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Bull elk evidence of sex tainting meat

I killed my first bull elk 2 years ago in Colorado, and left the testicles/ attached to a piece of hide attached to the hind quarter for the required evidence of sex. I deboned my meat and removed the hide and had them in game bags. He was a young 5 by 5, but still a little rutty smelling. Well, 5 days later upon arriving home in MN, the meat was aged nicely and I started processing for the freezer. I noticed that the hindquarter meat where the nuts were against it smelled a little "rutty", but I didn't think anything of it. After eating some delicious h.q. steaks, I got a package that kind of "tasted like it smelled (rutty)". And even though it was edible, it was weird to taste a smell. Then I had a couple of packages of burger that turned out the same. That was it for the whole elk. The rest was delicious. Last year, same thing. 5 by 5 bull (a little bigger this time), and noticed smelly meat once I began processing. Then it dawned on me. The hairy sack was "leaching" its rutty stink into the meat. So I wised up and cut off the pound or two of meat that had been touching the sack, until I couldn't find any part of that h.q. that smelled. So my question is, has anyone got any ideas of how to prevent losing some meat? I was thinking of bringing something into the field with me so that when I put the meat into the game bag for packing it out I can wrap something around the hairy sac to hopefully prevent the smell from penetrating into the meat. Tin foil? And then maybe a couple of freezer ziploc bags? And a rubber band? I need some kind of barrier that won't let the smell leach through after several days. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

It might help to remove the testicles from the sack. You can do that still leave them attached.

Cant you just retain the testis and penis in a separate zip-lock bag? Or does it have to remain on the animal. I always take it all the way off, but keep it in a Zip-lock until it is processed.

Scar.

Or a zip-lock around the junk and secured with a rubber band or zip tie?

Elk Magnums.

Scar those would be my methods.

I'd imagine it would depend on how much of a deek the g&f wants to be, but given you have the evidence and made the effort and explained why you should be gtg IMO.

If I were to leave it dangling on the hq, I'd stop as soon as I crossed the border to hack it off.

An ohio friend killed his first elk cow and left proof of sex on and according to him it ruined a whole HQ. NO way, I'll take a ticket before I jeopardize that much of hard earned meat.

I haven't had any bad encounter with G&F here in AZ. They are always cool to me, but I am cool and respectful to them as well.

If you hunt Colorado, you better leave the nuts attached. The CPW officials just love to write tickets for EoS violations.

I have never had the issue of losing any meat because of the testicles being attached. Not sure why you would have 2 elk that did.

Pg 17 o the Regs:

EVIDENCE OF SEX 1. It is illegal to have or transport a big-game carcass without evidence of sex naturally attached. It is illegal only to have evidence of sex accompany the carcass. If you submit a deer or elk head for CWD testing, leave evidence of sex on the carcass. 2. EVIDENCE OF SEX IS: A. BUCK/BULL: Head with antlers or horns at- tached to carcass; or testicle, scrotum or penis attached to carcass. B. DOE/COW: Head, udder (mammary) or vulva attached to carcass. C. BLACK BEAR: Male: testicles or penis. Female: vulva. 3. Heads detached from carcass are not adequate evidence of sex. 4. If a carcass is cut in pieces or deboned, evidence of sex needs to be attached to a quarter or another major part of carcass. All portions must be trans- ported together. 5. Evidence of sex is not required if a donation certificate accompanies less than 20 pounds of meat or after the carcass is cut into processed meat, wrapped and frozen, or stored at licensee’s home. TIP! If you shoot a young buck or bull with antlers less than 5 inches long, it can be considered “antlerless”. But what do you do about evidence of sex? 1) Leave the head and antlers naturally attached to a portion of the carcass to prove it meets the requirement. 2) Leave the testicles attached to a portion of the carcass and then you can detach the head or skull plate and carry it out with the antlers intact.

Wyoming used to require evidence of sex remain attached "where the taking of either sex, species, or antler or horn development is controlled or prohibited". That's no longer the case.

The only requirement now is "either visible external sex organs, head or antlers shall accompany the carcass, or edible portions thereof". Key words being "either", and "shall accompany".

When in CO, I just carry a Ziploc bag and put it around quarter w/scrotum. Add a little parachute cord to "secure".

And then cut it off when you cross the WYO border.

It's not the balls that taint the meat. I eat the balls off of every animal I kill and they're not only delicious, but don't taste rutty at all.

It's the scrotum that they pissed on and get the male/female liquid preludes to procreation onto that do that. In fact, the entire hide with hair on the underside and legs of a bull/buck can do the same thing because of their sexual and urinary habits (not to mention the tarsal glands). Getting/keeping your meat clean is critical to good quality meat IMO. Excessive hair contact with meat is a bad thing.

You can put a bag around the scrotum or you can leave the penis shaft attached if you skin out the whole thing and do it carefully. You want to dissect all that stuff first before you pull your first quarter if you're going to use the penis as EoS.

To use the penis as EoS, first skin the entire area. You cut the skin down to the penis like you're degloving it and taking the skin off the end. Then just cut the end off (sometimes urine will come out when you do this so I use the hide off the leg as a funnel to drain the urine onto the ground so it doesn't get on the meat). Then choose which side you're going to leave it attached to and dissect under it and leave that connective tissue attached. The penis of an elk is like a foot long. You only need to leave a section of it attached so you will make two cuts through it. Choose the few inches that have the most connective tissue about 1/3 to 1/2 the distance from the base and cut around it and it stays attached, but you have to get the hide off first. The business end is cut off. The part you leave on is actually inside the pelvis.

I used to always leave the balls attached and that's usually easier, but one time I didn't leave enough connective tissue on them and they fell off while I was bagging the ham and I had to use the penis on the 2nd side. It's not that tough if you do the prep before you've removed the ham.

So how do you leave the nuts attached when you quarter and bone out your animal?

The short answer is by leaving it attached to the connective tissue (white stringy stuff) that attaches it to the pelvis. There's connective tissue that is contiguous to the connective tissue of part of the ham meat. It's exceptionally difficult to leave the balls attached to boned out meat without leaving scrotum attached.

Start by quartering the ham. Skin the leg up the with the incision on the front part of the rear leg. When you get to where the leg touches the pelvis, cut the skin over to, and around the bottom of the scrotum so that it's still attached. Then skin all the way around the scrotum so it's an island of hair.

Then work on your meat cutting along the top of the pelvis and down around the anus. When you separate the inside of the ham from the pelvis, you start by including the connective tissue of the scrotum and then just cut around it.

Once your ham is detached, you'll see the part of the ham that's attached to the scrotum and that piece just has to stay all in one piece. Start deboning at the knee by cutting the tendons off of knee and work the muscles apart with your thumbs and knife till you get up to the hip. Cut off the distal top round tendon, then pull it and take off the chuck and sirloin. Once it's time to separate off the final tendons, you'll see where the scrotum has to stay attached.

Ike, I ain't hungry anymore...........

I leave it attached to the hide. I bone mine out.

I leave it attached to quarter and bone out the quarter. It's easy.

Never have had meat tainted

Thanks Ike, that sounds like the best option yet! Hopefully I can remember it when the time comes!

Another way of leaving the scrotum attached is to just leave a 1 inch strip of the hide running up the inside of the ham that's connected to the scrotum on one side and runs up the meat of the ham on the other. You can take the balls out or disconnect them from the vas deferens and leave them inside.

Drycreek I agree. Ike's middle name is Dahmer.

;)

In CO you had better leave evidence attached. Carrying a cows utter and, a bulls package separate, in a baggy won't do. Trust me on that. Just happened to run into Barney Fife's protege's one evening while packing out the last of the two elk we had shot that morning. Sent my buddy and me home with some souvenirs too. God Bless

"Elk Magnums"

LOL!!!

The testicles aren't the best option. After skinning the groin area, split the ham area, leaving a few inches of the penis attached toe one ham. It takes a bit of care but is the best option

Ohio,

I gotta call BS on your buddy. No way did the udder cause an entire hind quarter to go bad.

LKH,

I use the exact method you described. Easy cheesy.

I don't know if it was the udder or the vulva, I wasn't there nor do I know how it was intact for how long. But it was def on there from CO to OH, and I think he shot it mid-hunt, not at the end of their stay.

It may have tainted some of the meat and he deemed it all bad for all I know.

GOOD idea Midwest. A few unlubed condoms don't take up much room and prob have enough elasticity to stay on.

Ikes correct, its the hide.

You can also contaminate the meat by handling a rutty hide too much then transferring it to the meat with your hands. A couple sets of latex gloves is a bit anal but you get clean meat.

"someone I know" googled sex and taint and found this thread...would that be considered viral or bacterial marketing?

^^^^ too funny, Bill!

Ohio, I wish I could take credit but that was Well-Strung's suggestion. lol

I do, however, have a few I could spare to my Bowsiter friends. I have them custom made. ;-)

Does anyone know of a video out there that demonstrates how to leave evidence of sex on a bull elk without leaving the sack attached?

You can always leave the head naturally attached to a front quarter as evidence of sex

Did that once when a Midwestern cut the nut sack off a bull by not knowing the regs.

That pack out sucked

my butcher told me a 1/2 inch of penis attached is all you need. so that's what we do.

they still have that idiot law ?

wow

We always process our elk in camp, thus removing the evidence of sex while doing so. (let it cool couple days - the cut and wrap it then place it in the freezer we bring with us)

I sent a request to WY Game & Fish to clarify if we could legally do it that way.

Here is there response:

Bob, Statute states that evidence of sex must be retained while said animal is in transportation from site of kill to the residence of the person taking the animal or delivered to a processor for processing. Since camp is not considered your residence and you are not an actual processor, you would need to go ahead and keep the evidence of sex with you until you get to your residence (you can still process the meat, just make sure you retain evidence of sex as well). Hope this helped to clarify your question. Sincerely, WGFD Wildlife Division Administration

Sounds like you just need to throw it in a ziplock bag and you'd be good to go. Am I correct?

With my bull last year I just kept the scrotum attached to the hind quarter and stuffed the scrotum and testicles into a white surgical glove that I was using. Kept it separated from the meat and stays on easily.

Here is "their" response:

Not only attached but naturally attached.

From the brochure: It is illegal to have or transport a big-game carcass without evidence of sex naturally attached. It is illegal only to have evidence of sex accompany the carcass.

Barron114, there's a Field dressing video link in the online version of the Big Game brochure. check it out as it likely addresses by example your question.

Andy

I would guess that it was not the evidence of sex that tainted the meat but the hide you left on it.

"Evidence of sex naturally attached..."

Attached to how much, and of what? When field dressing, we're already cutting the animal into pieces, so theoretically, as long as you have that evidence of sex naturally attached to any scrap of any tissue, then that should fulfill the law, correct?

I see now the "major part of the carcass" language. Again, open to much interpretation. Since I debone, there are no longer any "major" parts left intact...

When you are boning out meat, the largest chunk of meat from the hindquarters will meat all legal obligations.

Don't overthink this. I leave about 1" of whanger attached to the hindquarter, boned out or not.

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