Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best way to quarter an elk for backpack carry?

Quartering means 4 pieces correct. Dicing it up is not quartering.

Another gutless proponent here.

You can get to the loins easily with a little slit up near the spine towards the rear quarters. make slit big enough to get your hand in. A little pulling and they detach from the spine easily without a knife.

I prefer to bone out as well. If you pay a little attention you can see the individual muscle in a rear quarter. I prefer to gently cut the conective tissue between these. when I bone a rear quarter I end up with about 4-5 individuall muscles. These make excellent steaks later. No stringy connective tissue in my steaks.

You can still do boneless quarters,

After you pull the quarter off you find the seem between muscle groups on the closest point to the bone, slide a small knife down and run it along the bones and at the joint just stay as close as possible then down the shins the same way and you still end up with 4 quarters in one boneless piece

Here's the way I do mine... takes about 35 minutes from dead animal to meat off the carcass and ready to pack out all by myself with no help...and I don't have the luxury of horses or killing one right next to a road.

Whereever the animal lays- make the first incision along the backbone from neck to tail. Pull the skin back to expose the higher of the two backstraps. Remove the backstrap and place on a log to cool. Reach in just below the shortribs and the iliac crest of the pelvis along the spine and feel the tenderloin. Separate it bluntly from the vertebra and cut it's origin and insertion removing it whole (if done correctly, you never enter the abdominal cavity, no muss, no fuss.

Next, make an incision in the hide along the inner thigh and peel back the hide off the hindquarter. Detach the ball socket and remove the entire hindquarter (leave evidence of sex attached to one hindquarter). Debone the leg and place it in a packframe.

Next, another incision in the hide on the inside of the front leg. Peel the hide back and then detach the front shoulder. Debone and place in packframe.

Take the neck meat if so desired as well.

Next, roll the animal 180 degrees to the other side and repeat the process. Presto, deboned ready to pack elk with no mess.

I've perfected the process on whitetails. In fact, I can process a whitetail in around 10 minutes from whole animal to deboned and into the cooler.

On elk, we can usually carry it out in three packs... one for each hindquarter and a little shoulder meat and the third for both backstraps, both tenderloins, and the rest of the shoulder meat. No extra weight of bones to carry out.

All this talk about quartering, gutting ect. just reminds me of the importance of keeping your bullets forward of the diaphragm. I've help out on one gut shot elk(not mine) Boy, what a mess.

If you can completely debone an elk on the ground, by yourself, in 35 minutes, you are a far far better man than I. Hell, I can take 10 minutes just to roll one over by myself.

Utah708:

I'm with you, and I owned a Meat Packing Plant for close to 50 years!!

I've boned out just about everything in the plant, including Lamb, Pork, Veal, Chicken, Beef, & fish. I have had professional butchers working for me the entire time, and I can tell you even using Butcher Boy band saws, large boning tables, steels, and several knives it would take a boner just about an hour to do one complete Steer, and do it right.

That is not including the slaughtering, skinning, cleaning the cavity, or head removal.

Also, as far as boning without cleaning the cavity, don�t think so. Not only will you loose the liver & heart, sweetbreads, & marrow guts, it is no faster.

You can figure it will take a bit longer in the field (expecially if you want to keep the animal clean!)

Richard

Took two of us working with knives (both experienced), with two others holding lanterns, game bags, etc. a flat two hours to do a 56" AK-Y moose a few weeks ago, as described - although he had slit the belly first thing, several hours before.

I'd like to see that 35 minutes on an elk, tho I wouldn't put it past one of my Inupiat friends... They can do a caribou in about 20 minutes. I've seen it done. But that's on a nice clean field of snow...

Gutting is a waste of time and leaves you with a big mess to work in. Skinning will get it cool FAR faster than gutting because it exposes 5x more meat to the air much faster.

Take the legs off, remove the backstraps, rib meat, and neck. To get the heart and liver only takes a few cuts with a saw to remove several ribs. Get the tendloins last. Roll the deceased on his belly and CAREFULLY make a cut along the spine from the back of the ribcage to the pelvis. I recommend you don't cut the gut. Slide your hand under the backbone and you can easily work the tenderloins out with out cutting. They're very soft and you can just pull them loose. If you want to, you can make it a little easier to get them by opening the gut at this point to let the stomach roll out a little to relieve the pressure. You don't need to pull the stomach out. Just cutting the gut open will allow it to move enough for the purpose.

Note:
In the worst case scenario, a gutshot, gutless dressing can save your meat. It keeps the stomach juices contained in the abdomen where they can't contaminate the meat before you have it removed. It also prevents the possibility of accidentally cutting the stomach while gutting and contaminating the meat.

First time I got an elk we gutted it, hung it from a tree and skinned it, then took a saw and literally cut it into quarters, goiing right down the middle of the spine. We packed out the quarters, bone in. That was also the last time I was so foolish.

Since then the gutless method has worked well for my buddy and myself and I plan to keep using it.

Basically it works like this:

1. Take the legs off one side, then remove the backstrap, flank and neck meat from that side.
2. Roll the animal over and repeat for other side.
3. Make a belly cut from the pelvis up far enough to let the guts roll out. They don't have to come out all the way, just far enough you can get to the tenderloins.
4. Remove the loins and you're done.

Hang the quarters from a tree if available and skin them down. The faster you get the hide off the faster the meat will cool and the better it will be.

As "superT" says, there isn't enough left to make a decent meal for the coyotes.

Well, each to his own.

You boys who prefer "Gutless" just keep doing it that way.

Those of us who have been in the Meat business for most of their lives will be keep doing it the traditional way, and the way it has been done in packing houses forever.

By the way try this �food for thought�, if boning "gutless" was faster, don't you think those of us who pay our butchers by the hour would be using this method? Or again, if �gutless� was faster, wouldn�t you think hunters who work in the meat packing business would be doing it this way? Don't forget, we work with knives on a daily basis, and again, time is money!!!

Personally, I don't care what way you choose to bone your kill, but when a new hunter reads some of these posts, I can sure see how he could become confused.


Richard

Why would an hourly-paid butcher want to do the job faster???

That is a very easy queston to answer.

When I see a boner who can't keep pace, I'll have a word with him first, let him know he needs to keep up the pace so as to not slow down the line. If I see the same guy dogging it again, I will speak to him a second time. The third time he will be looking for a new job.

Unfortunately we don't pay for piece work in the meat industry, we pay by the hour. The more we produce, cry-o-vac, and sell, the more money the plant makes. The more money the plant makes, the more benifits the employees receive.


Richard

When the elk is down a 1/4 mile from the nearest tree (very common in southern Idaho) and there are no chain hoists to move heavy quarters, it take some different handling. Gutless allows the meat to be removed in manageable pieces in the field.

If my job title was "boner" I would go look for a job on my own!

LOL!!
Now that is some funny stuff, right there.


All economics aside, there are reasons for doing the "gutless" method other than speed. Like RC said, if you had to process your cattle 1 mile back in the bush and then haul it to the road to sell it, you might think differently.

Rock Chuck:

What possible difference would there be weather an animal was gutted or not when it comes to a tree? I've never attempted to string an Elk up when gutting, simply roll the animal so the belly is pointing down hill, open the cavity, ream the anus, and the cavity begins to fall out by itself (be sure to catch the liver, & heart before they hit the dirt). Reach up, and cut the esophagus, split the pelvis, and pull the rest out. Time to clean the cavity, not more than 5 minutes if your slow.

P2:

We have butchers (who slaughter), boners (separate the meat from the carcass), packers (who cryovac & pack the cuts), and scalers (who weigh each of the boxes).

There you go, now you know what a real boner is!!!

Richard

I've gutted my share in the field. I won't do another one. It's ok if you have horses or can get an atv or truck to the corpse, but that's a rare event here. It usually has to be moved on your own back. The corpse has to be reduced to reasonable sized chunks and that means the meat has to come off the carcass. 95% of it can be removed from the outside, leaving the bones on the ground for the coyotes. If you want to pack a full quarter, bone in, that's your business, but I'm not moving a single bone if I can help it.

Rock Chuck:

What part of this earlier post of mine are you having a hard time comprehending?

"I see most of you are not really quartering, but instead seprarating the leg, and loin. That's fine, but it is not quartering.

If you want to truly quarter an animal, the Hindquarter and loin are joined. They contain, the Shank Meat, Top Round, Bottom Round, Knuckle, Top Sirloin, Tri Tip, Flat Ball, New York, & Filet.

The Forequarter in comprised of the Prime Rib, Flank Sk., Chuck, Shoulder Clod, Skirt Steak, Foreshank, Plate, Short Rib, Brisket, & Neck.

Of course both the Fore & Hind quarters can be broken down further into more select cuts.

For me (retired after owning a Meat Packing Co 45 + years), I find it much easier to bone out the animal completely, separate & pack each fully boned quarter into quarter bags, and pack out on horses. Notice I said Horses (plural).

Where I hunt, it's steep, and after rolling a horse once, I now use two Horses.

Richard "

Probably be a fun job, too.

All joking aside, on the gutless method vs. gutting, I don't believe that what one man does on a mountainside 3 miles from the truck is remotely comparable to what a crew does on an automated line with hoists and all the other equipment in a meat packing operation.

Just my $.02.