Best practice for gralloching

I went for my first stalk with a keeper last week and we shot a roe, but what surprised me was that he did not gralloch it in the field. Instead, we went back to get the ATV and he took it back to the larder to dress it — I thought you did all of that in the forest?

Best practice would have you recover it to the larder — it’s a clean and sterile environment with facilities for lifting and all the equipment to hand. So as long as you can do this in a timely fashion, then that’s the best thing to do. Often, because of the distances stalked, frequently on foot, most of us have to gralloch in the field as it would take far too long to get the deer back to the estate larder.

You do not say, but I imagine the deer was bled in the field to start the cooling process before recovering it.

As a general guide in respect of timings: bleed immediately, gralloch within 20 minutes and have the deer back to the larder within a couple of hours.

Clearly there are factors which influence this further, especially temperature. In summer you would have to reduce that time frame significantly, while in winter it’s the opposite, so you can extend it. CD

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When stalking, deer should be bled immediately and then gralloched within 20 minutes