Field Dressing Big Game

[Jeff505]

I had done the gutless method a few times on wild hogs, I woke up in a cold sweat a few nights later realizing the pork belly had been left for coyote feed. The part that becomes bacon had been discarded. This blatant disregard for the waste of potential savory and crispy pork delights took it’s toll on me. I found myself not thinking straight and wondering my worth as a man, my wife noticed my dull and lifeless expression and new she needed to do something quick to save our marriage. I blurted out my shame, I told my wife the great secret that had been gnawing at my soul. She was able explain that it was not actually bacon that I had wasted. Through pork therapy which included the consumption of great quantities for bacon, ham and hog jowls I was able to regain what I had lost. Those dark days are behind me now, the idea of not having to pull entrails from a slain beast might have some appeal but now you no where it can lead.

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Kevin,
Wow! What’s the average weight of one of those buffalo hind quarters? I’ve only ever humped out elk quarters from the mountains. Those look MUCH heavier!
Thanks!
CEH

Not sure CEH, but I reckon about 50kg? The skin is very heavy, it took two guys to pole it out.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Not sure CEH, but I reckon about 50kg? The skin is very heavy, it took two guys to pole it out.
View attachment 487816

That’s pretty heavy! Take the skin off! LOL

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

To me depends on the animal and how much damage was done by the projectile determines how much meat I can salvage.
I do like the gutless method as you get the meat plus the skin with no tainting.
If I shoulder shoot an animal with my 25 the front half is usually not worth worrying about because of the damage. One deer I shot before using the gutless method was gutted and hung overnight.
Next day on skinning the whole offside shoulder and leg came off with the skin. The shoulder and offside was just jellied from destruction caused by the projectile.
Now I try and go for a behind the shoulder shot. Neck shots bruises the meat down to between the shoulders ruining a lot of backstrap, so I avoid that shot as well.
I remove as much meat as possible as I love game meat. Even the neck meat cut into rosettes and slow cooked makes a beautiful stew or curry.
Bob

 

[CBH Australia]

@Scott CWO I know the Victorinox knife you mean. Curious why you use the serrated knife and not a straight pairing knife that's easily sharpened

 

[Tra3]

I used this Swiss Army knife to gutless quarter my Idaho elk last fall. The sharpening tool is excellent. The buck knife didn’t get used this time, as I wanted to just use a little Swiss Army knife.

 

[CoElkHunter]

To me depends on the animal and how much damage was done by the projectile determines how much meat I can salvage.
I do like the gutless method as you get the meat plus the skin with no tainting.
If I shoulder shoot an animal with my 25 the front half is usually not worth worrying about because of the damage. One deer I shot before using the gutless method was gutted and hung overnight.
Next day on skinning the whole offside shoulder and leg came off with the skin. The shoulder and offside was just jellied from destruction caused by the projectile.
Now I try and go for a behind the shoulder shot. Neck shots bruises the meat down to between the shoulders ruining a lot of backstrap, so I avoid that shot as well.
I remove as much meat as possible as I love game meat. Even the neck meat cut into rosettes and slow cooked makes a beautiful stew or curry.
Bob

Yep Bob, whatever shoulder you shoot, that shoulder is ruined! I know in Africa, my PH wanted me to shoot everything (PG) in the shoulder. But, like you, I try very hard to shoot behind the shoulder when I'm hunting for my own meat. No sense in ruining good meat.

 

[igotit]

you will get lots of different ways on this.

since I have always had to drag a ways I gut in the field -this also starts the cooling right away.
I can then hang and skin as my leisure. leaving guts in and skinning works for many folks but the time delay bothers me and besides there is that pesky distance out of the woods.

I can, and have quartered some that were way back in. generally if I can keep hunting I will and if they still have the guts in they are not cooling.

 

[CBH Australia]

View attachment 487837

I used this Swiss Army knife to gutless quarter my Idaho elk last fall. The sharpening tool is excellent. The buck knife didn’t get used this time, as I wanted to just use a little Swiss Army knife.

Could we get a close up or a link to the sharpening tool please

 

[Tra3]

Could we get a close up or a link to the sharpening tool please

You can find that pocket sharpener at the victorinox.com or just google Victorinox knife sharpener. It is the size of a pen, the stone pulls out and the sheathe serves as a handle. It is about $17-$20. I’ve given them as gifts. They work well and are very light. (It is a stone, not a steel)

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

View attachment 487837

I used this Swiss Army knife to gutless quarter my Idaho elk last fall. The sharpening tool is excellent. The buck knife didn’t get used this time, as I wanted to just use a little Swiss Army knife.

Of the stainless knives I have found the Victorinox steel to be the best. But the very top remains the simple little Opinel Carbone, we use No7's, almost unbelieveable edge retention and a swipe through an old-fashioned wheel sharpener brings it straight back to life again. That buffalo and a second were dressed with just two Opinels.

 

[CBH Australia]

@Kevin Peacocke
Of all the knives I own I dont own an Opinel, Yet.
Thanks Kevin

 

[Josh P]

If you're having to pack the animal out in pieces, this is a beneficial method. For whitetails on the farm, especially the ones I can drive to, I much prefer to gut in the field and leave as much of much of the skin on and intact as possible...IF it's cold enough to hang for a week to 10 days. If it's not cold enough to hang for a while, the method couldn't matter any less to me.

Someone needs to made a set of those freeze packs that happens to be the general shape of whitetail and wild pig body cavities. Sew those puppies back into an out of state critter and drive home.

 

[Scott CWO]

@Scott CWO I know the Victorinox knife you mean. Curious why you use the serrated knife and not a straight pairing knife that's easily sharpened

The serrated knife is sharper and just as easily sharpened.

 

[Woodcarver]

Haven't gutted an animal in years. Quarters are taken off, backstraps skinned and removed, the Wyoming saw splits the backbone allowing access to remove the tender loins and heart. Last elk took about 20 minutes after I got to it. Even antelope, which are usually loaded whole and hauled to the house, get the same treatment. Skin is left on to function as the game bag until a quarter is ready to load on the pack, or at the house and can be hung, then the skin comes off.
If elk or deer quarters are left overnight in the woods, they are hung with the skin on. At 9k-11k feet in October or November, they are in Nature's walk-in cooler. Skin comes off before they get carried off the mountain. If it's a long haul, they get deboned as well. (I do miss hunting with horses)
Almost forgot, I did gut an antelope a couple years ago to teach a new hunter how it's done, just so he would know. Then showed him the better method on my buck that afternoon. Don't think he has gutted anything since.
Even if you're caping something to have mounted, quartering it without gutting is still quicker, cleaner, and easier.

 

[fourfive8]

My first experience with big game (mule deer) retrieval was with my Dad when I was maybe 9. I was "hunting" with my BB gun He got a deer and I remember watching him gut the deer. I learned how to do it in those few minutes it took him to do it. When you're anxious to learn, you learn! I carried out his rifle, a Win Model 54 carbine, 30-06 and my BB lever gun. He dragged the deer down a very steep slope through the aspens and spruce to a small creek. Finished washing out the inside of the carcass in the creek. Humped it up the opposite side maybe 1/2mi to a logging road where we could get to it with our 2 wheel drive pick up. Very few 4 wheel drive vehicles around then.

For deer I usually gutted then dragged or carried out. Remote areas or really heavy deer I would quarter and haul out on a pack frame. For elk, quarter, debone and pack out obviously. When quartering to pack out, I've done it both ways- guts in and guts out. If you take your time not hard to completely skin on the ground using the hide as a tarp- rolling side ot side. Usually ending up gutting the animal anyway at some point to retrieve the tender loins. I don't split the pelvis like some do. No need to really.

Of course Africa game field care and retrieval is a different ball game altogether

The one caveat to all this, at least for game big game in AK, is that there was so much meat waste in certain units in Alaska that a bone-in reg was established in certain areas. So much for boning out a moose into 10 or so reasonable loads of backpackable meat. A large bull moose bone-in hind quarter is one heavy load! Yikes. - sometimes rivaling a wet brown bear hide The other thing in AK law which changed along the way and makes some sense for determining numbers of legal males if restricted to sex in a group harvest... it called for proof of sex having to remain attached to part of carcass during retrieval and head/horns/antlers can only be retrieved on last load out. Caribou-sized game bone-in is not much issue and the number of back packed trips to get one out for me was three round trips if really pressed and I was feeling spry but four was usually more reasonable. The heaviest pack I ever carried any distance was a wet brown bear hide- good gravy! 190-200 lbs is enough!

example Pics below
last trip out on an AK caribou hunt
brown bear pack AK Peninsula

 

[DLSJR]

Gutless is the only way to go, especially when elk hunting alone. It’s cleaner, almost no flies at all and a hell of a lot less weight to pack out. The only time I gut an elk, or anything else, these days is if we can drive up to it and load it into the truck whole.

 

[JimP]

How do you figure less weight unless you bone it out, but then you can bone it out even if you gut it.

We take everything out, bones and meat even with a elk. It doesn't matter if we go gutless or gut them out. The only way that our packs are lighter is if we bone out the meat, but then the meat just turns into globs of protein with no structure.

 

[Woodcarver]

How do you figure less weight unless you bone it out, but then you can bone it out even if you gut it.

We take everything out, bones and meat even with a elk. It doesn't matter if we go gutless or gut them out. The only way that our packs are lighter is if we bone out the meat, but then the meat just turns into globs of protein with no structure.

The bone also provides the structure to keep the muscle at length until it completes the rigor stage. Boning before rigor will produce significantly tougher meat as the tissue can contract, and it will. It has to be a long haul, or carried out the next day after hanging in the woods overnight before I'll bone something in the field.

 

[WAB]

Following on the knife sharpener points, Google ‘speedy sharp’. Clive Lennox gave me one on a hunt in Zim. Best field
sharpener I’ve ever seen. They make great gifts for your PH.