Field dressing your kills is one of those special skills that can only really be learned with ample practice and experience. However, there are many tips that you can review in order to get a better understanding of field dressing, even if you already have some experience with the practice. Field dressing is one of the most important parts of hunting, and it can make all the difference between edible meat that can be cooked and enjoyed, and meat that must be thrown out soon after the initial kill. Here are some tips for doing your best job at field dressing your turkey immediately after the kill.

Field dressing is essentially gutting the bird in the field while leaving the feathers on. Removing the guts or entrails is important to help allow the bird to cool faster and to keep the “juices” inside the bird from spoiling any meat. If it is a cool day and you aren’t far from home, you can skip the field dressing step and wait until you are home before cleaning the bird.

Step 1 – Positioning the Turkey into the Proper Position

After a successful shot, make certain that the turkey is dead. Many turkeys will thrash around for several moments after being shot. Make sure that your turkey is done thrashing, and that it has been killed rather than injured or wounded. After you have made certain that the turkey is dead, lay the bird on its back. Locate the part of the body that you will be working with. In this case, you will want to follow the breast of the turkey down to the rear of the animal. Follow this area to the point where it narrows between the legs. This is the area you will be working on.

Step 2 – Making the First Cut

Cut the kill open by pulling up on the tip and making a shallow horizontal cut on the skin. You will be cutting between the tip of the bird breast all the way to the vent, which is the anus area. You may have to pull out a few feathers in this area so you can make the cut with greater ease. This incision will have to be large enough that you can insert your hand and pull out the dead bird’s entrails. When making the first gutting, make sure that you pull out the turkey’s heart and lungs.

Step 3 – Making the Careful Incisions

There are a number of very careful incisions to make. First, make sure to cut around the vent. You can do this by following the intestine back. Afterwards, make sure to cut around the exterior. This incision should be made with great care, as you want to avoid getting any of the intestine contents to get on the exterior of the turkey.

Step 4 – Removing the Crop of the Turkey

The crop is the sac-like organ that stores what the turkey has been eating. You remove this by making a cut on the neck of the turkey. Then you will want to reach down and remove the crop that is located on the breast.

Step 5 – Clean the Kill with Water

You will want to clean the kill well before delivering it to your taxidermist in order to be mounted. The best and easiest way to go about cleaning your kill is to use water to rinse out the turkey. Use paper towels to absorb any blood or bodily fluids. Use a large plastic bag or used panty hose to store the dead bird, making sure not to ruffle its large tail feathers. Use a cooler to keep the dead bird well preserved en route to the taxidermist.

There are many emotional eating triggers that can lead you to eat when you are not truly hungry. Eating for all the wrong reasons is very common. Most of us who are overweight have experience with emotional eating. What is emotional eating, and what can you do to recognize and transform these behaviors into more positive, health-affirming eating behaviors? Here are some guidelines to how you can lose weight by recognizing your own emotional eating triggers.

Eating for All the Wrong Reasons

Have you ever noticed that you find yourself eating simply because you can? Many of us tend to eat when we are not hungry. We eat for all the wrong reasons—because we are bored, lonely, depressed, stressed, anxious, or merely because we can. These are all examples of emotional eating. Think of the anxious individual who can’t stop worrying over a major life decision. Instead of sitting down and making a definite decision, this person might just sit and stew in there own juices. As they stew, they may reach for the box of cookies, the ice cream, the salted pretzels, etc. Some of us eat just to eat. Have you ever sat at a bar or a restaurant and feasted on that free plate of pretzels or tortilla chips? Chances are, you are not really that hungry, but you eat because food is in front of you. Clearly, you are probably not as hungry as you think. What can you do to stave off these unhealthy eating behaviors?

Step 1: Why Are You Eating?

The first step to dealing with emotional eating issues is to ask yourself: why are you eating? The next time you start to feel a pang of guilt because you are eating something that you know is not great for you, stop and ask yourself why you are eating. Are you really hungry? Are you bored? Are you nervous? Are you depressed? Are you eating just because you have access to food? Becoming aware of emotional eating patterns is all you need in order to help stop these patterns.

Step 2: Devising a Plan of Attack

Emotional eating patterns are some of the most difficult habits to break, simply because they become so ingrained into our lives. Most of us who are guilty of emotional eating may not even recognize the behavior at first. Indeed, emotional eating is a type of seemingly non-behavior because we don’t even recognize that we are doing it most of the time. Most of the time we continue to snack indiscriminately and wonder why we continue to gain weight. So the most important thing you can do is to devise a plan of attack. Make a conscious decision that you will become more aware of when and why you eat.

Step 3: Create a Food Journal

Perhaps the easiest way to become more aware of what and why you are eating is to create a food journal. This does not have to be a difficult or time-consuming process. Simply take a few moments at the end of the day to write down what you ate, when you ate it, and why you think you ate it. This can help you become more conscious about your eating habits. After two weeks or so of keeping a food journal, spend a good deal of time looking over it. What sort of patterns do you recognize? Do you tend to overeat in the afternoon? Do you tend to overindulge the night of a big exam/meeting?

Step 4: Take Active Steps to Avoid Emotional Eating

Once you notice the patterns of your eating, it becomes possible to avoid emotional eating. Take active steps to schedule your day so that you will not be tempted to eat for emotional reasons.