Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How do you butcher your elk?

I have never tried elk meat, hopefully this fall if one of
my friends draws a tag.

Well I like to cut mine into steaks and Roasts, what left I cut more into stew meat than anything else. Since I like stew and aways have a pot of it going in winter. The Brisket I corn and well Corned Elk Brisket is a treat I give to myself when I have elk. If the heart is intact, I will pickle it. Its the only organ I will eat. I pretty much butcher elk the way I butcher moose and deer. I have the most experience with white tails since I have shot more of them. Dog Hunter, that is one of Al's great quotes!!

Burger and steaks, small amount of stew meat, everything boneless, don't care much for elk roast, can't see waisting that good of meat on things like jerky, sausage etc.

I would recommend that you learn what cuts of meat are where. You do not want to use a sirloin the way you use backstrap or either the way you use a tenderloin, though they all might be "steaks." I usually have a plan that involves other game. We really like antelope steaks (prefer antelope round steak to elk backstrap) so we get alot of our steaks there. We like elk burger and eat it like crazy (100+lbs) and elk roasts. We keep some backstrap for steaks and roasts (left whole in about 1.5-2lb packages--stays fresher and allows more choices). Neck goes to burger, along with rumps, rib meat, siloins, most of fronts, etc. Tenderloins are kept whole for steaks (recommend you cook them whole and then slice, yum). Depending on the roast situation we keep some top and/or bottom rounds for that. Depending on the duck/goose situation and how much time I have I will keep 10-40lb or so of rounds for jerky (some years I have enough waterfoul--jerky is the only way I have to *almost* guarantee waterfoul will be good). Round steaks make REALLY good jerky. I use deer exclusively for sausages, except a couple of steaks.

My advice is to figure out what cuts of meat are where and label them carefully for cut, date, species, and weight (we label for specific animal--ie DCElk11 b round 1 10: dad's cow elk 2011 bottom round 1lb10oz). Record the amounts you get of each (steaks, roasts, burger, sausage). At the end of the year or animal you will know what you wanted more of and what you didn't like (usually what you still have a bunch of in the bottom of the freezer!). If you keep careful track of what you have you can accomplish two things: you can use the cuts accordingly (can't tell you how many years I sorted through deer "steaks" not knowing if I had tenderloin or round steaks with wildly varying outcomes) and you can determine what cuts you like for the future.

Sorry for rambling, I did a bunch of painting today...

I should add that we usually shoot 2-4 elk per year along with deer, antelope, birds and fish so we usually get the opportunity to be selective about what we use where. I would never use elk rounds for jerky if I didn't have all other needs met.

Second this, especially the using the good meat for anything else! Jerky is good but nobody uses a good T-bone or Ribeye to make it so I'm not gonna use good elk either! I do keep the heart and liver though, my Mom loves that stuff and it's worth the effort to get it to her. I tent to make more burger than stew meat but there is still some of both. My hound dogs love the bones so this way everybody is happy!

I am going for my first time this year. If I kill, I am not going to be able to bring back on the plane, but I have a friend driving up to hunt late season. What's the going rate for processing? By the pound? Any recommendations in the Denver area? Going for muzzleloader.

Lots of good advice. I would add that no bones and no fat equals twice the time before freezer spoilage in my experience.

Elk hunting pard.





Steaks, burger and lot's of summer sausage/pepperoni.

I posted a similar link in the other thread but thought I would toss one here also... watch this series on butchering a deer by a true professional and you might learn something... he explains and shows how to properly break down and bone a deer and teaches you which muscles are which roast... he is going slow and talking and the whole thing takes him maybe 40 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYG...a1PpcFNhlyLgIooad3Z4iDCnRdC2zALMJ3YEOLc=

Have yet to get an elk, but when it happens it'll be butchered very similar to how I've been doing deer here lately. Tenderloins frozen whole. Loins cut in half, frozen whole. Hams pulled into the major muscles and frozen whole. Shoulder, if the largest muscle is big enough, frozen whole. I can use any of these as roasts, or if I want steaks from that cut, when its partially thawed can be cut into steaks. All the fat, sinew, silver skin, membranes are trimmed away prior to freezing. All the bits and pieces left over that isn't big enough for a roast goes into the grind pile, either ground as burger, or saved for making sausage later on.

http://www.rockymountainmeats.com/

We quarter our Elk for pack out and then remove the straps and loins. I have taken my elk to Rocky Moutain for a long time with nothing but good results. They are not as expesive as Steve's in Arvada.

with a knife. =)
usually bone out the rears and carry them out one at a time.
bone out shoulders and pack them with one loin and one Backstrap.
thats two packs, equaling four and for the fifth trip, the head.

Last year was the first time ever when I found only one tenderloin in the meat bags when I arrived home. I should give up hunting.
It was a very sad evening. Coyotes had a celebration I think.