>>2632533if you're going on your own, IMO you shouldn't be walking around through the bush to try to "spot and stalk" a deer. you're much better off scouting around the area you're hunting for sign, and picking a spot to sit based on that, if you have a blind, that would be ideal. I have only been hunting for a few years, but I did kill a deer while I was dogging, though I gather this is a rarer occurrence. keep in mind this was during a planned driven hunt with many doggers, so there was a larger "catchment area" if that makes sense. on your own, it's very likely any deer near you will smell you beforehand, and circle around behind/downwind of you without you ever seeing them. I'm pretty sure this has happened even in a multi-dogger/hunter situation with me.
a butt-out tool is pretty handy for field dressing a deer. a rather small good quality knife is best for field dressing. with a larger knife you're more likely to puncture something you don't intend to. this is especially important for cutting the diaphragm. a slightly larger knife with a large belly is best for skinning. When we're skinning we use our hands more than the knife most of the time.
I guess you'll probably have to quarter the deer to get it out of the bush if you're totally walking in a long distance. the way I hunt we drag them to an ATV, then butcher them nearby. even if you're not butchering it yourself, you should probably skin it yourself, which I'm told helps to keep the meat by rapidly cooling it off think about how you're going to do that. hoisting a deer up without a proper gambrel hook would probably be annoying.
you should consider keeping the hides. getting them down to the whites is a tough job by hand, unless you have the proper equipment though. A pressure washer actually works pretty well for this.
bring a gun sock and hike in well before sunrise, you can remove the sock and load when it's legal, but it maximizes your most valuable hours to do it this way.
