I use a knife, boys I hunt with would laugh their asses off if someone brought out woodworking tools.
How bout a sazall or a chainsaw?
Like someone else mentioned, hunting big critters like elk and moose way back in the wilderness is a lot different than shooting a whitetail deer on the flat back 40.
For 20 some years I used my horses to pack a camp back in various Montana wildernesses hunting elk and moose. During that time my horses packed out over 20 elk and 3 moose.
I carry a folding Sanvik saw in my hunting fanny pack, and it is great for splitting a brisket or pelvis but the backbone of a elk or moose is just too big for that little tool. A hatchet or axe, which I have in camp anyway, makes short work of splitting a backbone.
Over the years I've also been fortunate to bring a few elk out whole, or at least cut cross-ways in half where I could drag them out. Then when I get these elk home I've used a sawzall or a chainsaw to quickly and easily split the backbone.
One time a buddy and I went on a day hunt for elk. We met in town where because my truck had a slide in camper on it, I left it in a grocery store parking lot and we went hunting in his truck. We both shot 5x5 bulls that we cut in half side-ways to drag out and could load into the back of his truck.
We got back to town about midnight, and the front half of my bull with the antlers still on wouldn't fit through the door of my camper. So there I was at midnight in the parking lot of the local grocery store, cutting the head off my elk with the double blade axe that I keep in my camper.
