Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Sex...evidence of

I always seem to struggle with leaving evidence of sex attached, especially with cows. What do you do for a bull/cow? What do you differently if you are boning it out as opposed to loading it in the truck and bringing it back to the meatpole at camp?

If it's a cow (or doe) coming out whole, the easiest way is to just leave the head attached until it's butchered.

I agree that it can be kind of a pain leaving the genitals attached when quartering one up, as it gets everything hairy, and I've come awfully close to accidently cutting them off before. If totally boning one out, I'll leave the genitals attached to a big chunk of hind quarter meat, just to be safe.

"naturally attached" is the key wording in nearly every state.

for bulls, one testicle attached to the inguinal ring on one side will suffice (think testicle plus 2-3" of the vas deferens)

for cows, a 2x2" patch of udder skin +/- a piece of mammary gland (this would be messy if she were lactating but we all know that no lactating cow has ever been shot in the history of man so this is pretty much a non-issue)

Utah, how would I do that for a cow? Are you saying if I have her whole, just leave the patch from her belly?


Any tips/trick for the nutsack? When I'm gutting, any maybe it's my haste but down low everything gets messy (pooling blood, etc.) and I often end up taking everything out. Should I focus on securing them first, or getting the bulk of the guts out before securing the male sex since most everything will be out of the way?

if you're quartering or set up to remove the elk whole or in halves, it's easiest to do first thing.

centerline skin cut > pealing penis down as you go > evert scrotum (inside out) and free testicle from scrotal ligament > push it to the side.

cows are pretty much the same > midline skin cut > circle around small piece of mammary gland > leaves a 2x2" patch of skin + udder off to the side.



then proceed to either gut or gutless quarter.

Buddy of mine says he carries a used condom as evidence of sex .

You must read the regs for whatever state you are in. Some say to leave the teat skin patch attached to the carcass or one of the skinned quarters. NM has you literally scalp the cow by cutting around the ears in a continuous cut. This shows there were no antlers. DYODD

Off subject a bit but, can anyone explain to me why MT requires evidence of sex on an either sex tag? Seems pointless to me. As far as quartering goes, I just leave the whole nut sack (technical term) attached to the hind quarter and then throw a plastic bag on it and zip tie it on. Luckily, I seldom need to quarter stuff, eastern MT is more friendly to pickup retrieves.

It depends on the state. Here in Idaho, I get rid of the testicles and leave a few inches of penis attached to the meat. I get rid of everything with hair. With cows, you can cut around the vulva and leave it attached to 1 quarter. I always use the gutless method and take off the haunch leaving the long bones in unless I'm backpacking them. I have llamas, though, and they can handle them with the bones in.

+1 on everything but the llama part. LOL.

Frankly I think this prof of sex stuff is bull crap! I hate it, nope don't like it either, but ya gotta do what the man says.

I don't carry bone any more so I just leave a the sex organ attached to one ham (hair and all) and get it off as soon as possible!

Who ever came up with this law is an idiot in my opinion! I only shoot bucks and bulls so having to leave a piece of sex on my ham just disturbs me.

Cheers, Wild Bill

I basically leave the "boy parts" attached to a 6-8 inch circle of hide, then skin that back so I can get a plastic bag around it, then tape that tight. Mostly keeps the hair off and meets the law 'cause it is attached.

I'd have to re-check our (Oregon) laws ... I think for in-state, having the head attached to a front (duh) quarter would meet the requirement as well. For bringing one across the state line either direction, I don't think that's true. May have changed since I looked last though so don't trust me on that .. I don't.

The reason they do it .. at least as explained to me .. is people shooting several critters, then using the same head, thrown in the back of the truck, to bring the critters out one by one.

Tom

But TOM isn't that why we have game officials in the first place...to catch the folks that do illegal stuff. Most of'em like to brag about what they do so it should be fairly easy to catch the idiots.

I for one would never knowingly do something illegal. So why do I have to leave animal junk on the meat I want to eat? I guess that's where a few bad apples spoil it for the rest of us law abiding citizens.

We got checked last Idaho season and had two bulls in camp the first afternoon. What a rodeo, one of our hunters carried out the scrotum unattached, the other had the penis attached (I did that work). But the other guy carried out his horns so we had all the meat, one scrotum and one penis, one set of horns. We were well on our way to getting a ticket when the younger of the two officers asked if we had pictures. We were saved by cell phone pictures. We shot two more bulls the next morning and sure enough the wardens came by again but didn't stop in - we had both of these done right.

I shot a cow elk in South Dakota, they required I carry in the head - go figure, who here has ever eaten cow elk head?

Idaho's regulations do specify that the evidence must be ATTACHED to the corpse. It's not a hard rule to follow.

A former co-worker boned out a deer. He left the entire penis attached to 1 quarter and bagged it with the penis sticking out the top. At a check station, the game warden picked it up by the penis and asked if they had evidence of sex. Most guys leave the scrotum attached and I guess the game warden wasn't familiar with a skinned out penis.

Bad apples ALWAYS spoil it for the folks who just want to quietly go about their business following the rules. Eventually they stir up the do-gooders who think more rules is the answer to people not following the rulesz we'z alreadyz gotz.

However .. you said game officials. Side thought. I'll be 50 some time later this year. In my entire life, I've had my fishing license checked twice and my hunting license checked once. That's not enough game officials to deter anyone at all, it leaves the honest people to be honest 'cause that's how they are anyway, dishonest people to be dishonest 'cause that's how they are anyway, and nobody to change behavior because of threat of being caught. If I was the sort to do it, and found a couple tight-lipped conspirators, I could poach the CRAP out of things without any concern about getting caught. There are no consequences here other than my own conscience.

Tom

At first I left the hairy scrotum but learned a skinned penis is a better plan, no hair in with the meat.

In Colorado just go watch the gutting video on the DOW website. Appears to me they just leave the udders attached to a large piece of meat. Same on the bulls they just leave the sex attached to a large piece of meat. As long as it is naturally attached you should be ok. But watch their video and give the DOW a call to make sure.

The only time I've ever been checked in the field by the DOW in 15 years of hunting in CO, I had a bull (cut up, in coolers) with no evidence of sex attached.

I'd arrowed a bull and he ran off in some thick oak brush and it took a while to find him. By the time we found him, a big bear had gotten there probably just a few minutes before we did. I say "probably just a few minutes before we did" because the bear only had time to eat a small part of the carcass, which was the evidence of sex that I needed to leave attached. Went right for the Rocky Mountain oysters as it were.

So I took a bunch of photos of the purlonied groin, and one of the big pile of bear scat next to the bull's head. Later that day back at the truck with coolers and antlers in the back, the DOW officer pulled up. I was sweating bullets, thinking of what I was going to say, but he didn't ask to see the carcass, just checked my tag.

That would have been an interesting conversation.

Wyoming no longer requires evidence of sex to be attached. So if it is an either sex tag you don't need it but if you have a tag that does require it you just cut off a little through it in a zip lock sandwich bag and you are good to go! Make things a lot easier when you are boning out a critter. A few years ago the Local warden in my town busted some Utah guys that had shot two bulls and a cow but only had one bull tag and two cow tags. They had left the head on the cow cut the head of one of the bulls and sewn the cows utter on the bull with fishing line.