Gutless method solo

[Marbles]

A 5x7 blue tarp from Harbor Freight weighs 16 oz

A 5x9 piece of Tyvek is about half that weight at 9.2 ounces.

 

[Fowl Play]

I wouldn’t keep the hide on a quarter… here is the method of gutless I use on all big game. Always have the meat come out clean and have done it solo with several elk and deer.

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Keep a piece of plastic, tarp or tyvek in your pack, you can use it to lay quarters on if the area is dusty or muddy or whatever. You can use the plastic to line your pack as well. I’ve never found a reason to leave hide on or lower legs. Deer are really not very hairy, having done multiple antelope a year for a few decades will make you a fair hand at dealing with hair….

 

[brancher147]

I always debone them but maybe that’s not legal everywhere or maybe you want bones. I personally don’t use bones. I am always solo and it’s just a lot less weight. Takes me about half an hour to have a whitetail doe in my pack and on my way but I have done a lot of them.

 

[5MilesBack]

If I completely skin a side down and then remove the quarters, it all stays much cleaner than cutting the quarters off and then skinning. Hair goes everywhere when I skin it after. BUT sometimes it's just easier and quicker to take the quarters off first and skin them later in camp. When my daughter shot her cow moose about 7pm in the evening, I could tell the rain was coming. So I didn't mess around.......took the rear and front, skinned down to take the backstrap, tenderloins, and some rib meat. Rolled her over and did the same on the other side. Literally within a couple minutes after packing to the truck and tarping it, it started pouring to the point that visibility was extremely low.

 

[butcherboy]

I do a partial gutless method. I never ever skin from the back down to the belly. Always skin from the belly up to the back using the inside flesh side of the hide as my “tarp”. Remove quarters, backstrap and neck attached together. Open the belly and let the inside roll out to the side. Remove full tenderloins and then do a rib roll with the flank meat attached. Roll the animal over and repeat. I also have a large contractor bag that I put quarters in to carry over to my game pole or a tree branch. Remove the bag once the quarter is hanging and go back for the next one. Once all meat is hanging then I’ll put game bags on them. Use the same contractor bag for packing in my pack or another one if the first one has torn.

As a meat processor and hunter I have never understood packing quarters with the lower legs attached. Also don’t understand why so many hunters cut around the leg to skin the animal leaving six to eight inches of hide on covering the meat that just has to be skinned off later.