Gutless field dressing!
 

Well, I got a cow elk on Friday, and for the first time, I tried the gut less field dressing method. Let me say, I will NEVER gut another animal. That was the slickest field dress job ever. When I got home, I only had 10 minutes of work before taking the elk to the cooler, and Wednesday when I cut her up, there will only be the leg bones and shoulder blades for waste, what a way to go!

What say everyone else?

Later,

Marcial

Why not go all the way with the method and leave all the leg bones in the woods with the guts! It's the only way to fly!

Plan to do that with my deer this year. But handling 200 lbs of elk meat is a different story in 85 degree heat!

thats sounds nice! good job. never tried this method but ive heard about it. do you get the tenderloins? whats the approach if you do?

You can slice through just below the back bone in front of the hind quarter to get the tenderloins out. There are two similar muscles in the front that are worth getting as well. They are small on a deer, but decent on an elk.

Actually, it was pretty easy. After I cut the back straps off, I just very carefully cut into the gut cavity while she was on her side, and worked into the tenderloins and cut them out. Worked pretty good.

I did it on my muley and elk last year, it was great. However in Indiana it is illegal to quarter an animal -- you have to check it in intact before processing.

Usually this is not a problem, but I do have permission on one area where there would be the need to drag a deer 1/2-3/4 mile through very rough terrain; I only do turkeys there as a result.

Spaniel,

You can't leave evidence of sex attached to one quarter and check it that way, like the penis sheath, or part of the skin from the udder?

Luckily here, all we have to keep is the scalp and antlers or horns, and keep it along with the meat. Interesting how game laws are different in each state.

Later,

Marcial

Nope here in WI too we have to register the entire deer. Makes it a pain sometimes and why the regulation reads like ti does, haha, I don't know. Why the legs? WCL

Deer must be kept intact, except for field dressing and skinning, prior to registration.
The lower legs, up to the tarsus joint (“ankle or hock”) on the hind legs and up to the
carpus joint (“wrist or knee”) on the front legs, may also be removed. If the skin or

legs are removed prior to registration, they must be kept with the carcass until after
the deer is registered.

Exemption:

Registration Station. Registration forms are available at deer registration stations.

I did this for the first time in 2006 with a bull elk and like you said slick and snot and no other way to do it.

In Utah you are just supposed to have evidence of sex attached to the carcass. I suppose you could interpret that to mean the carcass has to be intact but it's just not reasonable to drag a big bull elk 2+ miles over rough terrain because soon you'd be guilty of wasting game.

All the more reason to leave the bones in the field.

Oh yes, you can easily keep evidence of sex attached to the hind quarters. I've been doing it since I first tried it with antelope in '84.

I also carry a "weight lifter's" belt in my daypack. That helps support my back with all of that bending over.

I have boned elk for years now. It is amazingly easy and quick. I carry a new plastic painter's tarp in my backpack. You can lay that out and put the quarters on it when removed. That way you can bone the meat without getting it dirty, put it in a game bag, and you're only packing out pure meat. To do the boning, just skin the animal feet to back, then roll it over and repeat. The quarters all come off with just a knife. To get at the tenderloins, so as not to even have to open the gut cavity at all, I have a small hatchet that I carry. You just pop the ribs close to the back - it's easy to reach in and cut out the meat.
Last fall, my brother in law shot a bull right at dark. We had him boned and back at camp (which included a 20 minute drive in the Ranger) in just over 2 hours. I carry a large cooler with me (live in Arizona and even in November the daytime temperatures where we hunt can be in the 70s and will ruin meat in no time). By boning, you can keep the meat on ice and no spoilage. We hunted for another 3 days before we even went home. The beauty of this too is that we kept the meat on ice for another week or so (I always age for 10 days - 2 weeks). By putting the meat in the cooler tipped up so the water drains - block ice underneath and on top, it will be kept at a perfect aging temperature. The worst thing you can do to meat in my opinion is to freeze it right away. After aging, just cut it up, double wrap in freezer paper and you're done (no processing costs - with an elk these can be substantial). Finally, boning eliminates any risk of chronic wasting disease because you're not cutting into spinal tissue, etc.

I've done elk this way for years. We did a moose a couple of weeks ago. We carry several cotton bags that we put the meat in as we cut it off.

Mo matter how many times I read on how to get the loins out, I guess I'll have to see it because I can't picture it. I don't have a lot od experience with big game either so that is probably part of the problem. Just one elk under my belt. Are the loins only connected on each end? I don't remember from last year.

The loins are connected all the way through. One thing to remember is that the points on the spine actually cover them up. They start right about the last couple ribs and go back from there. I too was having a hard time picturing it, then I did it, and it was pretty simple.

im going to have to give this a try this year, if/when i stick something!

That description helps. Thanks! Hopefully in 2 1/2 weeks I'll be able to put it to practical use.

:fighting0007:

Nope. The deer may not be dismembered until after check-in. This is not a bad issue, in most places in the state you'd never have to drag far to a vehicle or it's open fields where you can get a cart in. Nothing like out west.

But on that one particular property I hunt, there is zero access, I would only shoot a trophy back there.

Gutless here too. I even do it that way with deer and pigs down on my hunting property that I can drive right up to. I keep meaning to make a table just for skinning and quartering them at my campsite to save me from bending over them. I've done a few pigs on my tailgate and that saves the back a little. I skin one side then remove the quarters and backstrap and other decent meat (the neck has quite a bit of good stew meat on it) then flip them over and repeat. I generallly get the tenderloin, but on some smaller pigs I don't bother with it.

Here's the last pig that I did that way - http://padens.com/v-web/gallery/album07/piggie_half I even took the ribs off that one. You can also see how tiny a pigs lungs are and how they are nearly completely covered by their front leg.

We tried it on 2 out of the 3 elk we got this year. Pretty simple and way easier and cleaner than going into the gut cavity. We cut the skin along the back over the spine first then down the side so we would uncover just the quarter we were working on. It kept the flys and dirt off the meat and was pretty easy to do and fast. Then after both quarters, straps, tenders and neck meat off on one side just flip him over and get the other side started. Getting the tender loins out was a bit tricky on the first but we soon found that you could cut in with a knife near the rear end of the spine after the straps are gone and get them out. A big pile of bones, hide and a swelling paunch was all that was left. I would hate to be that first yote on the scene when he ripped into that gas bag. :lmao: