How do you quarter your elk ?

[Artwo]

Comparing notes -

Field dress first or not ?

Use a saw or hatchet ?

Pack out ribs or de-bone ?

JK

[tailchaser]

I will never field dress an animal if I'm quartering it. Absolutely no need. Skin one side of the animal and lay the hide on the ground. Take each quarter off and if needed lay it on the skinned section to protect it from the dirt. Take every piece of meat (including tenderlions) and then flip the animal over and do the other side. No guts or problems. Getting the loins is an interesting trick but I've explained it a few times on here how to get them.

No saws are needed, just a good knife (could use one to lop the head but that's it). Also I never keep the ribs, only a small portion of meat is there and it's useless besides burger or scraps anyhow.


tc

[ 10-03-2003, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: tailchaser ]

[dla]

Do not gut.

Use a short length of rope with a sliding noose on both ends, and a golfball to act as a third hand when skinning. (foot in the noose, ball under hair-side, other noose over the lump in the flesh-side.)

Elk must be pretty thinned-skinned in Wyoming because Wyoming knives never worked for me. Any 1095 carbon steel blade with a Ulu-like curve seems to be fastest for skinning.

Boning is easier than it sounds. Bone is heavy and is usually where spoilage will occur as the bone stays hot a long time.

A ham is heavy. Cutting loose and bagging one by yourself is easy if you use you use the rope trick again. This time run a longer rope from your foot, over your shoulder, to the ham. This lets you keep a steady upward pressure and keep the meat out of the dirt.

Get everything off of one side of the animal before rolling over. I usually holdoff skinning the back and taking the backstrap till last. Just seems easier.

Tenderloins, liver and morbid curiousity about how your bullet or arrow performed are absolute last.

Hope this helps.

[nitrobass]

OK I'm here to represent the field dressing community.

I always gut it first. Open it up from the butt to the head, and loosen the wind pipe. Saw through the brisket. One guy pulls on the windpipe while another cuts loose the connective flaps inside the cavity. If its a young elk the liver is worth checking, older elk has way too high of a percentage of liver flukes and other freaky looking things. I like deer/elk liver about once a year but after that it stays behind.

On my pack frame I have a bag roped to it that has everything I need to take care of an elk. A 12x12 blue tarp(or a cheapo one painters use), 2 hatchets, one good saw(Wyoming saw works great), good elk bags, and maybe a couple of cheapo game bags. Assuming the kill was clean you can cut and bag up the elk with very little dirt on it.

I've grown up always quartering them and still do that(unless I'm way too far away from a road). I'm convinced you can get more meat off of the ribcage/neck at home than you can at the kill site. Its scrap meat but its still meat.

[Gun Rod Bow]

I usually gut first. I keep heart on elk and heart and liver on deer.

Then skin, quarter, bone what's left. Gutting makes a big animal easier to roll around.

Only ever use a knife. I carry a pillow case with quarter bags inside it. The pillow case is for the rib meat, neck meat, backstraps and tenderloins.

I have left guts in on gutshot game that was not recovered quickly to avoid the nasty. In those cases the heart and liver were left.

I'm sure some coyotes have been very disapointed when they've found what's left...not much.

[sliverpicker]

The last couple years I've been doing the gutless method on elk like described above, makes the butchering a whole lot faster. Last week my hunting partner killed a bull in Grant County, and it died on a slope that would be getting quite abit of sun, so we gutted it first so we could drag it downhill into the shady draw, then proceeded to skin one side and quarter like normal.

A good saw for cutting bone is one of those Stanley 14" or 15" Tool Box saw's. They're the best bone saw I've ever used!

Has anyone tried those Alaska Game Bags? They look like giant condom's that you just roll over the quarters. I have some good quality bags my wife made from bed sheets, but I bought some of the A.G.B.'s because they don't take up much room in the pack. We used them on the bull mentioned above, and the next day when we went to the cooler to clean up the meat alittle, there was a couple small spots where flies were able to blow thru the material. The bags were the 48" size, and were stretched real tight. I'd also bought a package of the 60" condom's, they might be better because the material won't be stretched so thin.

[Norm]

I've done it both ways. If can I can get away with it, I won't gut them out. I learned the trick tailchaser mentioned from a guide when cutting up a moose. It's a real easy way to keep the meat clean. We were not keeping hides so we split them down the back. All that was left when we finished was the hide, ribs, back bones, and the guts. The same moose guide also enlightened me about bedsheets, the best game bags I've ever used. He just bought old sheets from goodwill and a used little parachute cord. The pillow cases were great for the smaller hunks. I guess when you pack out a dozen moose every year you get it pretty well figured out.

[ 10-03-2003, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: Norm ]

[Hoosier Daddy]

Seems like a good time to remind everyone about the new requirement on proof of sex in Oregon.....