Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Gutless Video

http://elk101.com/gutless-elk-video/

Found this online today. Pretty good resource for next year. I usually start with a dorsal cut and cut down from there behind the shoulders to save the cape. Very well done IMO.

very helpful! thanks for posting that...

I've been wondering about exactly how this works, and this is the clearest explanation yet.

I've done it many times just about like this. However, I think he'd get nailed for wasting meat in Idaho. He left a lot on there, especially over the ribs and gut. There's a lot of good burger meat over the gut and flank, just be careful taking it off.

For proof of sex, I leave about 8 to 10" of penis attached instead of the testicles. That way, I get rid of all the hair.

To get the tenderloins, I wait until I'm completely done with everything else. Then I slit open the belly & let the gut roll out a bit. That takes the pressure off and makes them a lot easier to get at. He didn't take the liver or heart, either. The heart takes about 2 whacks with a saw to remove 8" of 2 ribs. If you want the liver, get it after opening the belly for the tenderloins.

I like the bags he's using. They appear to be lighter than sheets or pillow cases but far more protection than cheesecloth (which is only slightly better than nothing).

He was doing a lot hacking. He'd do well to touch up the blade on occasion. I use one of these Smith sharpeners. They're very cheap and work very well, even with slick, bloody hands.

I have been doing the same thing for some years with deer elk and moose. I have always started by splitting the hide along the backbone tail to skull. In Alaska if in an area where boning is allowed you must take the meat from between the ribs or face fines for waste. As already said the tenderloins can come out last by dumping the guts and the liver at that time as well. I usually start by cutting down the alder brush that the elk buried himself in after I shot and I do not remember ever seeing a dead elk on a flat or grassy spot (although I would like to). I had to butcher one in a creek as I could not get it out just on to a small spot of gavel and I was standing ankle deep in water starting at last light and snowing and alone (still more inconvenient for the bull than for me). Some that know me use words like insane and or stupid but I do have fun.

8mmwapiti

You can save some time too by doing the backstrap and FQ at the same time. Start at the pin bone just North of the Pelvis and once you're up into the front shoulder just work around the whole flank. Ironically, the FQ and backstrap weighs pretty close a rear quarter. If you start there, you'll figure out how to end it, if you got any common sense

Good pointer on opening up the grass-bag for the tenderloins... I hadn't thought of that, and it would be easier than going in through the spine.

I have never had trouble removing the tenderloins by just runnning a knife up under the spine while pushing the guts inward. Then make a cut on each end of the tenderloins and pull them out. I do it by myself with no help.
The whole idea of the gutles method is to not have to mess around with the guts or open them.

I've done this and sometimes is necessary when the corpse can't be moved. However, wherever you start the cut, there will be hair on the meat. Skinning from the belly up leaves the hair where there is little that I'll be taking home. Starting on top leaves the hair on the backstrap.


I still get them from the spine, but letting the gut out removes the pressure and makes them easier to get. You don't have to pull them out, just make a quick, easy belly cut. They'll fall out by themselves. I do this after all else is done so there's no mess to work in.

I also skin out form the belly.I typically skin just like I would if I were quartering .I skin one side, take that meat off,flip thec arcass over,skin the other side and take that meat off.

Saddlesore and Rock-chuck... I should've been more specific. I follow what you guys are saying. If you slit the grassbag and let the guts roll out, going through the spine is a whole lot easier.

The times I've tried going in through the spine (on deer) the knife work around the intestine can get a little dicey (partial pun intended)

Dan.Yep,you sure don't want to use a pointy knife in that operation.

used this method tis year, worked great.

I 1st heard about gutless in a hunting mag maybe 14 or 15 years ago. The next year, I shot an elk and my partner and I decided to give it a try. We haven't gutted one since. At that time, very few hunters had even heard of it. I think online forums have introduced many thousands of hunters to it in the last few years. If you haven't tried it, do so. You can always say it doesn't work for you, but I doubt you will.

It isn't needed in all cases. If you have horses or some other way to move larger chunks of bone-in meat, the traditional way is likely the best. However, most of us have to do it that hard way. Gutless saves a lot of work most of the time.

Rock Chuck. Even though I pack my meat with mules,I still use it the no gut method. I keep the leg bones in. I drag one pack mule wih me every day. I can pack out a cow or medium sized bull on one mule,if I don't take the spine. With a bigger bull,I still need two mules no matter what method I use ,but the no gut is easier on the mules

I begin with the animal on it's back and slit the hide up the belly. I still shy away from that method because I might have up to two weeks before I head home with the meat. That being, I seem to double my trim/waste due to oxidation and drying of the additional surface generated via the gutless method. If I'm hurrying home the next day, I will use it. Otherwise, I stick with traditional quarters.

if you want to keep the hair off of your meat give one of these a peek....the gut blade is slick as snot on an iceburg, it gets under the hide and never even slows down. serrated helps a ton. I triedone out 5 years ago and retired all my high budget knives. the saw is stupid sharp as is the locking blade. the blades are longer then a normal swiss knife.
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Army-Hunter-Knife/dp/B000WEHXUO
I also carry a speedy sharp, which is nothing more then a piece of carbide steel to shave a new edge on your knife. you could sharpen a butter knife in 6 passes with this thing, but it also has a softer edge to fix the rolled edge that happens to super sharp knives
http://www.speedysharp.net/

High country - I looked at your link and it said this:

Product Details

* Item Weight: 4 pounds

I assume that's a typo because there ain't no way in hell I'm packing a 4 lb knife up a mountain.

Looks like the method works excellent, definitely may consider this in futre elk hunts!

Thats a typo ok...

I've had a couple of those knives and they are good bits of kit. I tend to use it as a back up knife as I prefer a sturdier fixed blade for gralloching ect.

The small curved gralloching blade works a treat on Fallow but I found it struggled on the heavy "mane" of a rutting red stag...

If you wear glasses, be sure to buy the tiny watchmakers screwdriver (about 99c!) that can be stored in the cock screw of the knife; I can't tell you how handy that it is!

I gut them and then drag to a place where I can ratch them in the truck. As I get older, that may change. Done 4 that way. The goal is to wait and kill the bull on the road like I did this year. Back at the game station is 30 minutes. There is guy there that collects hides and he will skin it perfect if you let him keep it or give him a tip. I sit and drink a beer and watch.

RAS

I don't understand the point of this. It takes like not even 5 minutes to gut it out and easily get to the heart,liver and the tenderloins. I have found carcasses in the woods of the gutless method being done and i could of stayed there and ate on the meat they wasted for a week. I am sure most of you guys do a good job but some don't.