It depends where and what I am hunting. Deer are quite different than moose. Wilderness is quite different than the back 40. Ideally, I prefer to handle my game meat mostly the same way a butcher would. Hang a carcass, bone in, in a proper cooler for ageing. But can't always do that. With that in mind, sometimes I pack out the whole animal and do the entire processing job back in camp. Works great if you have a tractor w/ frontend loader or ATV and wagon or snowmobile and toboggan. Other situations require other approaches. I like to filed dress and split the pelvis and sternum in the field on most of my animals. Usually don't need to do the bone splitting, it's just what I prefer. I use a small folding saw for that. But I quit using an axe for most bone splitting years ago. I have quite a few scars on my fingers and knuckles from packing out chunks of moose that were carved up with an axe. The axe method results in way too many sharp bone shards eager to shred your skin and gear. I like to have a Gerber switch-blade saw in my pack whenever I'm in wilderness areas. Bone saw for carcasses, wood saw is handy for ... wood. If I'm backpacking or canoe hunting, I just carry a knife. And some meat bags. I break down elk or moose into 8 pieces for packing out in cloth bags, bone in, on a pack frame. In a very special few circumstance I debone in the field. I will always have an axe and a saw in the canoe or snowmobile or truck. And a pack frame. I never split a carcass lengthwise down the backbone. That seems like unnecessary and unproductive work for animals that I'll process myself.
Last edited by castnblast; 11/29/20.
