Seems like I’m on a roll with gear and book reviews lately, and I guess I have been.  Lots of contacts made at SHOT this year, as always, and lots of stuff still to talk about.   If all goes well, maybe this will keep me busy until I actually go hunting again! 

Anyway, Al Cambronne dropped me a note recently after seeing my review of another book, and asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at the work that he and Eric Fromm did on their book, Gut It, Cut It, Cook It, The Deer Hunter’s Guide To Processing Game.  Of course I told him I’d be glad to give a look, and to provide an honest review.

Well, here’s the thing.  I’ve been processing my own game since my daddy first showed me how to peel the skin off a squirrel.  I remember that I got a break on my first deer, when the old guys in camp showed me how to skin and gut it, but after that, I’ve been pretty much on my own.  Almost 40 years later, I’ve seen and/or tried more different field dressing, skinning, and butchering tricks than I can even remember, and I’ve skinned almost everything from doves and quail to elk and bison.  But I never, ever, read a book about it.  And honestly, I never felt the need to.

However, since I’ve been writing outdoors content, I’ve probably reviewed a couple dozen books or videos on how to field dress, how to skin, how to cape, or how to butcher game.  They’ve all got their high points and low points, but with very few exceptions, none of them really taught me anything I didn’t already know.  I’m just not the target audience, which makes my reviews sort of academic. 

With that in mind, I decided to take a different tack with this one.  I decided to hand this book to someone who has never field dressed or skinned an animal, and get their take on it.  To make it really convenient, and interesting (at least to me), I gave it to someone who will in all likelihood, never skin or dress her own game.  I gave it to my girlfriend, Kat.  All I asked is that she give an honest review.  The key question was, after reading the book would she feel confident that she could process an animal herself.  Here’s what she said:

Recently Phillip handed me this book and asked me if, after reading it, I would be able to butcher my own meat.  Unlike Phillip, I did not grow up processing game meat.  In fact, my butchering skills end at occasionally trimming the fat off store-bought steaks.  And while I strongly feel that all the butchering duties belong to the man as God intended, I agreed to give it a look through.
 
I have to admit, going in I thought this would be just another look-at-me-the-super-hunter type book, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn’t.  As I read through the pages, it quickly became clear that this book was a frank look at how a deer goes from game animal to dinner.  The book is made to lay flat on the table and comes with a DVD.  I didn’t view the DVD, I only read the book.
 
Overall, the book is heavy on photos showing all steps of the process, but it also has lots of practical advice with a little humor thrown in along the way.  The photos give you a good look at the entire process and are done in painstaking detail.  You see each cut as it really looks in lots of brightly shot, clear images.  I think following the photos alone could get you through the whole carcass, but the insightful commentary helps explain the details. 

The book really starts at the beginning and goes through the entire process.  In Chapter 3, “Shop before you shoot, aim carefully, and don’t shoot your steaks”,  I like the photos showing the kill zones from different angles using a life-sized decoy, and the description of visualizing your shot in 3D.  These are followed by photos of different shots using different ammo and the impact on the meat itself.  The spine shot is very graphic, but a great look at what happens to the meat under the skin.  You just don’t see that one the hunting shows that end at the celebrating over the carcass. 

The book could use some editing.  I got tired of seeing the same photo repeatedly and there were several sections that were stuck in between the middle of hyphenated words that made reading it straight through rough.  But I assume this book was constructed to be taken in sections.  The way it is laid out, you could simply flip to the section you need and start from there.  Also I was surprised that there wasn’t even some basic recipes in the book.  While there are some photos of some tasty dishes, the reader is left to find those in their own kitchen or other books. [Editor's Note:  The DVD that comes with the book provides about 50 recipes, as well as a lot of other information.]
 
So, could I butcher my own game after reading this book?  The instructions are clear, the advice is sound and the pictures are exact so yes, I could… but I still don’t want to.

So there ya go!  An honest review from someone who has never processed her own game. 

For my own part, although I probably will, I haven’t read this book yet.  I’ve flipped through, and I agree that the photos are excellent and provide an unflinching visual guide to how best to kill, dress, and process your deer.  The heavy-duty pages should hold up well to handling in the skinning shed or at the butcher table, and the choice to publish in a ringed binder makes for a really utilitarian handbook.  I could absolutely see this book as the kind of thing you’d keep hanging around deer camp, both for the newbies and to refresh the occasional deer hunter. 

Gut It, Cut It, Cook It has been out for a while, and is currently available through most large book outlets, including Amazon and Borders, as well as through the publisher’s own site, Krause Books.

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