Splitting brisket and Pelvis

Growing up my pop would split the pelvis on the deer with his pocket knife. There is a small notch with a little V groove you can find with your finger that when the knife blade is place in it, it will split like magic when you pull on the knife. That said after one of his knife blades broke on him and he nearly severed a finger we changed tactics.

Since then and nowadays no matter deer or hog, we "ring the rosey" with the knife and everything pulls right out, no fuss no muss. Get them to the house we hang, wash, then remove everything with a knife. Real easy to hit the ball sockets of the hip joints and remove the hams without splitting the pelvis. That saves it and whatever meat thats left attached for the bean pot.
 
I carry a small gerber retractable saw that I use to trim limbs on shooting lanes. It light weight and much safer than hatchets etc. I use my knife to open the brisket by doing the cartlige to one side of sternum. Except for large buck you can does this in one stroke with a folding hunting knife. always cut away from your self!!. Cut around anus deeply make sure diaphragm is free cut wind pipe and everything pulls out in one pile. I only split pelvis when hanging to make sure every is clean when skinning and cooling animal. No need to do it in the field.

Mwal
 
While the clippers weren't bad, I ended up using a good stout blade like always for most of the brisket splitting, catch it right and its not bad, just am particular about which knife I use, don't want one with a slickery handle. Possibly the best use I have found for a partly serrated blade such as on the Gerber Gator folers. The pelvis, I can and have done it without splittint it, but I grew up doing it and am simply used to it, best thing I have used so far has been a wire saw, poke it through and a few quick sawing strokes and its through, I tended to do two cuts and actually remove about an inch wide pce of pelvic bone, left no sharp edges and gave lots of room to strip the colon out, unfortunately it finally broke and haven't found another one yet.
 
I just cleaned a doe yesterday. Did the whole job on the ground without ever opening the gut sack then backpacked all the meat back to the truck. Even with that, I was still carrying about 70 lbs of gear and meat. Walk was just under a mile and I'm glad it was all flat land.
 
I tended to do two cuts and actually remove about an inch wide pce of pelvic bone, left no sharp edges and gave lots of room to strip the colon out,
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I like to do this, too .... a pair of pliers/vicegrips works pretty slick for this ..... once the bone is split in the center seam (easily done on a young deer ...... a grizzled old buck is not so simple ......), the pliers can be used to snap out one or both sides .......

I just cleaned a doe yesterday. Did the whole job on the ground without ever opening the gut sack then backpacked all the meat back to the truck. Even with that, I was still carrying about 70 lbs of gear and meat. Walk was just under a mile and I'm glad it was all flat land.
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I'm picturing either a very tiny deer, or most of a carcass laying there for coyote and possum fodder......
 
I'm picturing either a very tiny deer, or most of a carcass laying there for coyote and possum fodder......
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There is very little waste with this method. Doe weighed about 100 lbs (my estimate). The only thing more that I could have salvaged from a normal hanging method would have been the "trim" around the neck and maybe along the base of the spine. This particular deer was too small to fool with the little tenderloins under the spine. On a big deer, even those can be harvested without cutting the gut sack by going in under the short ribs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwNVZXbbIuo

When complete, the only thing left is the skeleton with an unopened gut sack.
 
those can be harvested without cutting the gut sack by going in under the short ribs.
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My Uncle Dave showed me how to quarter an antelope without opening the gut about twenty years ago, and removing the tenderloins as well. There is no more waste doing this than if it were taken home to cut up. I have used the technique on elk dropped in nasty places where recovery would have been impossible without quartering on the spot.
 
Maybe beating a dead horse but I'll chime in anyway. For field processing, the only things I use are this gem:
opplanet-outdoor-edge-sb10n-sb10n-swingblade-aus-8-drop-point-skinner-gut-hook-blade.jpg

Swing blade, and a cheap fillet knife:
Berkley Fillet Knife

On a deer, the only thing I'm really after internally is the tenderloin. I'll cut around the anus for skinning purposes, go ahead and run the gut hook to split the belly, turn the swing blade around and split the sternum. At this point I'll get the deer up on a gambrel and let gravity do some work. The guts will easily fall out of the way of the tenderloins so I can cut them out. Splitting and spreading the sternum just makes the guts getting out the way a little easier. Once the tenderloins are out I'll just cut what's hanging out off to get it out of the way. Then I'll skin the deer and debone accordingly.

It occured to me a couple of years ago "why am I bothering with some of this stuff?" Like pulling out what's left of heart n' lungs, removing entrails, bladder, poop chute, etc. All that's being left on the gut pile. If I was gonna take it somewhere to have it processed, yea.. you need to do all that but not I.

after skinning down to the front leg joints, I'll ring the joint with my knife to get through the cartilage and then pop the lower leg off backwards over my knee. It's amazing how easy this is.

I guess in short, I'm pretty much in the same spot as Barnacle Brad.
 
I don't like splitting any more than I have to. Bigger opening means more dirt, leaves and what not getting in there. I thought the buttout was weird but decided to try one a couple years ago. I have it with me all the time now. I can get everything out without splitting the ribs, so not worth having the extra tools with me in the woods.
 
I don't like splitting any more than I have to. Bigger opening means more dirt, leaves and what not getting in there. I thought the buttout was weird but decided to try one a couple years ago. I have it with me all the time now. I can get everything out without splitting the ribs, so not worth having the extra tools with me in the woods.
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It's not the dirt and leaves I'm so concerned with .....it's the fecal matter. That "Butt-Out" thing kind of defeats the purpose of removing the intestines intact ...... tearing open the colon inside the animal seems like a bad idea to me .... especially if you do it when you can't see that it's filled with the animal's ...... "morning constitution" .....

Deer poo can oftentimes be nice neat pellets ..... and then again, if they've been hitting the giant pile of corn that did not fit in the bins ...... not so neat ..... either way, it's fecal matter, and should be kept off the meat.
 
I don't split the pelvis. Like many others here, I just cut around the anus and pull it out with the guts. In fact, I don't split the pelvis while quartering. Cut along the sternum, find out where the "hip socket" is, and use a sturdy, pointed knife to cut the ligament that holds that bone in the socket. It helps to have a "catcher" when the hindquarter falls free.

Legs can be snapped by hand (small to medium deer) at the joint and then the tendons / ligaments cut after the hide is cut completely around the joint. Bigger animals require a bone saw. This isn't breaking the bone, it's the cartilage / ligaments / tendons connecting the bones, more or less.

Poke the tip of your knife under the skin at these "knee joints" and cut from inside out to keep from cutting hair, as much as possible.

Totally disregard all the above if you have something that works for you.
 
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LOL! To be honest, I hate liver, and my dad isn't allowed to eat them any more, so I cook it up for the dog. (I also freeze bags full of cut off scraps and shot damaged meat and freeze them to later cook for occasional dog treat night.) :)

The heart never makes it out of deer camp. It gets sliced into strips, skillet fried and is dinner the same night.
 
Yep.....no need to split the chest but if I aint mounting it I cut the chest open with my knife all the way to the top....10x cleaner and no slower
 
I always split them end to end...did two the day before yesterday. I like to use the point of a small hatchet and i split the pelvis twice...once on either side of the poop shooter. Only takes me about a minute and I remove the piece of bone that comes out of the middle. I grab the windpipe and pull everything out at once in one long piece, nice and clean.
 
All I've ever used is an old Solingen folder pocket knife. If I can't easily rip through the pelvis, I just do the tap-tap-tap thing on the back of the blade with a handy rock. No shortage of rocks in west Texas. :)
 
Jimbob, a way I defeat the fecal matter issue is I skin around the anus, then cut through the connective tissue in the alimentary canal. One done, I use a piece of paracord and tie off the anus, so when I pull it through the pelvis, no fecal matter droppings on the meat.
 
Art Eatman....I did that same tap..tap.. thing for a long time until one time no rocks were handy. I was working on an antelope in NM and reached in the back of my truck for the tire iron. A couple taps later and i broke the pivot pin on my favorite Kabar folder.
 
I don't hunt elk, but haven't split the brisket or pelvis on a deer in half a century. I too just cut around the anus and then pull it back thru with the intestines. You can tie a string around it if you're afraid of getting pellets in the pelvic canal, but I generally don't bother. If you've loosened the anus sufficiently, it slides right out without emptying. A bigger concern is the urine sack. Leaving the whole waste tract intact, and pulling it out as one piece means less chance of spilling something in side the body. Come processing time I just pull the backstraps and then cut the carcass in two. I process the two hindquarters as one by deboning. Front shoulders are easily removed and then meat left on the chest/neck is easily taken.
 
Pelvis Splitter

I've not shot a Elk but have shot moose, and more deer than I can remember.
I was taught pelvis splitting, it's the way everyone in my area did it. Back in
1969 I had knife made for heavy work and skinning. It's only got 4 1/2" blade
but it's about 3/8" on spine, false edge on top for clever work. I designed it
guy in Texas made it. $35 at time, that was before custom knife thing was big.
fc57c7209266bddc3ca85a9e5f1b094d.jpg
 
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