Charlie,

If you look at the picture of the cow, "before and after", you can see one of the "troughs" where we took out the back strap, it is a good 2 1/2 maybe 3 feet long (depends how far you go up into "neck" territory) and about 4"x3". This trough is bounded by bone on two sides. The tenderloin was immediately below this backstrap trough, but to the rear of the critter with the "wings of the vertabrae creating the separation between them (+).

Hindquarters. The back end of the critter is always where the dirty work lies BUT the good news is you can avoid almost of that [but if you have a bull you still don't want to (and don't have to) fool with the ureathia]. [Also don't forget how you are going to get evidence of sex (testacles or udder halves) to stay with those two rear quarters, not hard but you have to think about it before you go skinning up a storm.]

Now, just pretend you are doing the traditional method and are making the same cuts through the thin flesh to expose the pelvis so you can cut it with your saw or hatchet. Once you expose flat bone of the pelvis near the centerline (where you would normally cut it), turn your blade 90 degrees and start following (filleting) along the pelvis bone laterally to the "outside" and lift the hind quarter meat up enough out of the way with one hand so you can see what you are doing and keep cutting with the other. The distance you have to go is amazingly short (maybe 5-6" or less) on an elk and you'll come to the obvious ball joint which you will work your way through and then that hind quarter is just a few more slices away from "coming off". When it does it should immediately go into a game bag and getting hung in the shade of a tree right away to stay clean and cool (as should the other cuts as they "come off")*. BTW we skin all the hide off the quarter, down to just below the "knee", before cutting quarters off of the animal.

* If you are deboning then there is more work to do before putting it into game bags (assuming you are leaving with it right away). One fellow I know carries a 6' by 6' piece of plastic and 4 landscaping stakes. This is his deboning area and that is all that is done on that plastic is cut meat from bones --- no hide, no hair, no dirt, no nothing else. he holds the quarter vertically with the leg in his hand and the big end of the quarter on the plastic. About two or three slices and the meat is all off of the bone in big chunks. Then he bags it up in equal weight groups for packing into panniers (or onto your back).

With an elk (way back in) about the only way to handle them is to make "smaller parts" out of "big parts" --- the Alaskan method works great for that.

This part is better than shooting them, gourmet elk coming up!

EKM