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

Correct. But: quartering is what you do when you have horses, or maybe the first time you haul one out on your back. "Dicing it up" is what you do after you've hauled quarters on your back once and learn from your mistake or when you ask for and get good advice on the best way to do it under your own power (see thread title). Which is what the original poster was asking about, i.e., what is the best way to do that.

The Colorado DOW recommends the gutless method. At one time they had an area on their web page that was devoted to providing instructions, along with photos. Might still have, I don�t know.

Country like below you�d have a long walk to a tree, but we�ve taken a number of elk out of there.


Maybe you can do it faster some other way, I cannot. And since I don�t care to pack out the ribs and spine and other inedible parts, gutless works just fine.

Smokepole:

Good logic! "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."

However, men who use knives for a living will strip a carcass the fastest way possible, at the same time, saving as much meat as is practical.


Coyoty Hunter:

I've killed a lot of Elk in land just like that, both in WY, and CO. And, As I've said previously, I've never used a tree to "string up" an animal before cleaning, and NEVER bother packing any bones out either (as said many times before in this thread).

Richard

PS: Terrain & conditions like the above photo, are absolutely terrific for cleaning an animal. Not only does the snow on the ground keep your cleaning area clean, dirt from above doesn�t fall on the meat, and the flying critters are "few & far" for the most part.




Just my $.02.

I didn't say it's quartering. I'm talking about reducing the carcass to a size that can be packed out in something other than a motorized vehicle. Most guys don't have access to horses and in most of Idaho's elk country, ATV's are either illegal, unusable, or both. That mean's backpacking. A commercial dressing job doesn't cut it for putting the meat on your back. It has to be reduced much further and gutting just takes more needless time.

Rock Chuck:

Read this quote of mine carefully now

"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"

Got it now?

Meatco, good point but what works fastest for men who use knives for a living might not be fastest for men who take apart an elk once a year.

Nice photo by the way, do you make and paint your own arrows?

I can keep much cleaner, less blood on me without gutting. Very important when I am out on a 10 day Moose hunt in Grizzly country. Plus its easier IMHO.

Smokepole:

Yes, I do make my own arrows, but my avatar arrows are wrapped, not painted.

You boys who prefer the "Gutless" method, that's fine by me. That old saying "Each to his own" seems fitting here.

By now, I"m sure everyone here knows how I prefer to clean an animal.

Richard

No, I missed that, can you describe it?

Just kidding Meatco, and thanks for the info., it's always good to see how the pros do it.

I've never said a word about leaving the bone in. You're talking horses. The rest of us are talking backpacks. Huge difference. You did it professionally. Not many of us here are likely to take extended courses in meat cutting just to learn how to handle 1 elk a year. We do what's expedient and gutting isn't expedient. There's a trick to doing it quickly and avoiding a bloody mess and few of us know the trick. That makes it far easier to just not do it at all. You still haven't said what useful purpose it serves for our purpose.

Rock Chuck:

Well, one primary reason, for cleaning the cavity prior to cutting, you speed up the cooling process, & slow down the Bacterial breakdown, thus enhancing the flavor. There is an enormous amount of body heat trapped in the body cavity, more than enough to taint some of the cuts if you�re not quick.. This goes double if the animal is not found PDQ.

And, as I�ve already stated, getting to the inner cuts are far faster & easier with gutting. For one thing the Tender (Fillet Mignon) is attached to the New York, and rides inside the cavity. The Tender is FAR easier to detach whole, when the cavity is cleaned. Of course if you prefer Porter House & T-bone you can leave the fillet attached. Personally, I prefer the taste of Elk New York�s & Fillets (notice, no bones). Obviously, taking the liver is just a slice away with a cleaned cavity, same goes for the heart.

Of course there are other cuts easier to reach once the cavity has been cleaned, but then again, I�ve already mentioned some of them in earlier posts.

�We do what's expedient and gutting isn't expedient� This quote of yours implies a majority of hunters do what you do. That is simply untrue. The majority of hunters will first clean the cavity, then skin, then cut, then bone, in that order.

�You still haven't said what useful purpose it serves for our purpose.� Again, look to cooling as a primary reason.

For you education:
In the Meat industry once the animal has been hung & killed, it is gutted, skinned, & the head and hoofs are removed. Then the carcass is immediately hosed down with cold water to clean, & get the body temp down. It is then halved & bagged (much like a quarter bag, but big enough to fit over the entire half), finally, it is rolled into a quick cooler for cool down. Every carcass will stay in the cooler until the body temp lowers to a max of 41 degree�s. At that point it is rolled out for final processing.) The faster an animal can lose body temp, the better the flavor.

Ok, I�m done. I�ve shared that cleaning the cavity makes for MUCH faster cool down, easier identification of inside cuts, faster removal of Liver & Heart, & makes the animal easier to roll into different positions for boning.


Smoke Pole: What am I gonna do with you? You're killing me!!!

Respects to all of you,

Richard

Forget the packing plant and horses. We're talking field and backpacking. In the plant, it's necessary to immediately cool the carcass because the meat will stay on the bone. But step back and take a look at a skinned carcass. The hind quarters have very little contact with the abdomen. The heat from the gut will have little effect on them. Ditto for the neck. The backstraps are largely insulated from the gut by the spine and ribs. The rib meat is very thin and will allow heat from the gut to escape fairly fast. The shoulders are the major factor on the outside. They're very easily removed by simply lifting and cutting under them. Remove them 1st before the heat can damage them.
The tenderloins can be taken out last. All it takes is a slit up the belly after all else is done to relieve the pressure on the spine. A single cut on each side of the spine behind the ribs allows you to easily get at the meat. The heart is quickly removed by 2 or 3 saw cuts to take out 1 or 2 ribs. A few more ribs lets you get to the liver.
in order: front legs, rib meat & loins, hind legs, tenderloins & organs, neck.
So, you've got all the meat off without heat damage, no time wasted gutting, and no mess to work in. So why bother?

Ok, Rock Chuck you win.

You obviously know more about meat processing than I do.

How about this, you do it your way, and I'll stick mine. Perhaps one of these days we'll meet & see who is really faster at processing an Elk (or Deer, Pig, Sheep, Goat, ect.,ect.).

Richard

Cool! Can we all play? I'm in...

(sharpened the chain on my 046XP this past weekend)

Oh come on. Give me a break. You'd be a damn poor meat cutter if you aren't faster than me. However, the original post was a guy looking for an easy way for a NON-PROFESSIONAL to handle an elk in the field. If he was a pro, he wouldn't be asking the question. Your techniques simply don't apply to non-pros. You said you can gut one in 5 min. I would hope so. However, 99% of us can't. 30 to 45 min is more like it. And while they're mucking around in there figuring out to unhook the plumbing, they could instead be doing something productive - like removing those front shoulders.

I've been dismantling elk & deer for 40 years and I've learned a few things along the way. I normally don't do more than 1 or maybe 2 a year, but I always try to learn something as I go. No-gut is the biggest and best technique I've learned in many years. I 1st tried it on an elk tied to a sagebrush to keep him from falling off the side of a vertical mountain about 10 years ago. It was vastly easier than gutting, believe me.

The guys now using no-gut are definitely a minority, but darn few who try it go back to gutting. The number is growing very fast because it greatly speeds up the job for the average hunter.

I can tell you that if it's one guy and an elk on the steep ground we often kill them on the gutless method is a PIA. I was forced to use it one time because the place my bull died kept me from being able to move him to get the guts out cleanly.

I wrestled and cussed and sweated and cussed some more but I finally got it done. What I like about removing the guts, which honestly only takes 3-5 minutes, is that it allows me to reposition and move the carcass so I can do a cleaner job with the quartering. I also like to have the guts to roll down the hill to attract the bulk of the yellowjacket, of which there are many in the places I hunt during archery season.

The time it costs me to gut the elk is made up in the speed I gain on being able to handle the carcass alone since it weighs a whole lot less gutted.

Some guys are slow with a knife and maybe don't have a lot of practice getting the guts out. Some of have to open up the ribcage and split the pelvis and all that but none of that is necessary. I had to show a couple of long time elk hunters how to get the guts out of a little cow a few years back and was amazed at their lack of skill with a knife or knowledge of elk anatomy. I had to do the same thing with hunting partner of mine and a deer once too. Maybe guys like that save tons of time going gutless but I just don't see the point.

In rough stuff where I can't move it, I skin what ever is on top and work my way down. I don't like skinning from the top because it gets too much hair on the meat, but it's doable. By the time I get the top legs & meat off, the weight is less than gutting. In fact, the job's half done. A few years ago, my partner did a moose this way that was on it's belly between some big rocks. It took him a while, working alone, but he didn't have to move anything until he went for the heart & liver.

To help keep the meat clean I make a tripod out of standing dead saplings. I run a rope over the top of it and use that to suspend the legs, one at a time to allow me to keep a steady pull on the hide and keep hair and dirt off of the meat.

Saplings? You got saplings? Darned hard to make a tripod out of 12" sage.

You don't gut them, correct?



I have started doing my whitetails gutless. I have done it both ways and gutless is cleaner for me.