Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting "The gutless method"

Does anyone have a good video link for the gutless method of field dressing an elk.

I'm at home and there sure isn't anything good on tv, figure I'll spend some time watching a few videos to try and pick up a thing or two.

Just google 'elk gutless' and quite a few sites come up. Elk101.com has a couple good ones, part 1 & 2.
I don't like a few things he does, though. This guy could do it a lot better with a different knife. The one he's using is way too slow with the skinning. Also, he needs a knife sharpener. By the time he's done with the 1st side, he's hacking instead of cutting. He also leaves way too much meat on the carcase. He'd get fined for waste of meat in Idaho. He took no meat at all off the ribs.
Otherwise, he does it pretty much like I've been doing it for years. I take the heart, too, which he apparently left. At the end, a couple whacks with a saw to cut 2 ribs makes the heart very easy to get.

Just checked out the one from elk101, that was good thanks! The only tricky part seems to be getting the tender loins out, everything else seems pretty straigt forward.

My three year old sat in my lap the whole time, loving it. "Daddy I can help you cut up the elk"

yes one day son I sure hope so!

I have an easier way to get at the tenderloins. After everything else is done, I slit open the belly and let the stomach roll out. Then I go to work kind of like he did it. This takes the pressure off the spine and makes it a lot easier to get them out without cutting the gut. At also makes the liver easier to get if you want it.

The whole reason they call it "gutless" is so you don't open the guts.Push the paunch aside and make a cut one each end of the tenderloin with a non pointed knife and they pull out easily.

My first exposure was an Alaska moose video non residents were required to watch. Don't know if it's available via the web or not.

what saddlesore said...

Me 2

Order Field Care of Big Game Video from here:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cf...ticle&articles_id=23&issue_id=12

matthunter

Don't knock it until you've tried it. 444 wanted an easier ways to get the tenderloins and this works. It's not defeating the gutless method because you have the job finished 1st except for the TL's. Just a quick slice and it's done.

I have tried it and it still reeks of guts when the paunch is opened,and I don't relish trying to step around the slush.

I try to use a rock or log to support the pelvic area of the stripped carcass allowing the belly to hang when I make my cuts to reach in for tenderloins. If you can make that work it really helps, takes the pressure out of that area making it easier for your hands to manage a small knife inside there to free the tenders.

I don't hunt near vehicle access, so when I get one in the evening at least a few quarters will be left to hang overnight. I'll use the gutless method and then when I'm done, make a quick cut to let the guts spill out, gives the scavengers something to focus on besides the hanging meat.

Good point smokepole. If I can't get the quarters out same day I move them away from the carcass and open it up. The critters will usually eat off the gut pile first.

I once had 6 bald eagles almost devour a front quarter on a cow elk in one day before I could get it all packed out.They much prefered that to the gut pile it seemed.

Well, nothing is perfect. I once had a bear go pull both front quarters out of the tree and eat them... but my experience has been it's usually the gut pile they go after first.

I'm curious how long it takes to process an elk using the gutless method?

How about a deer or antelope?

Time: I can do a cow elk in about 45 minutes , start to hanging and I'man old fart.

I don't do antelope as we usually throw them in the back of the pick up and do it at the farm.

Deer. I usually gut as typically I then cut the deer in half at the last rib ,thru the spine and put a half in each pannier.

Small game like deer and antelope,you can muscle around.The beauty with using it on elk is that you don't have to try to roll over 300-500 lbs of dead weight, and doing it while trying to stay out of the blood and gut pile

While fighting gravity on the side of a mountain either.

It looks like a good approach! I've been meaning to buy the "gutless method" video but the elk101 videos do a pretty good job.

Eric