A couple of questions here. I have not hunted elk as of yet, but my family has previously only used the traditional gutting meathod for deer, elk and antelope. I only have a deer tag this year, but was wondering how well this would work for mule deer from around 150 to around 225 pounds or so (about the sizes of deer I have shot). We usually don't mess with rib meat on deer, except for hamburger (sometimes, just depends on how big the deer is and how much fat is included with the rib meat), and I don't think that would be a problem with this method, as it looks like it would be fairly easy to trim the ribs as well as the neck. Only questions I have would be how to get the liver and heart and the inside tenderloins out? The liver and heart aren't as important, but would like to save them because my uncle likes them for some odd reason, but the tenderloins are a must. The space on a deer would be a lot smaller than on an elk, and I don't think it would be very easy to get the tenderloins out between the ribs. Would it be possible to get these from the throat without having to mess with the gut area? Or would it just be easier with a smaller animal to do a deer the "traditional" way. The only reason I would do this method would be for putting on a pack frame if I were more than a mile or so away from the road, which would also involve deboning the quarters to make the pack lighter.