Absolutely debone!

If you want gourmet cuts of elk meat when it is all done, then don' t leave any bone or more importantly bone bits or bone marrow from a saw in the meat. Depending how many elk we may have down and how hard we are going to have to push our draft horse packing it out, we may debone in the field or just quarter and skin -- in any case bones don' t belong in your freezer.

We butcher all our elk in camp. Quality control runs high -- pick that hair, trim that silverskin, trim that fat and sinew and anything else that doesn' t look quite right. A butcher could not make a living pouring over elk the way we do -- but the results are outstanding -- both in terms of quality of meat, but also financially.

Last year: 5 elk --- if we' d paid to have them butchered in Craig, then that would have been $1000 and if we' d paid to have them packed out with horses then that would have been $1125 for a total of $2,125. Renting a horse to do the packing and cooperatively processing and distributing the meat so we can send it home with everyone all wrapped, coded, labelled makes for a satisfying end to elk camp.

Some folks that have joined us that used to do it the other way say it has put the joy back into elk hunting. (For them, there was no better way to screw up a perfectly good elk hunt than to shoot one because then the troubles began.)

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM