Bones In, Bones Out?
08-28-2003, 08:33 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gunnison CO USA
Posts: 197
RE: Bones In, Bones Out?
Depends: I used to hunt " Far, Solo, High and Light" quite a bit before busting my right leg in half at the knee 3 years ago. Without help to pack out and being considerable distances from roads, boning out was the only way to get an elk out quickly and completely. If you are reasonably close to a motorized vehicle legal road or are hunting with horses, it is probably optional. There exists a photo montage and instructions for the field butchering of big game (this one uses an elk) wthout even gutting that is somewhere out there. Perhaps someone else on the board has that link. I' ve used the technique at least 4 times, and found that it took 2 kills to become fast and proficient at it.
08-29-2003, 08:08 AM
#5
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Posts: 1,964
RE: Bones In, Bones Out?
Absolutely debone!
If you want gourmet cuts of elk meat when it is all done, then don' t leave any bone or more importantly bone bits or bone marrow from a saw in the meat. Depending how many elk we may have down and how hard we are going to have to push our draft horse packing it out, we may debone in the field or just quarter and skin -- in any case bones don' t belong in your freezer.
We butcher all our elk in camp. Quality control runs high -- pick that hair, trim that silverskin, trim that fat and sinew and anything else that doesn' t look quite right. A butcher could not make a living pouring over elk the way we do -- but the results are outstanding -- both in terms of quality of meat, but also financially.
Last year: 5 elk --- if we' d paid to have them butchered in Craig, then that would have been $1000 and if we' d paid to have them packed out with horses then that would have been $1125 for a total of $2,125. Renting a horse to do the packing and cooperatively processing and distributing the meat so we can send it home with everyone all wrapped, coded, labelled makes for a satisfying end to elk camp.
Some folks that have joined us that used to do it the other way say it has put the joy back into elk hunting. (For them, there was no better way to screw up a perfectly good elk hunt than to shoot one because then the troubles began.)
Never Go Undergunned,
EKM
If you want gourmet cuts of elk meat when it is all done, then don' t leave any bone or more importantly bone bits or bone marrow from a saw in the meat. Depending how many elk we may have down and how hard we are going to have to push our draft horse packing it out, we may debone in the field or just quarter and skin -- in any case bones don' t belong in your freezer.
We butcher all our elk in camp. Quality control runs high -- pick that hair, trim that silverskin, trim that fat and sinew and anything else that doesn' t look quite right. A butcher could not make a living pouring over elk the way we do -- but the results are outstanding -- both in terms of quality of meat, but also financially.
Last year: 5 elk --- if we' d paid to have them butchered in Craig, then that would have been $1000 and if we' d paid to have them packed out with horses then that would have been $1125 for a total of $2,125. Renting a horse to do the packing and cooperatively processing and distributing the meat so we can send it home with everyone all wrapped, coded, labelled makes for a satisfying end to elk camp.
Some folks that have joined us that used to do it the other way say it has put the joy back into elk hunting. (For them, there was no better way to screw up a perfectly good elk hunt than to shoot one because then the troubles began.)
Never Go Undergunned,
EKM
