I was reading an article out of the Petersen's Hunting magazine and ran across something i was not familiar with. They had a picture of a guy with a backpack and a deer strapped to his backpack. The deer only consisted of the cape, head and of course the antlers. The caption read that the hunter boned and caped the deer and headed back to camp. Does this mean he left the rest of the remains in the woods? Is this legal? Is this something you do when you have a long haul back to camp through tough terrain? I don't know just looking for some answers.

I'm guessing he would have removed the head and cape and taken the bones out of the meat (and off the carcass)before bagging it and packing it out. Makes for easier transport and no dragging. Same thing is done with sheep in the mountains where dragging isn't practical.

SouthernCross it is legal to do, and commonly done for the reason you posed, long trek and have to carry it out on foot. There is truly nothing left in the woods, if the head, rack, cape and boned meat is taken.