He's Down, Now What...
Elk
Saw some of the responses on a few of the threads and thought it'd be a good one to start on 'what next' once he or she is down...Some great experience here, so let's pick their brains...
Gutless, of course...How do you manage it by yourself?
Quality photos for the memories is first for me.
Skin one side, and remove all the meat, piece by piece. Bag them or lay out on a space blanket to keep in clean.
Last, but not least...remove the tenderloins! :)
"Gutless, of course...How do you manage it by yourself"?
One chunk at a time!
I figure I've got 3 days to pack it out...at least where I hunt in CO. And even 3 to 4 miles in, I can get it out in a couple days.
Hang quarters in the shade, they will be good, even in warmer temps (70+ degrees)
Make sure to hang so air can circulate around the bulk of the meat.
Best of Luck, Jeff
Factor in there is a big difference in some scenarios. I can do a Colo raghorn on flat ground by myself in about an hour....
My much bigger bodied Arizona bull last year that died on a steep rocky slope took me a solid 3 hours. So shoot em on flat ground with good footing when you can- grin
Im usually pressed for time due to hunting alone in Grizz areas I move meat away asap from kill site Then load in my pack and go ! I carry one quarter and two back straps next load quarter neck meat tenderloins .. Usually im avg 3 mile to rig that is all time allows me in a day next two front quarters , then head cape !!! I want to get in and out asap to avoid conflict with bears !!!!
Don't forget to rib-roll.
Here's another example with Medicinneman's Tule elk.
First thing is first. Catch my breathe and calm down. No need cutting yourself. Next sign the tag and attach it, clean him up for the photos. Lay on your back and use your legs to roll him if you have too.
I start on the rear quarters, at the ankle and skin out the rear quarter leaving hide on the rest of the animal. Remove the rear quarter at the joint. Put it in a game bag and hang it in the shade.
Skin out the front quarter from the same side... remove quarter at the joint and bag and hang.
Lay out the hide and roll the animal over on the side you just finished and start doing the other side. I typically keep the hide on over the animal and remove as I go to keep the meat clean and keep the bugs off.
Once all 4 quarters are off and hung. It's easier to move and skin it. Get the neck meat, back-straps and tenderloins, roll the rib meat if needed. Bag those & hang.
Eat a snack have a soda, hopefully get the mules or get ready for hell and start packing. If I carry it, I usually carry 1 rear & 1 front quarter at a time.
I have used strings/paracord to hold the legs for me while cutting but usually you have to hold & cut & turn the leg & cut then twist and cut.... so really its just easier to deal with it or get a big stick to help my leverage holding a leg. I've also used logs to wedge under them on steep hills and such. I try to use my surroundings to my advantage.
After all the whooping, hollering, hi-fiving, and poking the animal to make sure it is dead - get it cooled out ASAP either by skinning and 'The Gutless Method' or just field dressing and skinning if applicable.
How many methods are there anyway? Two,three? I always just thought there was one, get it out as clean as possible.
Trophy pictures then some trophy pictures. When cutting up the animal remember the smells and sights all around you and take your time to be safe. In 2011 I was cutting up my AZ elk at 11 pm with a sky full of stars, no wind and bulls screaming all around me. Talk about a natural high??? I will never forget that night! Good luck! C
Take your ibuprofen now for the packing job.
To reinforce what Charlie said:
It is too easy to jump right into the job because you are by yourself, and you know it's a big job that is going to wear you out. So remember to first take 10 or 15 minutes to do nothing but appreciate the animal, the place, the experience. Reflect on what you just did. Keep doing nothing until you calm down enough for a grin to appear naturally on your face. Only after you have drunk deeply of the moment should you start the chores.
Chore 1: Use whatever (if any) communication device you have to let someone know where the carcass is. That way, if you slice one of your own arteries during the butchering they will know where to begin a search.
The chores after that have been covered already. I will reiterate that you will never regret taking twice as many pictures as you think you need.
Doing my sons 5x5 rifle bull last year was a cake walk after having done a moose a few weeks before. Just getting it caped and quartered was definitely enough to wear a person out.
A photo or two then every scrap of red out. No BS quarters and backstrap and leave the rest. Steep and deep makes me weep, but a crow will keep on flying by my carcass when done.
Only thing I have to add is for me I found it advantageous to remove the back strap before I removed the hind quarter. First time I tried the gutless method after watching Eichlers video on YouTube. On side one I removed both quarters then went for the strap and figured out I really screwed up the very end of the back strap. Didn't really lose any meat but it didn't v come out like I liked. Side two of the deer I removed the strap and then the hind quarter and it worked much better! I'm sure if I had been more careful it wouldn't matter what order I did it!
Eat lunch before I get messy. Then break out my Clip-Shot for some quality self taken photos. Gutless and then a hind quarter to the truck.
On TV you back the truck up and winch em in.....
You did your part have the camera man, producer, editor , truck driver take care of it!
If it doesn't go on the wall or my mouth I leave it... I spend extra time at the carcass triming excess waste...
I never carry any leg bones or hooves or hide...why?... That is an extra 10 pounds per quarter to lug out for nothing
I am little different I guess. No matter what I take the gut out first from wind pipe all the way back. I find it helps everything cool out a lot faster. I take off each quarter on one side then the tender loins and back straps. Then flip to other side. My wife is usually with me and skinning as I am breaking down.
I feel it is very important to get guts out first just I case something happens and you have step away from the process...
I am little different I guess. No matter what I take the gut out first from wind pipe all the way back. I find it helps everything cool out a lot faster. I take off each quarter on one side then the tender loins and back straps. Then flip to other side. My wife is usually with me and skinning as I am breaking down.
I feel it is very important to get guts out first just I case something happens and you have step away from the process...
I leave bones in quarters but get rid of feet and hides...
Gutless. Quarter the bull up. Scrap meat.
Load into Kifaru pack. And jello leg it out
Boning and skinning out the meat definitely saves on the back and legs....and possibly 1 less trip! I prefer the gutless method. I find it saves time and is a lot less messy! I'm usually done with the boning process quick so don't really need to worry about gutting to cool off the meat. I place separate meat chunks off the ground in the shade so they cool down quicker.
I was lucky enough to go on a hunt in Germany. After the deer was down the hunt master delivered a sharp thin knife blade to the spinal cord at the base of the skull. He then proceeded to open the deer's mouth and put a ceremonial bit of grass in. I thought it a fitting honor for the animal. At home I tag my deer take a few pictures then gut it out. I process the meat carefully . It seems unconscionable to let such a gift to go to waste.
Adventurewriter: I'll answer the why. Because the more cutting you do the more you expose meat to the elements including bugs and plain old oxygen. Later you will lose more because you have to trim the outer layer which dries up. yes it is a little more work but in the end it means less waste. I separate legs at the knee joint to lose some weight.... but I even leave the hide on for super nice fresh outer layer once it gets hung. Nature's game bag. For me the question is why not. I only kill one a year so the extra work is a labor of love. Plus.. not always but alot of the time I'm using pack animals so.....
Mule Power is right...a bunch of little pieces can end up as more waste...though I grind most of mine for burger no fat [then cook with olive oil]
A guy can bone them out on site trying to keep the major muscle groups intact- following the outer sheath- ends up as a better final cut.
I sit and stare for a couple minutes. Then about 10 photos.
Cape around the rear leg, cross the belly to the front leg, then up to the spine and then the neck. Ham comes off, then the shoulder, then the backstrap and reach inside for the tenderloin, then the neck meat, then the rib meat.
Flip him over, rinse and repeat. Balls attach to the 2nd ham. Then I saw one rib, break off a piece, and reach in for the heart and kidneys.
I detach the head last.
Then I saw off the hooves with about 10 inches of bone.
I take out the hams first solo (heaviest loads first). Then the trim with organs. Then the shoulders with a backstrap and tenderloin. Then the head - 6 trips.
I am packing many times long distanes on my back so wieight is important...I can eliminate a trip I think and get the meat in the freezer that much faster. also...when I get home I rinse everthing out in cool clear water...which some people think is a no no...but been doing it for decades...
If the way you mange your meat is keeping it intact and discarding the bone after you have packed it out. Go for it. Adding 8-10 pound to a load for little reason doesnt make sense to me. Pack animals are a game changer and I would just quarter and load...
Early season you aren't going to want to leave the hide on. It holds in way too much heat. Get the hinds off asap, the first place it sours is near the hip socket. Get that opened up and cooling and you've got a big jump on it.
Besides lightening things up a good deal by going boneless, it's hands down the fastest way to get the meat cooled. There is a reason they call it "bone sour" meat. After the hip socket area, deep heavy bone will be the next to go. The temp on the outside won't be the temp on the inside for a very long while. Think about how long it takes to get a roast to 140 in a 300+ oven with such a large differential.
I don't debone off the animal, skin one side down from a dorsal cut, remove quarters bone in. I use a "zipper" blade to cut hide from inside out so no hair gets on anything as well. Always have my poncho in my pack and lay it out so nothing gets dirty or grass or pine straw on it. Hang the quarters off a limb and if you do it right you debone right into the meat bags. A good meat bag when moist will cool things even faster in the high dry air. If necessary rearrange the meat in the bag every little while if it's a big lump or you may not getting everything cooled like it could be.
The rest is backstraps, tenders, rib/neck meat, etc. I like to bag it asap. One year we were laying things out on a clean bleached log.... turned around and a pine martin was hauling tail up the mountain with a backstrap as big as he was..... must have been like pine martin nirvana that night.....
Sometimes I read the thread titles and want to just post a response without reading all the text. Most of the time it might amuse me but the questions are generally good so it might come off wrong.
My initial answer to this one is "stop gawking and get to work!!!"
But in reality, it's one of those things that a guy really should think through before flinging an arrow so it's worthy of a reply.
Pretty much all the key info is already listed. Obviously depends on where you kill it (both in terms of temp and topography).
Step 0) Don't fling an arrow without thinking about what is about to happen. Make sure you can make it happen!
Shot it anyway?
Step 1) Eat a snack and drink some water, you've got a crapload of work ahead so factoring in that you've just been hunting and killed an elk, you should give your body a moment to recover. This is best done after the shot unless you think you need to keep after the elk for some reason.
Step 2) Take some pics. Seriously, I love looking back at pics of the elk. This is no studio session - just some snaps that capture the moment. I'll send out a beacon ping to contacts to make my location is known and let folks know that I'm going to be dealing with a downed elk. One time a buddy actually showed up to the coordinates to help get it out.
Step 3) Stop wasting time and get'r cut up! Have your bags ready to toss the meat in (flies will be on you quick and you want to avoid any time with the meat exposed). Keep your head up if the area is predator rich.
Step 4) Move the quarters away from the carcass if you are concerned about bears.
Step 5) Start getting the meat out. It's tough work but keep eating food and drinking on each trip and it will happen. One foot after the other!
Step 6) Enjoy the accomplishment of doing it solo.
Good luck!
Give thanks, take pic's, mountain man the critter (gutless) and bring in the pack animals.
A bad spot to work on my first bull!
1) Deep breath 2) Photos, plenty because you won't get a second chance. 3) Lay everything out that will need before you start. 4) Gutless as it is easiest to do with one person and cools the meat much faster than gutting as well as keeping the meat much cleaner. 5) Bag and hang each quarter as you remove it. 6) Pack it out. I always hunt with a frame pack on so my first trip out will take both fronts (I leave the rib and neck meat on the fronts) and my gear. Two more trips with a hind and loin each trip. 7) Call in sick for the next week while you recuperate and package your hard earned meat.
Always gutless. I've zipped them down the belly and a couple down the back. Can't decide which I like best. Seemed like I got more hair on the meat slicing the hide down the back but its faster.
I haven't taken photos for a long time. I need to start doing that again. But for me, pretty much what DanJ said. Cut down the spine, skin one side of the elk, remove all meat and toss into bags, start walking. The last part usually takes a while. Dehydration can sneak up on you so keep the agua flowing, don't wait until you feel thirsty.
An elk femur might weigh 2# on a big bull. I pack em.
