Skin & quarter in field or just quarter?
General Topic
For those of you who quarter your game in the field(mainly for deer)..... do you(personally) skin and then quarter it, or just quarter it with the skin on?
Always skin it. There’s no reason not to if you have good game bags. Cools the meat faster and keeps the hair off.
Skin then quarter. Always.
If you try and quarter without skinning you get hair all over the exposed meat.
Plus you need to cool the quarters as fast as possible.
Agree with above. Always skin then quarter then usually remove the bone
Skin then quarter it, no reason not to, good game bags are pretty inexpensive...
Buy the synthetic game games. They don’t take up a lot of space are light and reusable for many years.
Cutting through hair is just a mess....it just doesn`t feel right having a big beautiful elk hindquarter covered in hair....lol. Take the few minutes to skin it....the hide also aids as a "drop cloth" when working.
I’m with Surfbow and Quinn@work for deer unless you’re several miles away from a road. Those times call for deboning to keep your pack frame more manageable if ya ask me. Same for elk, I debone it especially because I never drop one near a road and I’ve learned a valuable lesson several years back. I’m a smaller guy in stature and when I was younger got heat exhaustion twice packing out elk. The first time I didn’t know what it was and thought I just got sick. The second time I was around 30 years old and had seen those symptoms before with guys I was in the military with. The second time I vowed not to let it happen again. Those instances prompted me to become more aware. I make sure to drink plenty of water, consume protein throughout the day now and leave the bones (except for antlers) behind. The extra time it takes (which is not a whole lot), to debone, is definitely worth it IMHO.
Yes. Depending on weather, ambient light, bugs, distance from the truck etc, which way I do it, also might skin and debone.
when I was much younger I'd leave the truck in the am & no telling where I'd end up I had an old herters jacket with a game pouch & I kept a plastic bag & a wide nylon strap when I shot a deer the heart liver backstraps went in the bag & in the game pouch. a front shoulder & hind quarter got tied to each end of the nylon strap & slung over the shoulder fur on & headed for the trick
Early archery it's a no brainer, skinning cools the meat faster and deboning even faster (not to mention lighter). Even later in the season, the hide can insulate far more than a person realizes. We lost some elk meat one year with temps in the teens at night, left overnight after an afternoon hit and decided not to push him. . Even found at sunrise and coated with frost, the hip socket area on the ground side soured.
Meat keeps better (and longer) in the field the faster you get it cooled down. Only way I'd leave hide on is if you were real close to a truck and could drag the animal whole, get it to camp/home fast to deal with it. If you do quarter with hide on, make sure you cut the hide from inside out. Lots of knives now with zipper blades make it real easy. Zipper blade, not gut hook. Gut hooks are OK for soft belly hide, they ball up in the heavy work.
Gutted and opened up helps a lot, no doubt. But not in the ballpark of hide off then deboned.
Temperature wise, WRT late seasons in the Midwest it might be different..... but I don't see that happening in my near future..... =D
I have always skinned and at the least quartered if not deboned.
Gutless method skin, quarter, debone, doesn't take long.
I've changed from skin and quarter gutless to quarter, hang, and then skin the quarter if there is a place to hang the quarters. Much easier on the back and a lot cleaner.
Faster and much faster if you have a person to start skinning as you're getting the quarters off
I’ve done both. But since I tend to kill elk fairly close to camp, I quarter and skin at camp. Much nicer to put it on a table and have a cup of coffee or a beer while skinning. :)
