Good description!

ElkCampMaster:

I would rather gut the animal than go through all that to get th the inner tender loin. Thanks for the information. Good luck.

Not me, sounds much worse than it is. ElkampMastergives a good descriptionfor someone who has never doneit before and needs landmarks. However, the short version of the description is this:

Make a cut through the abdominal body wall just under the backbone from the back of the ribs to the hip. Reach in and find the tenders. Cut them out taking care not to slice through any guts.

Takes just a few minutes to get one out once you learn how.

fcf,

I've been doing that for many years (20 +) on hogs and deer. That was before ATVs' was had by all. When you have to carry on your back thru swamps, across running creeks, etc., it makes a big difference. I'm talking mostly whitetails and hogs, I can't even imagine having to pack out a quarter elk or moose. I'm sure I would gutless on these animals because of the terrain.
dog1

This is the method I use. I even go as far as to carry 4 game bags and about 12' of rope. Upon locating the downed elk, I start to quarter, instead of gutting and going back to camp. I quarter the elk, hang the meat bags, then go back to camp. Depending on how far from camp and the terrain,I sometimes will carry my frame pack, and one quarter will go back to camp with me, saves one trip!!

The mock tenders are just as good eating as the tenders, and are located in the front of the cavity, and are the size of a deers tenderloins. How would you remove them with the gutless method????? They are completely housed by the front 3-4 ribs.

We use this methodquite often on pigs and feral goats. I tend to do it only when it's a gut shot but a lot of the pig hunters on the big island only do it this way. You do loose some meat including the meat between the ribs and the meat that holds the guts. You can still "scrape" the ribs but that little bit between each rib cannot be gotten. I always considered it a quick method but not a good one.

How do you get the tenderloin if you don't gut it?
Now THAT'S wasted meat!
It don't take long to dump the guts, feeds the yotes while you're at it.

I personally don't prefer the "no-gut" technique, and I have tried it on one elk and one deer. To each his own, though, it seems like a lot of folks on here like this method.

See, I have not taken an animal (deer, antelope, or elk) out whole in five years. I quarter literally everything I kill. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, but I hunt back off the roads as far as I can get. Even meat tag does usually drop 1-2 miles off the nearest road. Dragging something that far is cruel and unusual punishment.

I got excited the first time I read about the no-gut deal, so I tried it a couple times. My complaints:

1) You are in constant danger of punching into the guts with an errant knife stroke and making a real mess. We've probably all experienced this unpleasant situation in normal field dressing. With the no-gut technique, you can get into a mess the entire time you're removing each hind quarter. Maybe I'm just a spazz with a knife...

2) Make no mistake, getting out the t-loin with the guts in there is a chore. Especially is this so if you're dealing with a deer or antelope with a smaller t-loin.

3) With the guts still in, it makes more weight you have to deal with once you get the top two quarters off and then have to flip the animal over to get at the other two quarters. This is especially true with a good-sized elk, whose guts might weigh in at 150+ lbs.

How long does it really take to do a basic gutting job? Remember, because you're just going to quarter it immediately anyhow, you really don't have to worry about things like reaming the butthole or cutting out the windpipe. You just whip out the gutpile in 5 minutes and then it's out of your way for the rest of the process.

Again, this is heavy into an opinion area, and individual results may vary, so do whatever you want. If you're elbow-deep into an elk or deer in the first place, you did something right! The rest is details!

I've heard of several people using this technique before, but like anything else it requires practice to make it worthwhile. I'd rather gut them the traditional way then quarter them with a couple of lightweight axes. Takes no time at all.