Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Who here uses an axe/hatchet

I don't split the pelvis right away either. Have been carrying a small hatchet to open rib cage on deer for easier cleaning and faster meat cooling. Hatchet is easier than trying to work my knife up through the ribs.

those work great. for field butchering game. When its too cold for skinless or not enough time. Im not talking about splitting the pelvis. Quarter out, saw off lower legs, saw through neck, remove skull, cut ribs.... And lighter than my WY saw. Carry a spare blade

3 mule deer. 1 wt and two antelope this year.

I've used 'em. Have a couple - unused now for years. There are lighter and better tools like some above examples for splitting briskets and pelvic bones. And heavier and better tools, like axes for cutting firewood, clearing trails, or pounding tent stakes. OK- I'll give the hatchet the tent stakes. And maybe splitting fine kindling off a larger piece - but a light cruisers axe with a flat back does even better. Next to pounding tent stakes, the next best use I have found a hatchet barely adequate for is splitting moose pelvic, and that's pretty messy, leaving splinters and jagged edges. Anything smaller than a moose you are better off with something else (as you are with the moose anyway).

Like most compromises, a hatchet falls somewhat short at all it's tasks, especially if neatness- for want of a better term- is a factor. A hatchet can be quicker for removing lower leg bones and skull plates than most everything else, I will admit. Pretty fast for detatching rib bones from spine on large animals also, if you don't mind jagged ends. BTDT. Don't anymore.

If you work at it long enough it might even cut down a spindly cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie.

Well, yes I can, just not this time. .

Lower leg bones are knife-detatched at the joints. If you know how to do it, it's about as quick and much neater than sawing through them. For the rest, a saw is the way to go, tho not as quick as chopping.

Depending on the chore, a "game saw", a light axe, or a machete almost always beats a hatchet, and are pretty much of equivalent or lighter weight to carry.

IMO, of course. YMMV..

If carried in a vehicle and used from same, hell, carry all three and use as applicable. It's not as if weight or space is a factor. That's what I do with my boat trips to the remote cabin. (Also a chain saw.). If hunting, a knife and a saw covers it all. You can skip the saw even if using the "gutless" method, but I wouldn't. Too handy for some other tasks, like meat hanging or cooling in the field.

A dumchit story here....

A partner once accidently shot 2 caribou with one shot (we both had permits, so that was covered. Sort of.... ). 11 miles from the road. We had to bury one in a remnant, hard pack snowbank until we could come back and back pack it out a couple days later.. Willow branches and clean garbage bags over the meat, then covered with the snow we removed completed the job.

Beating a hole through the snow 2' or so to ground level with sharp shards of rock had torn our hands up something fierce.

As we were policing up for the pack out, I picked up my Knapp saw and ran it into the snow to clean it. The light bulb went off.

Holding it up, I called, "Hey, Parker!

"JFC! I have one too!"

Shoot
Gut
Drag to the truck or hike to truck for game cart
Take back to camp
Hang
Skin
Split sternum with hatchet
Split pelvis with hatchet
Bag during the day, off at night
Go home
Process, Foodsaver, and freeze




P

I use a tomahawk a friend made for me.

I've used a hatchet to gut elk and deer several times and never touched the knife. A knife doesn't quite have the heft to split the rib cage on an elk but the hatchet does so quickly. It wasn't so easy as to make me want to do it sans blade every time, but I wouldn't balk if that's all I had. The only thing I use a saw for in the field is cutting the skull plate to pack out the antlers. All three go in the pack although if we're only after deer the hatchet could stay home. I never split the pelvis even on deer we take out whole. Rarely cut the butthole out either in the past 80 or so big game animals we've taken and never had an issue of any kind aside from people telling me it will ruin the meat even though it won't.
I will say that If I butchering a bison or elk back at the shop then a sawzall is handy to halve or quarter out for clients in a hurry. Other wise I prefer to take them apart at the joints at home or in the field if leaving bone in.

I find that they are only effective at very short range, and that a bow or rifle is much more practical. Seriously I chopped them up for years and got tired of the bone flakes, and the backspray into my face at times. Then I discovered the Wyoming Saw and never went back.

I use a hatchet more for skinning than the bone work, although I will split the sternum with either a hatchet or use it to pound a machete or utility knife through the sternum. If I pull the hide off it gets to my hands quickly, but if I hammer it off with the hatchet no wear and tear on the hands. For the same reason I will use a meat hook to pull the hide off. A saw or loppers is used to split the pelvis on older or larger game back at camp.

This is why the Granfors Bruks hunters hatchet has rounded edges to use for skinning.

In desperation I have used 2 single bits to split a backbone. Accomplished the task simply enough, but it had the appropriate appearance when I was finished. Much better with a 24" bone/hand saw.

Why would you need 2? It's no big deal to chop an elk in half lengthwise, right up the middle of the spine, with just a single hatchet....

Why does one chop an elk in half lengthwise? I’m genuinely curious. I did have some friends in Alaska who cut moose up like a giant rabbit with saddle pieces having 1/3 of each backstrap still connected to the spine. Only folks I ever saw do it that way and it got deboned when they got it home.

You chop them lengthwise to make it easy to pack them out on stock saddles. They pack easier in rough country or long distances, than chopped crossways.....

Lower center of gravity, less easy to hang up in brush/trees and harder to buck off the load than crossways, too.

Now stocksaddles or packsaddles with panniers are different story, but it is still easier and WAY faster to chop lengthways and then crossways if you bring them out in bone-in/skin-on, in full quarters.

Here is a bull halved length-ways on a pair of saddle horses.

We led the ponies out to the trailer and grabbed a packsaddle when we got back. The other bull we halved crossways and put the hinds on the stock saddle. The front quarters and 2 heads came out on the packsaddle....

Interesting. I never gave a thought to making them fit on a horse. Thanks

Huntsman22:



One puts the blade of the first axe/hatchet against a single vertebra, and strikes the flat with a second. Sort of like using the first as a wedge. One successively works his way down the spine with typically one pop needed to split each joint. Given the bone is essentially wedged or shattered, there can be lots of stray fragments, so be careful going in with hands or fingers. Usually a bit neater than swinging away with a single axe, given ones general failure to precisely nail the intended target each time. One gets the job done, two is a bit neater, but a saw is better yet.

TheKid:


When one gets into country that even a mule can't negotiate, he may end up packing quarters on a back pack frame. In those cases, I first split lengthwise, then split front and rear leaving two ribs attached to each rear quarter. Thus torn apart, each quarter is near the same weight, and makes balancing loads on ones steeds a bit easier.

Also, if one has snow, and can drag half of an elk, it's easier to drag a long half than an attached pair of shoulders or hams.

One also has the option of boning or doing the gutless method. If I tag out early, but will still be with my party for another 8 or 10 days, I do quarters. Don't think much of those that sign on for a season of hunting and groceries and then leave the day they bag their game. If I'm going home tonight or maybe tomorrow morning, I may just bone everything at the kill site. Boning, however, exposes a lot of surface area, and one will lose a lot of meat to trim if it has to hang in camp for a week or more before final workup.

With deer, I can back pack a half, splitting them into front and rear halves by again cutting across between the second and third ribs counting from the back end. Usually have my pack frame along in rugged country, so I don't have to make an empty 5-mile trip back and out to get the first load in.

to balance front to rear quarters, a big ol' slab-sided bull needs 4 ribs on the hinds....

Roger on the packing. I don’t like to bone anything aside from backstraps, have packed elk and other critters out of some serious hellholes over the years places like you say that a mule couldn’t go. I quarter everything and gutless 90 percent of the time. I just had never seen anyone split one before quartering.

Unless you got there with a repelling rope...there is no place you can go that a mule can’t...provided you have the right mule.

I carry a tomahawk.