As you said in your post, you are a hunter and are familiar with the cleaning process, so I will spare you all the lectures about gloves and cuts on your hands. I've never worn gloves to clean animals and probably never will.

To answer you question, there are several ways to deal with larger game in a situation where water is in short supply. While in the San Bois Mtns in Southeastern OK once, myself and others got cut off by a large creek in heavy downpours and sustained ourselves for several extra days on ferral hog...but in that case, lack of water was not the problem.

I wouldn't hesitate to use local water sources for minor cleaning..knowing that the cooking process will render any microbes harmless, but barring no water, I would tend to clean by hanging...squirrles, rabbits, ducks..just hang em up and clean em...then you don't have to deal to much with the earth problem...but if that isn't possible, then perhaps the inside of a piece of bark or large rock work well. If we are talking larger game then I might just clean and prepare smaller pieces at a time. For example, on a deer, I would start with a hindquarter, cleaning on the particular area, then the other, then the backstraps(inner and outer), then the shoulders. Granted, you are dealing with meat aging and in extremely hot weather, I might not go past a day for fear of the meat turning, but if you leave the skin on, it should protect from most insects and hanging will allow it to cool better.

I'm no expert here and more than likely, in a short term survival situation, I probably wouldn't be looking to take down anything other than frogs, rabbits, ducks, squirrels..you know one meal at a time.

Hope this helps. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />