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

I have done the gutless method when I'm in a remote location and must carry it out on my own. That means boneless. The only problem with that is you diminish the ability of the carcass to "hang & age" properly. There has been many pages of discussion here from writers and well seasoned hunters who know the need to physically hang the carcass. For me, the gutless method is the last resort.

Why can't you hang the meat to "age" after the gutless method?

Yea, just bag em up. Best have some manly bags though, not those chicken s__t bags they sell down at the Wal Mart...

Never use those $1 cheesecloth things. They don't keep the meat clean and they don't stop flies from laying eggs right through the fabric. Get some good, tight weave bags and they'll last for years.

Deboning and using the gutless method are two different operations.

The more surface area of meat exposed,the more drying out you have. With the true gutless method, you start at the brisket( or spine), and fillet down along the ribs to the brisket,leaving the front leg attached,stopping at about the 1st or 3rd rib from the back and going up along the neck as far as you wish.
Then you fillet the loin along the spine to the pelvic bone,cut around the forward wing of the pelvic bone and then to the hip socket, severing there. The leg bone stays in the meat. So that quarter, you end up with a strip of loin and the rear quarter.

Then you roll the elk over and repeat for the opposite side.

Finally you push the paunch aside and cut out the tenderloins and strip any meat between the ribs you want.The rib meat and tenderloins go into a separate bag.

There is very little difference in how much meat is exposed whether you just quarter after gutting or use the gutless method.

There is no difference in the ability to age the meat.Sucessful aging depends on the temperature control and humidity control of the meat,not how it is taken off the animal.

Deboning and stuffing the meat into sacks without cooling first is a recipe for spoiled meat.

I have both butchered and processed elk without aging and also aged it for two weeks in a walk in cooler.It has more to do with how the animal was taken care of when first killed and how old it was than by how much aging is done.

I buy bed sheets for Goodwill.Cut them in half and sew up to make a bag.I have been using the ones I have for about 5 years now,. You just have to remember to wash them out with bleach when done.

Saddlesore, the elk101 video showed them putting the quarters/meat in bags just after they were cut. They then laid the bags in a shaded area. Would you do things differently?

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Eric

Eric.That is pretty much what I do.

Last year in ML season, flies and yellow jackets were bad.I bagged the meat right away and went and found my partner.Then we packed the elk back to camp that same day and put it on ice. Next day I went into Craig and bought block ice ,came back and iced it more. Later seasons. I wouldn't do that.

I usually like to let it hang overnight at the kill sight before I pack it. The meat gets firmed up and it is easier to handle.It bleeds out some and I don't get all that blood inmy panniers.If I do have to pack it right away.I stick the bags in big garbage bags just for the pack back to camp. Then take them out.
I do whatever I have to to get it cooled out. Especially getting it in the shade.If I can't hang it,I at least try to get the bags up on some logs to get air all around it.Don't like laying it on the ground.

I cary a thin painter's plastic sheet that I get from Walmart for a few bucks. It is 3 mil I think. While I am working,I lay the meat on that until I get it bagged.

I believe there is something to leaving the meat on the bone to age, all other things being equal. If you take it off the bone right after the kill, you allow the muscle fibers to contract before rigor mortis sets in, which can make the meat tough.

I've seen this happen more than once. I like to hunt in the evening (during September, ML season), and I've taken several animals just before dark in the last few years. One fat mule deer buck in particular stands out. I trimmed off the backstraps and loins to pack back to camp, and hung the quarters overnight on the bone. The backstraps were tough, much tougher than the choice cuts from the hind quarters.

Ideally, for the most tender meat, you hang it whole until rigor mortis has relaxed, which can take up to 3 days depending on temperature. Obviously, that's not possible most of the time when hunting, so we do what we can.

I've had mixed results concerning aging on vs. off the bone. I think there is more to it than that.

The best backstrap I ever had was off a mule deer buck I packed out after doing the "gutless" method. I filleted the backstrap off the bone 5 minutes after the shot, and that night put them in the fridge for IIRC 2-3 days before eating them.

+1

Get bags that will support the load that's in them if you pick the bag up and sling it on your shoulder.

Yeh that. Works well

I buy the large pillow cases from Kmart or Wally world and use as game bags

If you want the liver, you still have to open it up at the end. I don't save them but my partner does.

I refuse to save the liver but refuse to NOT save the heart and all you have to do is crack a rib or 2 with a rock to get at the heart. You have to cut the lungs out of the way but that is no big deal and no guts are in the way.

An archery Roosevelt I stuck a couple years ago. No way could I have got him out without quartering and gutless is cleaner and quicker.

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A pard with a spike from last year. He hadn't done the gutless method before. I doubt he'll ever do something else again.

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This was the flatest spot in the canyon. Quite a few miles back into a roadless area. No way a quad could get within 3 miles.
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Hams waiting for the next trip out a day later.
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I should add that I've used the gutless method on all elk and bears I've killed for probably the last decade.

My 1st try at it was about 15 years ago. I'd read about it and wondered how it would work. Then I shot a 4x4 elk on a steep side hill in snow. Only a small rock kept it from sliding into hell where it would have taken a week to get it out. I tied it to a sagebrush and decided that this might be a great time to find out if gutless worked. It did. We did it by experimenting. We boned the entire thing which wouldn't have been necessary. We laid out the hide and wrapped all the meat in it and used it for a toboggan for the 1st half mile out. Then it was in a wheelbarrow from there to camp the next day.

BTW - the hide will slide ok on snow, but there are better things to use. You have to lace it shut around the meat and if it's not already cooled, the hide will keep it hot.

Gutless for me. Nothing like spilling those guts up on the mountain and getting attacked by a million flies.

Any critter I have to pack never gets gutted...

Guess I've never seen an advantage to it. If done right, gutting doesn't make much of a mess anyway. I also usually always take the liver and heart, and like to open up to see bullet damage. Recently, I've been taking the ribs out on the bone. Can't do that gutless. mtmuley