How to Pack Out a Deer: The Gutless Method

Getting a buck from the back of beyond to your truck doesn't have to be a drag.

November 28, 2025 By By Weston Schrank

Being able to pack out a whitetail on your back gives you the freedom to push farther into less accessible areas on public lands. It’s a chance to chase opportunities and remove the shackles of the deer cart or avoid a painful drag out. If you process your deer yourself, you’re going to spend time quartering it back at the barn anyway. You might as well do it in the field, especially if the walk out will involve great distance or rugged terrain.

My personal favorite way to get a downed deer ready for a pack-out, and arguably the cleanest, is what’s known as the gutless method. With this technique you don’t have to open the chest cavity or gut the deer. If done correctly, the meat stays clean and you get most of the key parts, including the coveted tenderloins.

You’re simply starting from the outside, using the skin as a tarp, and cutting one side of a deer off at a time. I’ve used this method several times on public-land whitetails—all of which would’ve been a nightmare to drag or cart out.

PACK SOME ESSENTIALS

I keep several key items in my truck all season long that help me execute a proper pack-out when I’m hunting deep on public land. These include:

Frame Pack: Any Western-style frame pack or even a minimalist whitetail frame pack works as long as it can haul meat.
Game Bags: I usually use elk bags left over from western hunts, but pillow cases can work since the meat won’t be sitting out for more than a couple hours at most.
Nitrile Gloves: These aren’t required, but I like to use them to keep my hands relatively clean.
Sharp Knife: I favor a small, replaceable-blade knife, especially for working between joints.
Water and Wipes: I use these to clean my hands before a long pack-out.
Blaze Orange: You’ll want plenty of orange material to wrap around your pack. Packing out a set of antlers on public ground during gun season warrants an excess of precaution.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

Always check your state’s hunting regulations for packing out on public land. Most require you to check the deer online and have the confirmation number in hand before cutting/moving the deer. Other states might require proof of sex, meaning you may have to cut around genitalia to keep it on a quarter. Triple-check this before hunting.

You may also need to retain the head to comply with regulations, or you may want to keep the head for taxidermy purposes. If it’s a buck, now is the time to make the taxidermy decision. If you’re going to do a shoulder mount, cape it out. If caping, remove meat you expose as you’re skinning and work your way up—front shoulders, neck meat, etc.—one side at a time. Then, follow the guide below for the backstraps, hindquarters and tenderloins. If you choose to do a Euro mount, simply sever the head as the last step.

STEP 1

Skin One Side

Start by making a shallow incision along the back, running from the neck all the way down toward the rump, being careful not to pierce the internal cavity. Some start on the belly, but I prefer this approach, as there is less risk of puncturing the cavity. Peel one side down over the legs all the way down to the midline. This will expose all the meat you want to remove.

STEP 2

Remove Front Shoulder

Simply cut connective tissue away as you lift the front shoulder upward to remove it. I usually make circular cuts at the “knee” and take off the foot before removing the shoulder so there’s less hair to contaminate meat. With this and any subsequent parts, place meat directly into a game bag.

A series of illustrations demonstrating how to break down a dead deer without gutting it. — (Illustration by Peter Suchiski

STEP 3

Remove Hind Quarter

Cut the muscle and tissue where the leg meets the pelvis. Taking care not to dull your blade too much, find the ball-and-socket joint and cut the ligaments in order to free the quarter. Take your time, as you can leave a lot of meat if you’re not careful.

STEP 4

Remove Backstrap

To free the loin, work your knife along the spine and the shelf where the ribs meet the spine. Use your hands to carefully pull it up and away. Don’t leave any of this delicious meat behind.

STEP 5

Remove Neck Meat

Peel the neck skin back and cut away all the meat you can on this side of the neck. This is also your chance to remove any remaining bits, like rib meat, for the grind before flipping the deer.

STEP 6

Retrieve Tenderloin

The tenderloins sit on either side of the spine behind the rib cage inside the body cavity. Make a careful incision along the last rib, just big enough to get a knife and hand in. Find the tenderloin and gently cut it free (don’t rip it out with your bare hand). While doing so, keep the knife pointed toward the rib cage or pelvis and keep the stomach away from the bladework with the back of your off hand.

I learned the gutless method by watching Western hunters do it on elk and big mule deer, and I’ve come to love using it myself in the whitetail woods. I performed this method on my 2024 160-inch public-land whitetail buck. To date, it’s the biggest-bodied and biggest-antlered deer I’ve ever killed. It was well over a mile deep with some 600 feet of elevation change, and packing him out was much easier than dragging or carting would’ve been.

This article was featured in the November 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.