I read several posts recently wherein hunters who downed game did not gut the animals when they dressed them. I have never encountered that before and and curious as to how it is done. How many of you guys do that?

That's the way we do all the hogs we shoot. I've also done it on moose and elk worked great. Just skin off the quarters remove them, we have cotton meat sacks to put them in, bone out the backstraps, and by the time you get all the quarter off and the backstraps off you can get to the tenderloins pretty easily.

I did it on my last large hog, split the skin down the back and take it off enough to get the back straps, quarters, and neck meat. It was quicker and much cleaner than gutting, then quartering. Now that I've learned to make bacon it will be trickier on the next one, trying to get the belly without losing the guts.

When dealing with moose the idea of hauling guts out makes no sense at all... First cut is right up the back and the top side legs are removed very cleanly. Then the backstrap, neck and t-loin come off that side. Ribs can be cut off also, or left to the end.

Then flop the hide back up onto the body and roll onto the other side. Repeat the meat removal and grab whatever guts you are keeping and cut off the rib cage(s). Quick, easy and very clean...

Done it quite a few times with elk. It would be the only way to do a moose IMO.

RH

we do it with deer that have been hit by vehichles.Normaly only one side is any good any way

Started doing it a number of years ago. Now, due largely I think to CWD in the deer and elk, the Colorado DOW recommends it as it minimizes contact with blood and bone marrow.

I like to open them about 6" to a foot when I take off the first Hind Quarter. Gives me a little more room when I remove the first HQ. But no moose this year so no problem!

If it's a big animal like elk or bear and there is any packing to do I'll always go gutless. Remember if you're saving the hide to remove the hide from the belly without cutting into the gut cavity. I pack the alaskan quarter bags with me there lite and compact. It's not a bad idea to have five or six quarter bags to include the backstraps, tenderlions and all the hamburger grid.

I have been doing it for about 8 yrs. Sure a lot easier and no stepping around in all the blood and guts.

I dressed three deer like this last year, quartered on the ground without gutting. It was a first for me and it worked great.

Deer on side-cut skin along spine from neck to tail
Skin top side down to knees and as close to the ground as you can
Cut quarters off and bag them
Cut out backstrap and any neck and grinder meat you want
Flip deer over and repeat

Alaska's moose and goose folks demand that non resident hunters watch a video on that method. I use it if one is heading right out with his goods. If I still have an extended stay ahead, I will leave bone in to minimize surface exposure. In that instance a moose is broken into 5 or 6 pieces.

Sitka: I believe one must burrow inside to harvest the tenderloins. I save that task for last.

I take them ASAP because of the possibility of getting gut juices on them. I have done dozens of moose, caribou, deer, bison and such and it is the only way to go...

It's like heading and gutting a salmon before filleting.

Filleting the salmon with the guts in is so much easier.

Yup. That was my point!

We've done it on moose. We also use a chainsaw to cut down the backbone & the sternum.
Bear in Fairbanks

I did that to a bear hanging in the shop once. Put a sheet of plywood behind to catch the bonedust. The shop stunk for way to long could get the smell out for ever. If I every try the chainsaw again it'll be outsided for sure.

We field dress everything we shoot. We take deer out whole, so I see no point in dragging the extra weight. I also want the carcass to cool as quickly as possible.

Chris

Though it interests me, I have never done it. The retroparietal cavity separates the viscera from the kidneis and tenderloin, so judicious use of knife should separate the tenderloins without contamination. This of course hinges on shot placement not causing compartment failure.
Randy

I can pack a whole pronghorn and half of a deer or caribou. I gut those just to minimize surface exposure. When it comes to a moose though, I'm pushing to pack a bone in ham.

It would interesting some day to see how a skilled butcher in Africa breaks down an elephant.

We have to take the deer in to be tagged, so we usually do field dress in the traditional manner. I would have to check the regs to see if you could do the gutless version and then remove the head/cape to just take that in for tagging.

I've packed out 2 caribou at once before- of course it was meat and head only, no bone

(my client packed the head/cape off of one of the animals)

http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27

Good link, but skin the animal before removing the quarters! You can lay the animal on its own hide, keeping the meat clean (and hair free!).

Randy
And more likely, whose tired hand is doing the cutting by the time you get that far into the job... There is also the possibility of a poked bladder...

Thanks for the comment, seriously, because it made me look it up and learn something.
art

Jordan
We bag and remove quarters as we skin them out. There is no advantage in leaving skinned quarters in the open to get dirty...
art

Art,
Sorry, I guess I should have explained my point a little better. I'm not saying to skin the entire animal before removing any quarters. What I am saying is to skin each quarter before removing it. In that link, the guy was cutting through hide, hair, and meat all at the same time. What a great way to fill your meat with hair.

There is, however, one advantage to skinning the entire animal right away- heat release!

Jordan
Woops, guess I should have watched what you were commenting on...

I agree completely!
art

I bag quarters progressively as they are skinned to keep them clean. I would never skin a whole side and leave unprotected meat...

I guess I'm just not as experienced as the rest of you guys. Seems like everyone I talk to about this claims they can skin and bag an elk in less than an hour. For me its been no were near that quick, especially alone. The 15 min it takes to gut an animal saves me time in the end. Not to mention its easier to get the entire tenderloins out with out worring about splitting the ever expanding gut bag.

Maybe I'm just no good at the whole gutless thing.

We were fortunate to kill two moose within about half an hour of each other a few weeks ago. We decided the best thing to do was gut one and get it opened up and cooling, and go work on the second one. The second one we decided to go with the 'gutless' method, bagged and deboned at the same time. Start to finish was 4 hours with meat bagged and in the shade. The first moose we gutted was bagged and in the shade in 3 hours, add in the gutting time and we were still time ahead... That was also after packing a load of meat down to camp, and hiking a mile back up to the second bull. In other words we were 1/2 worn out before we even started.

No guts made moving it around 10x easier, and all in all the meat ended up cleaner. maybe we should have split the hide on the belly instead of the back on the gutless bull, but reguardless I'll never do another gutless.

I did two whitetail does without gutting last year. I quartered each where they fell, and packed out the meat. I will do it again.

Some pointers.

If you get hair all over your quarters, singe it off with a torch before you cut it up.

If your animal falls on a sandy riverbank, try to drag it off of the sand. If there in no sand free area, good luck. I got a little sand on one, and you just can't rinse all of the sand off. All meat from that deer, and the two that shared a cooler ride home, was crunchy. Not the good crunchy.

Here are some pics I took of one last year. Skinning and quartering on the ground killed my back, but dragging it, then hanging it, and butchering at home would have been worse.

Yep, skin and quarter as you go.

Yup, Lay it in the dirt after skinning and bitch about grit... Amazing!

Get game bags around the meat AS you skin quarters!

I leave the tenderloins until last. When everything else is off, I slit open the gut to take the pressure off, then cut along the sides of them to get my hand in and get them. The time it takes to gut one is just that much less time spent and it leaves a big mess to work in.

I can't do an elk myself in an hour, for sure. It takes me about 3 hrs, but I'm 61 so maybe a young'un can do it faster.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/662/How-To-Cape--Quarter-Your-Buck

That's very much like my Inuit friends taught me to process caribou. We end up gutting after taking off the quarters and backstrap though.

Why?

Bambistew:

While I'm typically not out to set speed records, I know I'd be hard pressed to get an elk bagged in an hour using either method. It took me almost half an hour to get my last elk out from beneath the tree limbs he skidded under last time. I'd get him out, and he would slide down under another. The two things that help my efficiency are 1) practice, and 2) some help.

On the practice side... few of us are professional butchers. It is amazing to watch those guys work with a boning knife, and a little help can actually slow them down. In a season where the family might score 2 or 3 deer, the last one I work up looks like it came out of surgery. I always need to refresh the memory on the lay of the land (skeleton and muscles), and there's little waste of time or meat after I've done a few.

A small bit of help can almost halve the time needed for carcass work up. Just having someone around to hold up a leg, stretch out some hide, or tie a knot in the line is a real bonus. Even a small child can be an asset.

As to cleanliness, there is nothing better than working up a deer or elk in about 18 inches of snow. I've been lucky too a couple of times, and been close enough to camp to haul up a Come A Long and get an elk completely off the ground. Bagged those up without a single pine needle on the carcass.

Gutless everytime. One other nice thing about it in certain corners of the Yellowstone region is that if you aren't saving the cape you don't have to skin anything and it can be very fast. With the exception of just enough to grab the straps and loins. With a guy holding and another cutting maybe a 1/2 hr, once the knife hits the critter. I did a cow elk by myself once in about 25 minutes. It's actually the backstraps and tender loins that take the time. With a sharp knife the front legs come off in less than a minute each, the back ones take me a little longer.

Skinning definitely is what takes the time. I like to get it off to cool the meat, plus I'm not about to pack all that weight to the road. Hides are heavy. If you have a way to get it out with the hide on the quarters, it's much faster. However, it still has to be skinned sometime so I prefer to get it over with.

Sounds like you are a minority of one, so far.

Now, I've only done 3 animals gutless- 2 moose (one in the dark and 6 inches of bog water, the other in 6 inches of morning-light bog-water) and a caribou that way, after helping (OTJT, as it were) do an elk and learning about it.

Your times seem about right for what I'd get- but then, I've done quite a few dozen animals by the old gut-first method. Betcha I get faster with the gutless method given the opportunity.... Robert-the guy doing my elk - sure didn't waste any time...

The gutless method on those two moose and the caribou gave us cleaner meat than usual(well worth the extra half hour, which is more than made up for in trimming time during processing), but probably requires two or more people to be really efficient on a large animal. Good leg holders/pullers/bag holders are a valuable resource, especially with the gutless method!

Good luck on always shooting your animals on dry, clean ground, too.

Should we ever be lucky enough to shoot two animals virtually at once, I'd do the same- gut one, to start immediate cooling, then gutless field dress the other...

You should see those NoSlope Eskimos work a caribou! My friend/mentor Henry once did a bull caribou I'd shot in 17 minutes, timed from the first slit to bloody pieces piled on the sled, at about 15 below...gutless method, with only a knife- first time I'd seen it, but somehow it didn't "take" with me at the time.