Do You Bleed Your Animal

[Kootenai]

I have heard both yes and no. I have heard why bother the hearts not pumping, bleeding the animal does nothing. Others say put the head down hill, cut the throat and watch the blood come out.
There are no right and wrong answers ! I am just looking for other hunters ideas and reasons.

Unless the bullet caused no bleeding such as with a head or neck shot, I see no point to bleed an animal out and if you are going to gut it right away, there's no point either.

[rottie]

If struck in the heart/lungs the animal bleeds out internally,so there is no need to slit its throat. Hanging it will help drain some blood but not a whole bunch

[Bassett]

If your talk about to put it out of its misery typa deal? Id put another bullet into before Id ever cut its throat, all it does is drown in its own blood!

[great white whaler]

Originally Posted by Kootenai

I have heard both yes and no. I have heard why bother the hearts not pumping, bleeding the animal does nothing. Others say put the head down hill, cut the throat and watch the blood come out.
There are no right and wrong answers ! I am just looking for other hunters ideas and reasons.

best to bleed as soon as possible i've seen blood shoot 10 feet when cutting in to the neck,,don't want coagulation...

[Wolverine Boy]

I believe this to be more hunting folklore than a practical exercise. As grim as it is cutting an animals throat is only effective in a slaughterhouse environment where they are unconscious but the heart is beating for a few seconds.

If an animal is wounded then for god's sakes put it out of it's misery with a well-placed bullet.

I suppose if the animal's body is elevated you may get some drainage but it would be a small portion of it's volume.

I have actually had this discussion with a forensic pathologist who hunts.

In my opinion.........save your knife and your time and don't do it.

[FCLightning]

I bleed them every time - one well placed shot behind the shoulder through both lungs. There is no blood left in them by the time I get to them.

[HunterDave]

Not much point in doing it if you ask me. Allot of times the body cavity is full of blood anyways. It's gotta be coming from somewhere. Other than that I hang it upside-down and cut the head off but there's not usually much blood left to come out.

As far as coagulation, when I butcher a deer it doesn't even do it at the bottom of the steak bowl before wrapping. I usually find it in the big arteries of the heart but that's the only place.

[alpineguy]

Originally Posted by Wolverine Boy

I believe this to be more hunting folklore than a practical exercise. As grim as it is cutting an animals throat is only effective in a slaughterhouse environment where they are unconscious but the heart is beating for a few seconds.

If an animal is wounded then for god's sakes put it out of it's misery with a well-placed bullet.

I suppose if the animal's body is elevated you may get some drainage but it would be a small portion of it's volume.

I have actually had this discussion with a forensic pathologist who hunts.

In my opinion.........save your knife and your time and don't do it.

X2

[Huntress]

Your taxidermist is going to HATE you for slitting the throat. Nothing but cut hair and another hole to sew up for them, plus it accomplishes nothing in the way of helping the animal expire. I don't know who started that trend way back then, but it is a horrible way for the animal to finish up expiring nor does it do anything to make the meat "better". Just my two cents.

[BigJon]

a bullet through the lungs = no point in cutting it's throat...

[Fishhunter]

Back in the day when you butchered your beef(pig,etc) you shot between the eyes(so as not to wreck meat). Very little bleeding from a head shot so cut the throat immediately to bleed out(heart may pump for a bit after the shot) the animal. When you put a hole in the lungs/vitals they bleed internally and externally and if they run they bleed all the more. No need to wreck a cape or meat for nothing.

[shawnofthedead]

It is a old farmer thing i was brought up cutting them but see no sence in it now.

[Private Ear]

I was taught to do it, not as a means of finishing the animal off but to get the excess blood out right away. Over the years however, I have seen no advantage and dont do it anymore.

[spot and stock]

oh the odd time you hit them right in the noodle they bleed.

doe.jpg

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Wolverine Boy

I believe this to be more hunting folklore than a practical exercise. As grim as it is cutting an animals throat is only effective in a slaughterhouse environment where they are unconscious but the heart is beating for a few seconds. If an animal is wounded then for god's sakes put it out of it's misery with a well-placed bullet.

I suppose if the animal's body is elevated you may get some drainage but it would be a small portion of it's volume.

I have actually had this discussion with a forensic pathologist who hunts.

In my opinion.........save your knife and your time and don't do it.

That's the fact. No point in cutting a dead animals throat unless the heart is still beating.

Back on the homestead farm, when slaughtering pigs, the process was a 22 to the head, with an immediate knife to the throat. I've seen it many times where the pig was not cut quickly enough, and then there was minimal bleeding.

As previously stated, your shot through the boiler room bleeds them out.

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

That's the fact. No point in cutting a dead animals throat unless the heart is still beating.

I would have totally agreed with that until I killed my Dall ram this year. The shot entered high in the shoulder, traveled forward breaking the neck and then exited through the neck. Death was instant. There was quite literally not a drop of blood. We took our photos and shot some video and then started caping. At the first incision at the base of the horn, the blood started to flow. I've never even seen blood flow from there let alone in this quantity. We cut the femoral artery to relieve the pressure and then everything was fine. It seemed despite being hit by a bullet, the entire circulatory system remained perfectly intact and in fact was under pressure despite the the fact the heart had quit beating long ago. It was a first for me and I'm sure a very rare case that I'll never see again.

[Sask Hunter]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

I bleed them every time - one well placed shot behind the shoulder through both lungs. There is no blood left in them by the time I get to them.

x2
The bleeding in the lungs bleeds them out. slitting the throat only works if the heart is still beating. animals are not like a pail of water, blood doesn;t just empty out the lowest hole. I must be pumped to move through the vessels.

[Sask Hunter]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

I would have totally agreed with that until I killed my Dall ram this year. The shot entered high in the shoulder, traveled forward breaking the neck and then exited through the neck. Death was instant. There was quite literally not a drop of blood. We took our photos and shot some video and then started caping. At the first incision at the base of the horn, the blood started to flow. I've never even seen blood flow from there let alone in this quantity. We cut the femoral artery to relieve the pressure and then everything was fine. It seemed despite being hit by a bullet, the entire circulatory system remained perfectly intact and in fact was under pressure despite the the fact the heart had quit beating long ago. It was a first for me and I'm sure a very rare case that I'll never see again.

It was likely just pressure from the bodyweight of the sheep laying on its' side.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

I would have totally agreed with that until I killed my Dall ram this year. The shot entered high in the shoulder, traveled forward breaking the neck and then exited through the neck. Death was instant. There was quite literally not a drop of blood. We took our photos and shot some video and then started caping. At the first incision at the base of the horn, the blood started to flow. I've never even seen blood flow from there let alone in this quantity. We cut the femoral artery to relieve the pressure and then everything was fine. It seemed despite being hit by a bullet, the entire circulatory system remained perfectly intact and in fact was under pressure despite the the fact the heart had quit beating long ago. It was a first for me and I'm sure a very rare case that I'll never see again.

Hydrostatic shock and the release of KE..

Strange things do happen.

Originally Posted by Sask Hunter

It was likely just pressure from the bodyweight of the sheep laying on its' side.

Actually we had it sternal for the caping but you could be right. Still very weird. Hard to believe that the circulatory system could remain perfectly intact after a bullet impact. I agree that bleeding is not necessary in 99.999999% of cases.....lol.

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

Hydrostatic shock and the release of KE..

Strange things do happen.

More likely the severing of the spinal cord....lol Unplug the brain from the body and it's lights out....literally. Holes kill...KE doesn't!

[ice]

You Pretty much Bleed it out when your field dressing anyways. Once You Cut The Membrane On the upper ribs. The Blood Flows Anyways.

[walking buffalo]

I wish we had video cameras back in the day. As a little kid, at slaughter time for chickens, my job with my cousins was to chase and catch the chickens after Baba cut their heads off. She would catch five or six at a time with a coat hanger, hold them in one hand, axe in the other. In seconds there were headless birds running amock! It was hilarious! Four and five year old kids chasing headless chickens in every direction all over the yard! Some birds would run 60-70 yards, beelining for a wood pile or some other difficult place, others would just flop on the spot. Some seemed to bleed forever, spraying red like a Monty Python skit, others just leaked a bit.

LOL...ah the good old days...I too fondly remember chicken killing day.....lol