Gutless and deboning

[MLHSN]

Gutless...

Split the hide up the middle of the back, skin one side, spread the out hide fur side down. Remove and bag the backstraps first, then move on to the hind quarter. I de-bone and lay the meat on the hide. I bag the meat as I finish each quarter, hang if there are trees nearby and work the next quarter. Roll the elk over and repeat. After that meat is all bagged and hanging, make a small slit and carve out the loins.

If you're planning to use the hide for a mount, there is still plenty of hide to use to lay a boned out quarter on. Or as mentioned, carry Tyvek or a space blanket to lay the meat on.

Quick question for a newbie. I'm just figuring out the field care as I'm new to hunting. Although, I've spent a lot of time in the backcountry. If the temp. is up. Say in the 60-70 deg range. Would using the gutless method be a bad idea? The other articles I've read says to gut and open the cavity to cool it off. I'm just wondering if using the gutless method would cause to much heat retention while I'm getting the meat off the bone and ready to dump in a creek.

 

[Justin Crossley]

It doesn't take long at all to quarter an elk. I don't gut them in the backcountry.

 

[Mark]

Quick question for a newbie. I'm just figuring out the field care as I'm new to hunting. Although, I've spent a lot of time in the backcountry. If the temp. is up. Say in the 60-70 deg range. Would using the gutless method be a bad idea? The other articles I've read says to gut and open the cavity to cool it off. I'm just wondering if using the gutless method would cause to much heat retention while I'm getting the meat off the bone and ready to dump in a creek.

Gutting the animal won't help cool down the quarters much. I suppose if you were planning to hang an entire elk it would be beneficial, but I know I can't hang one by myself so I just start caping and carving.

In my opinion, gutting is not only a waste of time, it will delay getting the meat off the bone where it will cool down faster even in warmer temps. I've never timed how long it takes me to cut and bag an elk, but it seems to go pretty fast.

I'm not capable of carrying an entire elk off a mountain by myself. I'm usually at 9k-11k feet so I'll hang meat in the dark timber and carry out what I can and come back for more later that day or the next. Even in warm day time temps I've never lost meat. At night it gets down in the 40's-50's at those elevations even in August/September where I hunt. Even at the hottest part of the day at those elevations in the dark timber, it's really cool especially if you have a slight breeze. There's a reason the elk are in there during the hottest part of the day.

 

[Snyd]

I haven't done any elk (well one in MT 25yrs ago) but I've done about 20 moose, 3 solo, and I never gut the bull. Waste of time, makes a mess. I do the same with sheep. No point in gutting if your deboning anyway.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

There really is no legitimate reason to gut when quartering an elk. Taking the quarter off of the body does wonders for cooling the meat down.

Its been mentioned before, but in most circumstances the meat sours from the bone out. Getting it off of the bone takes care of that issue.

 

[Sunspot]

There really is no legitimate reason to gut when quartering an elk. Taking the quarter off of the body does wonders for cooling the meat down.

Its been mentioned before, but in most circumstances the meat sours from the bone out. Getting it off of the bone takes care of that issue.

True... while deboning an elk the outside meat cooled rapidly but the meat against the bone was hot.

 

[Tony Trietch]

True... while deboning an elk the outside meat cooled rapidly but the meat against the bone was hot.

Skin one side, debone, hang meat in bag to cool.
Repeat other side plus tenders and cape.
Sound s good to me. letting the meat hang and cool as long as possible seems like a good idea.
But I am just a Midwestern whitetail guy.....But I am learning.

 

[Z Barebow]

I wing off the quarters bone and and put them in the game bag. Cool in game bag. To debone, I have a roll of painters plastic in my pack and lay it on the ground to keep meat clean. It is too hard to handle a big blob of elk meat on your own. Much easier to handle when it is cool and firmed up.

As far as cooling next to bone, before I bag it, I slice up lengthwise against the femur to the hip socket and open it up. (Seperating the muscle groups as I move the knife along.) Basically opening up an air channel next to the bone. Not a big deal to overcome bone sour.

 

[ELKCRAZED77]

you can carry a small piece of tyvek or even one of the cheap space blankets to set your quarters on after taking them off the animal. Gives you a clean place to set the meat and debone.

I also use space blanket to lay meat on you can fold it over and keep the fly's off your meat while working on the other side. I quarter then debone and into game bags once back at camp lay on sticks in dark timber and spread meat out in the bags to cool with some pine limbs on top to help with fly's. Then hang late in the evening till mourning. I also use a can of black pepper on the game bags seems to help also with fly's. If I kill in evening straight to the trees to hang once back at camp.

 

[Chesapeake]

In my experience the spoilage starts at the large arteries in the hind quarters, or any part left wet, dirty, and warm. For this reason when I bone the hinds I split between the 2 large ham muscles and take out the large artery cluster that is in the fold between those 2 large muscles (If you've cut up an elk or two you'll know what I'm talking about, femoral artery on humans).

I skin the up side from the spine over to just past the brisket seam to include the legs to the bottom joint.
I then take off the front quarter to include the neck meat, rib meat, brisket, and flank all in one piece (I go just over the tip of the backstrap and fillet the leg off the ribs and neck spine). I then lay that quarter on the top side of the elk and debone it. Then it goes into the game bag with the lower leg muscle tied into the end of the bag so when I hang it the meat hangs in a long thin profile rather than a big round ball in the bottom of the bag.
Then I fillet off the upside back strap, place it in a bag, and lay it out somewhere in the shade usually on a limb so it can cool and wait for the second strap.
Then I start at the top of the pelvis and cut the hind off at the hip joint. Lay it on the side of the elk and bone it. It gets bagged and hung like the front.
Then roll the elk and repeat the operation. Place the second strap in the bag with the first.
After all quarters are off I cut out the tender loins, heart, and sometimes liver if someone wants it. These go in their own bags.

I fit an entire elk in 5 quarter bags, 6 if I keep guts.

I follow muscle separation lines when boning and try to keep stuff in as large of chunks as possible. I only bone if I have to. Every cut you make looses more meat to dirt and drying, and reduces steaks and roast into burger scraps, so I try to minimize cuts.

This way is also easy to cape the animal for mounting. Just make your slice up the back of the neck from behind the shoulder more carefully and skin the up side of the cape off when you remove the rest of the hide. Then do the same on the other side when you roll the elk. You don't need hide to lay the quarters on cause you place them on the side of the rib cage for boning.