How to “Gut” or Field Dress a Pig, plus California Public Land Pig Hunting, Clubs, and Ranches

 See our “archived  posts” to the right or our highlighted post for pig hunting maps

Here you get access to our giant free hunting and fishing Map site, with how to fish and where to fish or hunt these Public lands. Get access to Hunting Clubs and Private ranches for fishing and hunting. Always free with no strings attached to help preserve our Outdoor Heritage. Click on a County for California or Oregon Hunting or fishing on Public Lands, Hunting Clubs and Private Hunting Ranches

 Gutting your Pig

First, if you need to get a Boar in order to gut one, you may want to see our huge selection of
hunting maps (and fishing maps) …see “highlighted blogs” to the right or click on map:

Check List :

 Put these in a back pack or in your truck :

• A knife and optionally a gut hook device for making that first incision.
• Latex or rubber Gloves
• Towels cloth or otherwise
• A roll of gauze and some Bandages
• A six length of rope so that can be tied around a stick to drag the pig out
• A bottle of hand soap or a bar soap
• A gallon so of water, more if you want to clean out the insides of the pig
• A hatchet to split pelvis if pig is large and you need to halve it
• some twine

 How to Field dress the Carcass

Well, first, congratulations. Maybe you used our pig hunting maps or one of our hunting ranches to find your pig. You’re probably wondering what to do next.

The idea is for the quick drawing of a pig’s innards in the field, after which you will transport it elsewhere for skinning and butchering. We will discuss that aspect in our next blog. Once completed, and your pig is drawn, use a rope around the rear legs to drag it away.

Pig meat spoils rapidly, more so than other game due to their high metabolism. So in hot weather you must act fast.

The first rule of business: do not cut yourself, number one, but next, neither the pig’s  bladder or the intestines while making your incisions!

• Contact with wild hogs can cause Brucellosis in people and dogs.
• Dogs can also pass on the disease to people.
• Symptoms are chills, night sweats, fever, headaches, back pain, swollen joints, loss of appetite and weight loss.
• Infected dogs fed raw pig meat or intestines could pass the disease on to people.
• If cooked to a temperature of 170°, Swine brucellosis is not transmitted

. When handling pig meat

•Avoid unprotected exposure with tthe pigs blood, organs, etc.
•Use latex or rubber surgical type gloves you can buy at the hardware store

•Do not do any drinking smoking or eating when field dressing

• When done, don’t forget to adequately sanitize  any of your butchering equipment and clothing

Ok, you are going to have to remove the innards. Find an uphill slope if possible and put the pigs head on the uphill side.

•You want put the hog on its back .
from the breast bone to the tail, carefully cut through the skin and but be very careful not to cut the stomach or intestines.
• Roll the hog on its side and pull out the stomach and intestines.
• Remove the diaphragm (large skin looking tissue below the lungs), then cut through the tube like esophagus and windpipe, and pull out the heart and lungs
•If the stomach or intestines were shot or punctured, wash out the body cavity with water as soon as possible.
•Get the carcass to a cooler area as soon as possible and get ready to put the meat in a cooler

 First, place pig on his back.

Make  an incision at the sternum – carefully open the lower  cavity .

to to prevent cutting the intestines or stomach place your fingers under the tissue as you cut downward towards the anus.

If you’re pig is a male you’ll have to locate the your urethra .Make an incision down both sides, llift it back and find  urethra. You will want to tie it off  to prevent urine from contaminating the meat.

Continue to cut down to the anus until you hit the pelvis. watch out here that you don’t cut open the bladder that’s it located just north of the pelvis

Okay now locate the last  parts of the intestine and the anus. Grasp the colon area then cut around the anus. Make sure you use some twine to  around this to block any contamination….

Okay return your attention to the chest area .

Make an incision on both sides of the diaphragm.

Reach up through heart and lungs to the neck and cut through the windpipe and esophagus.

Grabbing the windpipe, pull pull everything towards you.

 Carefully pull the guts and work free with your their hands with assistance from your blade if necessary.

Now you’re ready to skin and butcher your pig. Please see the archived or highlighted blogs on the right see how to do this, but meanwhile, please see our web pages for hunting ranches , or fill out our contact form automatically receive new maps and information.
If you go to one of our sites you can have a ranch manager, or member of a hunting club contact you, or get more information on using public lands with our huge free map site. See below for more information:

 Hey!  Here are links to our home pages to Free Hunting and fishing Maps site and to our County by County Public Lands, Hunting Clubs, and Private Ranch fishing and hunting info.:

www.freehuntfishmaps.com

www.freehuntfishmaps.com

County by County look at California and Oregon Hunting and Fishing Public Lands and Private Ranches and Clubs

www.ranchhuntandfish.com

January 29, 2017