Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How to quarter any animal quickly

This one didnt get the memo. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...incident-called-surprise-attack-n1241037

Another from this year. https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/0...killed-in-bear-attack-close-to-his-home/

I have a lot of lower 48 griz experience and some Alaskan's griz/brown experience and my conclusion has been that those in the lower 48 are a LOT more aggressive around people. Why? Who knows but I couldn't imagine the fact that they're not hunted and are basically treated as gods has got something to do with it. Availability of food likely is a reason too.

I've had meat taken from me on Afognak Island, the Talkeetnas' and the Kuskokwims' and while you definitely need to treat those Alaskan bears with respect, those in Wyoming and Montana are more dangerous towards people, IME.

The victim was a friend.

It is not uncommon on Kodiak to see bear numbers at 10% of the total lower 48 population... in a week. At times 100+ per day is not a big stretch. They like meat and the odds of being around them while cutting game is enough to make a hunter jumpy. Still no excuse for a POS butcher job like that.

As SliM mentioned, the video's point was to show how to quarter a critter quickly, not how to completely butcher it. They specifically mentioned that they were planning to more meat off the carcass that wasn't to be on camera. Maybe they then took off enough to satisfy some of you...maybe not. It doesn't matter as that wasn't the point of the video.

Besides, it is the law to take a lot more of the meat in Alaska and other areas. That may not be the case in Colorado where this elk was taken.

I've done small deer this way. Not enough meat on the ribs to worry about. Especially in warm southern fall and winter weather. Have to get the meat off and cooled as quick as you can to avoid spoiling. Cut the legs off at the pelvic bone and pop the ball socket out. Cut off the tenderloin. Cut off the front legs at the shoulder, including the shoulder. Cut off as much neck as possible. I save the skin and send them off to be tanned for about $20 each. Doing it this way you don't have to gut the deer, unless you want the heart and liver.

Yes, but when they roll the animal with meat onto the dirt it looks like they aren't too serious about doing more. As for the point of the video it seems to me to be a promo for a knife.

They definitely were pushing the advertising of that Outdoor Edge knife, but since the video we're discussing is on their website, I can't see how anyone would argue with that point. I for sure won't.

As for getting dirt onto the rib meat and what was left under the front shoulders as they rolled the carcass over....I won't disagree with you at all there either. They weren't planning to take it and neither do I a lot of the time when it is legal to not do so. The neck for the most part wasn't skinned when they rolled the carcass, so it should have stayed clean. The brisket though for sure got some nastiness on it.

Agreed, if he was going to get the rib meat, you would do that before you role it, or skin it belly to spine (or opposite) and pull the hide back over as Beav’ mentioned. As mentioned before, I can’t speak to other states, but in NM you do not have to salvage the rib meat.

We sometimes do a rib roll and sometimes we don’t. It appears like the neck meat is protected as Tiny mentioned.

The video was clearly an advertisement of the knife and how fast it can be done, so not sure why some are getting wrapped around the axle. If it’s legal, not sure anyone has a say, other wise we are going down the road of imposing “ethics”.

Not being argumentative with your post, it’s just an interesting conversation.

Had I done that job on an elk while working back home in the Colorado high country for Outfitters as a packer, a guide and a camp foreman, I would have lost my job ! We had horses, lots of em, never had to bone one out in the field, fortunately! Technically, that video does not depict quartering. It depicts a rapid deboning and I would never use the same blade that cut through the hide to debone the backstraps and the tenderloins! That being said, I had to learn the hunting ethos a long time ago, the hard way. It was humbling and a very squared away Game Warden cut me a ton of slack! What that video depicted is certainly not illegal in the lower 48, it's just not the right way to do it, imho!

Fred , no doubt, knows what he is doing but that motor running sound in the background speaks to ideal circumstances. He has 2 helpers, level ground, minimal brush, T shirt weather and a pretty small critter. In weather warm enough for a t shirt my 1st priority would be skinning, bagging and cooling that meat as quick as possible. I have only killed a few Elk in the last 60 years but none were in those circumstances. That was a great commercial for that knife.


mike r

I’ve done it that way for three different outfitters and a few clients. I can count on one hand clients who wanted anymore than that and probably have some unused fingers. One of my good friends is a Wyoming game warden. We’ve killed a decent amount of elk together and done pretty much the same.

A game warden told us in a hunter ed class that this is the accepted way of doing it here. Rib and neck meat left on the carcass do not constitute wanton waste here in Wyoming. The gutless method cuts down on the amount of scent put into the air to alert bears to the presence of a downed animal. I personally also will generally move the quarters a distance down wind from the site of the kill if it cannot be immediately removed. Doing it any other way in some areas here will just about guarantee a bear conflict. Those that disagree are welcome to go to the east fork area below Dubois and try it any other way.

He sure gets the 1/4’s off in a hurry.

Most impressive I’ve seen is the guys that show up on the mobile slaughter truck. It usually takes about 1 hour from the time they hop out of the truck until they are headed down the road with three steers skinned, cleaned and quartered hanging in the reefer box. Not a lick of dirt or hair on the meat.

I simply don’t kill enough big game animals to be that proficient. I’m sure the gantry mounted winch and power saw help.

Yeah he did get the legs off in a hurry, but if he is that proficient with that knife it would have only taken him 10 more minutes to do a rib roll & neck fillet. If the state of WY allows for that much waste thats on them.
Spent quite a few years on Kodiak & a couple on Afognak. Lost a entire mtn goat one year, been harassed at night repeatedly other times. Just had to be smart & wait until we (just the wife & I) could get our animals sometimes waiting until the day before the plane was coming. Known a few people to loose deer or elk & chatted with a couple that left afoknak with the aforementioned wanton waste tickets. If you can't get a big Roosevelt packed back towards camp & secured in a day you need a better plan or more people.

I watched that video a couple of years ago and then applied it to a rather large Roosevelt cow elk.

She died in a location that I could get the quad to, but it was sketchy.
I broke her down, as Fred did and bagged the straps, tenders, neck..etc... Then tied the whole works on the quad, having to heavily weight the front and out I went.

It worked well, but I got a lot of hair on the meat that had to be cleaned up.
I will say this, it's a LOT easier to skin and wash down the quarters at the barn or home than it is to try to man handle it by myself on the ground.

The next year I had a tarp on the quad and did my usual gutless job on the elk. But this time I skinned it on the ground and placed the quarters on the tarp. I was able to drag the tarp down to the quad and load her up. It took several trips to do so. That process took a lot more time, but it was a morning kill so I took the time. Cleanup of the meat was quicker.

I'll use the method again if it suits the circumstances. Bears aren't an issue here, but if a blackie does get squirrely he's at risk of getting a ride in the truck, too.

Once again, there is legal and there is what is right. We just packed two Roosevelt bulls out of deep canyons recently, and took every bite of edible meat possible to take. I don't even know the applicable law here on retrieving meat, we just retrieve it.

Why don't y'all leave it untouched overnight to make sure it is dead, and then take only the antlers?

Bad video from the first to the last. They cut off the legs and took backstraps, like poachers in a hurry. The guy in the white T-shirt grinds his boots in the dirt then steps over the raw meat. But then they didn't bother to take that meat anyway and flopped it into the dirt, so it did not matter to him if he dropped grit onto the meat.

As to boneless method, what these guys did is a travesty of boneless, and I have done many critters boneless, leaving clean white bones with traces of meat.

If you can't pack it out and retrieve all the meat, then don't shoot it. Our mileage does vary...

FWIW, the legs by themselves are not quarters, especially the front legs.

Propane torch. The hair almost evaporates and it's so fast it doesn't even warm up the meat.

I do that but it doesn't seem to work that well unless the surface of the meat where the hair rests is a bit dry.