Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What stuff do you need to dress out an Elk?

What should you be carrying in your pack to dress out an elk?

Thanks, TJ

I carry this, even dressed out a steer with it last year. It works good if you don't bully it, otherwise the locking mechanism will slip unless they've changed them.

http://www.thekershawstore.com/Kershaw_Alaskan_Blade_Trader_Knife_p/k1098ak.htm

If you're deboning, the only other things you need is a little rope and some plastic sacks and a backpack.

I carry a hatchet, a knife, a sharpener, game bags and paracord

A knife will do it all. Unless you want to saw the horns off with just the skull plate.

I'll try gutless this season if an elk or muley is stupid enough to let me shoot 'em..

I have a knife, sharpener, small folding limb saw, king sized pillowcases, paracord, and headlamps.

Here's a $10 folding saw from Stanley. It uses standard recip saw blades so you have a huge variety to select from.
One of these for whacking off the antlers, a knife, sharpener, and bags of some kind are all you need for either gutting/quartering or gutless boning.
Don't waste your money on the $1 cheesecloth bags. They're useless. Flies can lay eggs through them and dirt isn't even slowed down. Any tightly woven bag/pillow case/sheet, etc will work.

I like to have a good pair of rubber gloves along with all the above mentioned stuff

Oh yeah. Forgot the gloves. I like these by Rubbermaid. They come in XL for us guys. $2 at grocery stores.


Or, if you prefer..........

Let me add a hard lesson learned from this year - have a good sharpener. I had one of those made of a steel plate with a rough diamond finish. I hadn't noticed but over the years it had been worn smooth. I had two good sharp knives to start with, and all went well with elk no. 1 that my son killed.

Then the next day, when I had one down I had two dull blades and no good way to sharpen them. I never want to do that again.

Sharpeners do wear out over time.

Yup, a 3-blade Buck stockman is what I've used

My hunting buddy has used the Kershaw like Savage shows in his post above. It seems to work great on elk, The gut hook to open them up. The second blade works great to bone out and the saw blade for any bones you need tocut through. We mostly do the gutless methods, so not a of bones to cut.

I do carry a sharpner. Few knives will hold an edge through whole elk, and rarely through a couple if you help your buddy with his.

Back to the original question.m Knife, some para cord, some cotton bags to put the meat in, and something to wash my hands with after

rock chuck
or any one else with that stanley saw. can you get a skull cap off? or do you just saw off each antler?

i have looked at them and they look awful short to get a skull cap off.

dont forget a pencil to fill out the tag- i have used a bullet to sign several tags.

This thread may help... http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/3329893/1

Two knives, small knife sharpener, parachute cord, frame backpack and a couple of buddies (or a horse) to help get it out.

RH

I use.
A 6 " blade knife,
A skinning knife.
A .002 mil painters plastic tarp to lay meat on
two 25 ft long pices of clothes line.
2 pr nitrile gloves
4 game bags(I keep at the mules)

You can take the legs off at the joints with a knife and the head at the 1st vertebvrae also

That bottom set belong to tom264 or northern dave?

This season I gutted, skinned, cut off the lower legs and head, and removed the entire spinal column and rib cage from my elk with a Buck Trapper pocket knife with no sharpening. When finished, it was a single chunk of meat with only the long leg bones remaining in the carcass.

In the more traditionl quartering method, a meat/bone saw is really handy for splitting the backbone length wise. The same can be accomplished with a hatchet/single bit ax and a hammer, but the job will be a bit more sloppy.

In most instances, a knife and a saw. Maybe 20 feet of rope if one is alone and wants to spread out legs or hold the critter in place on steep slopes.

i think you "need" a knife and a way to sharpen it when it gets dull. however, you may want more stuff if you are up the mountain as opposed to at the ranch house. i skined and boned out a cow elk this past thursday with a buck 110 and a small (6") sharpening steel. we were able to get her on a small trailer and back to a skinning rack. had i been on the mountainside where they usually fall, i'd have used what i keep in my backpack: 2 knives, sharpening steel, para cord, folding saw, and some old pillow cases. for me, these are the minimum if you figure the elk will fall somewhere on the mtn and you plan to hump the meat out. ymmv.

My partner bought one a couple years ago. The blade is a standard reciprocating saw blade, so just buy a longer one than the original. They come in several lengths and tooth types. I've taken off 2 skull caps with it.

Idaho no longer requires signing a tag. We just cut out a notch to show the date.

I carry 50' and several times I've needed it all. A few years back, I shot a bull on a steep, snowy ridge. When he went down, he slide off the side and hung up on a small rock - at least 400' above the worst hell hole I've ever seen. The nearest thing to tie him to was a sagebrush 48' above him..and I had that 50' of rope. It saved us a full day of hard work.

I"ve used a Havalon piranta and a few blades to take all of a moose apart before, not even a 3 inch blade IIRC. Saw is only needed to cut skull cap off if required and helps on seperating rib cage if you don't debone that, though I can seperate each rib fairly easy too.

Beyond that paracord or the like.

A few pairs of gloves or a better pair like my blue fishing gloves.

Some hand cleaner with alcohol in it(doubles as fire starter)

Mesh game bags to hang it, a cloth to put it in the pack, an industrial trash bag to keep the pack dry and not bloody. And I carry a couple of light pulleys to make hanging meat easier if I dont' have any help with me.

Also generally use a tarp or trash bag to lay the meat on as I debone it.