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I've been fortunate enough to have gotten five elk in the six years I've hunted CO. I've gotten them in the NF, DIY, within about 300 yards of the private we hunt we have access to. We've dragged them to the fence so far but I anticipate one going the opposite direction and presenting too far of a drag, resulting in a quartering deal. Now, we've normally taken them to a processor for cut/wrap/freeze then pick up for the trip home several days later. My question is this: if I quartered plus trim and took to a processor, what do I have to do to be legal? I think evidence of sex has to be intact on a hind quarter and do I also have to take the rack to him to prove 4 point or better? I'm sure some of you guys have gone through this already. Thanks.
You must have a lot of help and dragging down hill!! Heck, I quarter them where they hit the ground, even if I can drive up to them in the truck!
I typically at least quarter them and bone them if they are very far.
You can leave evidence of sex by splitting the scrotum and skinning the testicles out - leaving the attaching vein to each quarter. Much cleaner this way than leaving the whole thing and you have evidence on each ham. You can split the udder on a cow similarly, but will need to remove them and trim out some of the meat if there is milk and you are hanging the quarters as it will spoil the meat in that area. The head can be separate, but you will need to at least pack out the rack/skull plate with the rest of the meat to prove it was a legal bull.
Treeline +1. Between my buddy and I, we've hauled out over 40 elk. Exactly 1 has been dragged. The rest has been hauled out on our back. As far as proof of sex, that varies from state to state, and even then, game warden to game warden.
Treeline +2.
MT one year we watched a group of four from Wisconsin drag a gutted cow elk straight up and out of a canyon, pretty steep one too..... they would all heave at once and move her about 6" or so. We watched from the road for about the last hour around noon or so while we ate some lunch. When they made it to the road they were all beet red, gasping and looked like they were going to keel over. Said the guy shot her early in the morning so dragging at least 4 hours, 6? I don't know.
We told em they could have deboned her on the spot, four guys would have been easy loads, pretty good side hill game trail right there that met up near the road another 1/4 mile or so down. Wasn't that far, maybe a half hour pack, 45 min tops, nothing to it.
They looked at us like we were from mars. Cut the elk up right there? We must be some kind of crazy people talking like that....
We offered up a ride back to their truck but I think they were a bit upset with our advice and declined the ride. Must be a cultural thing.....
I giggle every time I hear that regulation, reminds me an old joke I'd heard years ago.... "proof of sex" indeed...
I wont drag anything very damn far. Never could see the sense in working so hard to drag something to the truck just to haul it home and then cut it up.
Have actually hauled out a number of elk in the back of a pickup and one on a flatbed trailer from private land hunts. There only when the elk was uphill and there was a drainage ditch where we could get the back tires into it and drop the tailgate level with the ground.
A guy I worked with helped out the first time I loaded a whole elk in the truck (actually had a bull and a cow that morning - both on a steep slope above a road with a ditch!). He showed up just after the shooting stopped. I told him I would just drag them down and quarter them by the road and said they were perfectly set up to load whole. I told him he was crazy! He pulled out a shovel and told us to get the front shoulder up to the tailgate. Slid the shovel handle under the butt and got the cow balanced on it. I was in the truck bed and pulled while they lifted. Amazing! She slid right in. Did the same with the bull, but he took a little more effort.
Getting a big bull on that flatbed was a lot harder than we thought. Kicked 3 grown men and a boy's butt to get it on that trailer. Should have just quartered and caped him on the spot and would have been done in 1/10th the time.
If it's a long pack then skin, quarter, and pack out on your back or horses if you have access to them. Leave proof of sex on hind legs with either the head, skull plate, or scalp for cows. As a processor myself, I could care less for proof of sex. It's for the wardens not the processor. In fact, it's the first thing I cut off and throw to the dogs or local cats before the meat goes into the coolers. Most states require the carcass tag to stay with the meat as well, not the antlers! Taxidermists need the license number and possibly date of kill. I'm also a taxidermist which is all I require if I don't process the animal.
It is a wonder these guys who drag animals can manage to take a whole steak and get bite size pieces prepped and in their mouth at dinner.
How do you look at a fat steak and figure out how to consume it in small bites but not look at the whole critter and see how obviously easy and NECESSARY it is to break it into pieces you can carry.
Heck, I won't even drag a whitetail anymore! You've got to cut it up anyways so why not do it before you have to move it!
This is the best way to drag. :)
Drag??? Apparently, you shoot small elk. Couldn't catch me trying to drag one, even down hill.
Novel idea - check with the state game department, or the local game warden, to learn exactly what must still be attached, if anything. You can't always depend on what you get from us good ol' boys online. :-)
In some states you can photograph the animal, and the attached permit, to prove gender. Some states, not so much.
Once you work a few up where they fall, such is how you'll do the rest.
If it's close enough to a road, an elk quarter can be placed on a plastic sled and easily pulled a few hundred yards if the terrain's not too rugged.
Yeah... The word "drag" is not even in my vocabulary when it comes to Elk...
Over the years I think we have taken dozens or so elk out of the woods. Not a one ever made it out whole
Anybody who drags them or loads them whole is a lot tougher than me. My buddy and struggle sometimes just to wrangle them around where they lay for pictures and quartering
The worst was a large-bodied New Mexico bull that fell on a steep slope, held up by one small tree. We started the pictures right by where he fell, and by the time we were done caping, quartering, etc., we were 10 yards farther down the hill. He kept sliding and rolling on us
I even find quarters a pain in the butt.....debone it all right there on the spot.
Man, we used to drag100-200lb wild pigs when we hunted them in high school, even that could be hard work. No way I'm trying to drag an elk!!
Buy a capstan rope winch... you can drag em anywhere.
Boy I wish I could shoot one close enough to a road to even contemplate dragging one out. The last bull I shot was just over a mile and a half to the nearest road, and i had hiked 2 miles to just get to that point.
ELKMAN. Drag is in my vocabulary with elk hunting. It is what my @ss does after two days of packing out meat!
My one and only elk I shot I drug out. But it was all downhill and maybe 100 yards. It was not easy getting that cow in the back of my truck by myself. Lol Since then I started elk hunting in wilderness areas. No dragging there. It will be a 3 to 6 mile pack out.
"Boy I wish I could shoot one close enough to a road to even contemplate dragging one out."
This is the one I was referring to in my first post. Shot a 5pt that fell 15yds from an old logging road. By the time my buddy got back with his truck, I had gutted and drug the bull to the middle of the road. Used ATV ramps and a heavy-duty come-a-long to load him whole. This was LONG before I'd ever heard of the gutless method. Today, even 15yds from a road, I'd take him in pieces. Experience, along with a body that's breaking down faster than I want, enables one to make wiser decisions! ;-)
Drag an elk...? Never even considered it. I did see a group of guys from Mississippi one year hoisting up a bull using a truck winch over a huge tree branch. Once it was up in the air they backed up another truck and dropped him right in. Pretty slick I guess.
I can't drag an elk by myself? I think of my self as fairly strong but that sounds crazy. I quarter up and pack out.
I tried to drag an elk once....that was all it took.
The last bull I shot got hung up on a little tree as we were attempting to drag it w/ a 4wheeler. I tried to yank the bull free.. I couldn't budge it, literally not an inch. I ended up getting my truck on it and basically ripping the tree out w/ the bull. The next day my back from tail bone to neck was sore. Never again.
I didn't want to leave a carcass near a water hole that I knew one of the other regulars in the area hunted... more less courtesy for a fellow archer.
My first elk was a 5 pt bull. It was all I could do to roll him over. After gutting it, I left it on the ground. I took a stick and placed it between the ribs to open up the chest cavity to cool the meat while I went for help. 3 of us came back that night. We skinned and quartered it by lantern until someone kicked it over, breaking the mantel. Had to finish by fire light. What an experience! It took 2 trips each to get it out (6 total). Now, I skin and de-bone them. I can get one out in 3 trips doing it that way... if it's a cow.
Depends on how close to the road it is. Have drug a dozen or so, all cows though.
He doesn't care if any of you like dragging elk. He wants to know if anyone has experience with what is required by law if you bring a quartered elk to processor. I don't but couldn't help noticing all the goofy replies to his question and thought I'd help.
His question was answered in the second and third posts. The rest is anecdotal entertainment.
Lighten up, Jason. You're not the Bowsite referee. Are you new to hunting forums?
Jason is from Texas. They invented dragging. :-)
You're right I overreacted. Tryin to fit in. This is par around here. There is a smile on my face, should I use emoji? I'm not new I've been around for years. Just drop in ever so often. It's getting worse though, clannish, every year. You got guys that demand to be worshiped and little worker bees that run around acting like enforcers hoping for acceptance.
Lots of guys drag elk on private ranches or anywhere they can get a quad.
Khunter that's a whole county over from me.
