One tactic I saw a guide use last summer with Caribou is keeping a packboard with him with the large waterproof bags. He carried it with him everywhere with his survival gear in it so it would stay dry. After deboninga n animal, the meat was place into the waterproof, airtight bag and carried out. This is benfeficial if your in Bear country and stops the meat from spoiling in anyway. Plus it keeps the meat clean aswell as you. Good luck with your hunts.

Fiar

Lots of good advice above. I would agree that it takes a considerable amount of time to properly cut, bag and hang an elk. It took my partner and I a full day to cut and pack out our kill. It was about 6 miles off the nearest trail and took 3 trips. In the future I' m renting a horse!

Hiring a feller ' thout a special use permit can land you an' him in hot water. Its a pet peave of mine, outfitters are issued game retrieval permits, but its not in their best interest to provide the service, so they don' t. We' ve had fellers cited for illegal outfitting because they took a few bucks for gettin' somebody' s elk out. Its a wacky world.

[Deleted by Admins]

Helicopter is the best way I know of getting one out. Next comes ATV, renting a horse if you don' t own one,Llama and then Good old Back in that order...All Kidding aside...if you want to do it best way is to bone the 4 quarters and cut out the tenderloins and neck meat and leave the rest where it sits. You' ll eliminate a lot of scent that way and make a back breaking job a little easier on yourself. Did last bull that way and with a friend did it in 2 trips including the head.

http://home.att.net/~sajackson/bugle.html Try this link I got it from a board member but can' t remember who.

and they say the one that gets his elk is the lucky one ?

I just wonder about those who bone out the Elk before packing it out in states that require you to have proof of the sex of the animal. What do you save as proof of that?

MinnFinn

You can still leave the sex organs on the meat when you bone it out. Just don' t cut them off. Otherwise take the head with you.

How many people don' t think ahead of time on what to do AFTER killing an elk ? Good discussion.

Theres 2 ways I know of of getting an elk out assuming you are walking in and hunting.

#1 - debone and pack it out. Damn tough work
#2 - pay an outfitter to go get it. You still gotta do the work or quartering/deboning, but at leat this method will save your back (at a $200-300 price)


ATV' s will work if the animal dies on a road or you do the illegal thing and take your ATV off road. Elk hunting is hard, as it should be.