Skin on or skin off when field dressing Elk?

[Walthers]

Always off. I was in a freezing hunt and my buddy left it on. Ended up freezing on the meat. Once it thawed enough to get it off the meat was not very good.

 

[mtnbound]

For me, regardless of season, the hide comes off. The meat is cleaner when I remove the hide, plus it also gets rid of packing out a bunch of ticks buried in the hair.

 

[cb2176]

Skin off

 

[aghunter1]

Off for me

 

[elkliver]

Off. For multiple reasons. IF we are lucky enough to get a truck to it, leave it on until back at camp on the meat pole. But if you are quartering and packing, off immediately. The hide holds in a lot of heat. If you want tasty wildy game, start it cooling down ASAP. Also, leaving the hide on will allow hair to get on the meat. a few wont hurt but a lot of hair will transfer gamy taste to the meat. Skin the hide and get it into a game bag. If you skin/cut the glands or the pelvic area out(which you should) use a different knife or clean it before cutting meat Take care of the meat in all ways from the beginning and you will appreciate it on the dinner table.

I know some folks leave the hide on the quarters in order to keep some of the meat clean. In my opinion, a good game bag is a better idea. And not one of the ones you get for a dollar at walmart. a good cotton one or a sheet is really good. The new material bags are light but i don't think they breath quite as well.

I am always amazed by how many people say "it's how you take care of the meat", and then they don't. I see folks driving back home from a hunt with the hide still on,. Im sure they give packages to their friends who cant understand why you would hunt when the meat tastes so nasty

thats my 2 cents anyway

 

[mshp710]

My dogs love eating deer bones. Usually they only get them in cooler weather so there is not much smell associated with them.

 

[wapitibob]

I tried the space blanket before, if its cold the meat sticks to the blanket and tears when you move the meat.

Vinyl tablecloth

 

[kwackkillncrew]

if its the one with the outdoor edge knife, does he not have to take the rib meat? I have no idea since i dont know the regs down there. I do know that ADFG would not be impressed with the meat left on it.

 

[mshp710]

I perfer to strip the hide off and get it into game bags immediately, regardless of the weather.

 

[bz_711]

I've always skinned and gone gutless deboned method...no need for me to pack bones or skin...and definitely no need to transport bones/skin back home.
I like the gutless/boneless method so much I often wonder when midwest whitetail hunters take the whole carcass home just to skin and debone and then have to make another trip to dispose of carcass.
Common sense says take the meat home and leave everything else for nature to take care of (although we still occasionally hang a good buck in the garage to work on to make sure the neighbors know who they're dealing with )

 

[A-Brakke]

Skin one side & quarter it, flip, repeat…

 

[Urbs]

hide off always . That’s extra weight that comes into play when you’re miles out. Maybe if I was close to a road I would leave it on

 

[mcr-85]

I've done it both ways. I made a quick move on this bull and killed him right before dark. I quartered him with a case trapper in the dark. I had no game bags or rope/Paracord to hang him for that matter. I made due with what I had and he kept clean til I got back the next morning with a mule to haul him out. He stayed clean and tasted just fine.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

 

[willy]

I pack my elk out on my back. So, I gut them as soon as possible, skin a side, and bone out the skinned side and then repeat on the other. I bag the meat and hang or start packing back to camp, whichever the situation dictates. Bone and hide add up over the miles and tough terrain. I've done the gutless method as well but if I have time I prefer to go old school gutting.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have done it both ways however to take the hide off I have to take climbing spurs to get them high enough to quarter and mannie up.

When I quarter with the hair on I only have to raise an elk a half at a time and don't need any extra equipment. Of course everything is coming out on a horse.

For cleaning up the quarters after skinning I wash them down with a baking soda rinse, then I go over the meat with a clean curry comb which pulls off all the hair and bone chips. After that I dry them and wrap them in clean sheets. It makes for cleaner meat than you can get at a butcher shop.

 

[cnelk]

My ML bull this Sept I shot at 6:50pm.

Gutless, skinned, quartered, bagged and was packing front quarters and loose meat at 830pm.
I’m not taking the time to debone in the dark.

 

[TheGDog]

I'm just curious... never did Elk before, but I'd assume you guys get this too?... In Elk Environments, do you guys ever have the "Meat Bees" real bad that want to come right on in to get at the meat while you're processing it?

In the place I'm thinking of, I learned to first always carry the gut-pile minimum 20+ yards away! To give 'em somewhere ELSE to want to go. Then I started learning to only skin the hide of the current section I'm dealing with deboning at the moment, it minimized the open-to-the-air uncovered surfaces, so I wouldn't be constantly having to gently brush them aside from the piece I'm currently trying to work on.

Early season temps there get like 85F-100F, so I assume that's why soo many "Meat Bees" (Yellow Jacket species)

 

[Idaboy]

Easy, temp > 35, skin off. Too much risk of bone sour

 

[Jethro]

@cnelk, you start your hide cut at belly/ flank and skin up to spine? Is that what I see in your pic?

 

[cnelk]

@cnelk, you start your hide cut at belly/ flank and skin up to spine? Is that what I see in your pic?

My first cut is around the hock, split / skin down to the EoS, skin around the hind quarter, up the belly, and down the ribs to the spine.

This gives me a nice place to lay the quarters after removing before getting them into a game bag.

Here’s a pic of my cow moose I did by myself that shows it better.