can skin it in portions you are working and if you cut the hide in the right angles you can peel it back and use it to keep exposed meat from touching dirt as you are cutting, I find it works best on the back strap if they are long and you are trying to get it all in one piece working alone.

I do the same thing, throw the meat in an ice chest then stop at the store and throw bags of ice on it. I leave it in an ice chest a couple days adding new ice and flushing out the bloody water. I am on a deer page where I have seen this method argued about it and what not, a lot of them add salt to the water. I have done this since before I read those arguments, I don’t add salt, but I do let the blood soak out in the water from the melted ice.

95% of the waste is left in the field for the coyotes. They usually won’t touch it for a couple days until my scent around it dies down but once they start, they clean it up quick. I have shot deer I was not able to recover until the next day and coyotes have gotten all the meat. If I have to leave one lay, I urinate near it and leave a coat or something with a lot of my scent draped over it, I have never returned to find anything eaten after doing that.