field dressing responsibilities?

[waspocrew]

I'd imagine this falls on the guide the majority of the time. I like to get my hands dirty though, so I'd be helping out. For my dall hunt in 2026, I'll definitely be getting in on the action.

My brothers and I did a guided bear hunt in Wyoming a number of years back. I shot a bear and the guide was skinning it an dry heaving the entire time... I eventually took over hahaha

 

[WCB]

If this is a fully guided hunt it would be up to the guide/packers. Help where you can...Most clients when I guided held legs of deer or whatever. Elk were mostly quartered hide on and hauled out on mules. Guys got a kick out of splitting an elk down the middle with an axe and a few wanted to gut their own and load the quarters onto the mules.

As a client I helped full body cape my Tahr and bone out the meat. Guide did my wife's Chamois...not a lot of room to get in there on those things.

Now when it comes to the couple guided snow goose hunts and game farm Pheasants...I pay the per bird cost to get those bad boys done.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Moose hunting is really hard. Why pay one to do it and still punish yourself with the hard work?

I could see skinning it with a guide, but packing it….when you’re paying like 15k??? Fuuuuuuuck no.

 

[06 SB]

i let my guide lead the way, but grabbed and pulled wherever I could I don't get to do this all the time. No way I was gonna miss out on carrying 90#+ on my back if I had the choice. It sucked so bad it was awesome!

Exactly

 

[eaglemountainman]

I'm heading to Alberta in a couple of weeks. If I'm fortunate enough to punch my tag, I'll be involved in the process, for sure.

 

[roymunson]

Moose hunting is really hard. Why pay one to do it and still punish yourself with the hard work?

I could see skinning it with a guide, but packing it….when you’re paying like 15k??? Fuuuuuuuck no.

WHERE'D YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON A $15K ALASKAN MOOSE HUNT? I want in, NOW!

 

[Wildone]

^^^^^ What he said^^^^^

I’ve done half a dozen diy moose hunts but if I were paying 20-30k for an outfitted hunt the expectation would be full service. You want to charge a premium then you better deliver premium.

 

[medvedyt]

not related to moose but i had 3 hunters that got their 6 caribous the same day. despite being hardcore hunters that hunted all over the world none of them helped for even carrying or supporting ... they were young and fit and needless to say did not tip either (i was paid to do a job anyway) when they asked me how do i felt about the situation i said to them i felt like a mule pack as we were on a top of a ridge and the boat was on the low side... i will add that even if the contract is for a paid hunt legally i have seen in the yukon and in quebec hunters charged for wasting of meat or shooting an illegal aninal .. it is not because you re paying that you are not responsible and are above the law ...

 

[thinhorn_AK]

WHERE'D YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON A $15K ALASKAN MOOSE HUNT? I want in, NOW!

I was just guessing at the price, my moose hunt this year cost me 50 in parking fees and about 75 dollars of gas.

 

[WCB]

not related to moose but i had 3 hunters that got their 6 caribous the same day. despite being hardcore hunters that hunted all over the world none of them helped for even carrying or supporting ... they were young and fit and needless to say did not tip either (i was paid to do a job anyway) when they asked me how do i felt about the situation i said to them i felt like a mule pack as we were on a top of a ridge and the boat was on the low side... i will add that even if the contract is for a paid hunt legally i have seen in the yukon and in quebec hunters charged for wasting of meat or shooting an illegal aninal .. it is not because you re paying that you are not responsible and are above the law ...

were you guiding them or more of a semi guided/diy with packing/field dressing included. If you were actually there with them no way I would have "let" them kill that many animals without at least warning them. Once two MAYBE 3 animals were on the ground I would have told them "once an animal is down "OUR" priority is getting them out of the field...YOU will get a ticket if the animals are not taken care of properly...WE have a lot of work ahead of us. Shoot at your own discretion but these (x) number of animals is todays work."

 

[buffybr]

I've DIY, and mostly solo, hunted dozens of elk, 2 moose, 3 bighorn rams, a mountain goat, and lost count of my number of deer and antelope, so i'm completely comfortable taking care of animals in the field.

On my first guided hunt that was for a Dall ram, I did half of the field work on both my ram and a mountain caribou.

The caribou in my avatar was from the last nonresident caribou hunt in Quebec. The camp was 1 guide short so there were 3 of us hunters with 1 guide. One of the other hunters and I each shot a bou out of the same bunch, so when they were down I told the guide that I would take care of my caribou and he could do the other hunter's bull. When we got back to camp, I also fleshed out the head and cape of my bull.

On all of my African hunts I've let the camp skinners do all of the skinning and dressing work. However when I shot my Leopard in Mozambique, back in camp when the skinning crew started to skin him, I took out my 2" pocket knife and asked them if I could help. They all got a good laugh from that.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Always the guide. If you want to get your hands messy, jump right in.

 

[medvedyt]

were you guiding them or more of a semi guided/diy with packing/field dressing included. If you were actually there with them no way I would have "let" them kill that many animals without at least warning them. Once two MAYBE 3 animals were on the ground I would have told them "once an animal is down "OUR" priority is getting them out of the field...YOU will get a ticket if the animals are not taken care of properly...WE have a lot of work ahead of us. Shoot at your own discretion but these (x) number of animals is todays work."

i was even the head guide .never worked on semi guided area so cant tell about it.. do you think people care when they re paying? some posts here should enlighten you ... some do true and fair enough but most do not help for their luggages ... now for tickets as any guides we were called wildlife assistant enforcer but i do not see myself given tickets on that case as no meat was waisted.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

WHERE'D YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON A $15K ALASKAN MOOSE HUNT? I want in, NOW!

Most expensive part of my hunt was the two week rental Tacoma TRD off road. Round trip flight was $500. Paying a buddy $500 to process the meat and freeze it and then I’ll pay the shipping costs. His neighbor will be doing the skull for me for $300 and he’ll ship it down.

All in for a DIY moose hunt I’m gonna be looking at around $4,000.00 total.

You don’t need to pay a guide all this money to kill a moose. If you’re a decent hunter it can be done solo for not much money.

All that being said. I am exhausted and will likely never hunt moose solo again.

 

[The Guide]

Most expensive part of my hunt was the two week rental Tacoma TRD off road. Round trip flight was $500. Paying a buddy $500 to process the meat and freeze it and then I’ll pay the shipping costs. His neighbor will be doing the skull for me for $300 and he’ll ship it down.

All in for a DIY moose hunt I’m gonna be looking at around $4,000.00 total.

You don’t need to pay a guide all this money to kill a moose. If you’re a decent hunter it can be done solo for not much money.

All that being said. I am exhausted and will likely never hunt moose solo again.

I've paid more than that for fishing trips... (saltwater Charters or multi day long range fishing trips) and never caught a fish. If you want a partner for next time, let me know! I'd love to get the experience.

Jay