Get off my back!

[Jonathan_S]

How do you comply with the Washington state regulation for proof of sex? Just a question I have always thought of when boning out an animal.

Dave

I just hope I don’t run into that problem as I leave the sex organs at the kill, but if I worried about it, I would leave them attached to a small chunk of meat and pack them out. Hopefully they will accept and enjoy the pictures with us and not cause a hassle.

Just leave a nut attached to a small piece of the inner thigh

[shallowforks]

Don't forget the liver, all the rib meat, the kidneys, the tongue and rocky mtn oysters (leave the oysters if its during the rut!!!)  I leave mine bone so I get all the marrow bones too

[7mmfan]

Leaving evidence of sex is easy, just split the nuts in two and leave one dangling on each hind quarter. Takes a little thinking the first couple times.

As far as the tenderloins and organs, I get them after I have the animal completely quartered and boned out. Once all that's done, spill the guts and reach in and get everything out the same way you would if you field dressed him
 
I have never understood the guys that try and wiggle the tenderloins out through a little slit in the ribs or trying to hold the stomach out of the way. Just dump those guts and go get em!

[Jonathan_S]

[quote author=7mmfan
I have never understood the guys that try and wiggle the tenderloins out through a little slit in the ribs or trying to hold the stomach out of the way. Just dump those guts and go get em!
[/quote]

I've never understood the guys who think it's hard to make the slit and grab the tenderloins 

Sorry Rory lol

[7mmfan]

[quote author=7mmfan
I have never understood the guys that try and wiggle the tenderloins out through a little slit in the ribs or trying to hold the stomach out of the way. Just dump those guts and go get em!

I've never understood the guys who think it's hard to make the slit and grab the tenderloins 

Sorry Rory lol
[/quote]

  I don't have the dexterity of skilled seamster! More like a semi skilled bludgeoner

[Humptulips]

I have never and never will do the gutless method. I've seen it done and watched videos of it done and frankly I am appalled by the wastage.
Call me old school then, I'll turn 64 in March so it's the school I graduated from.
We're talking elk now.
1st get the guts out, a piece of rope is good to tie the leg back. I used to whack the head off and pack it out but not so much anymore.
2nd I pack in packboards, a cum-a-long, some rope and a small block and tackle along with meat bags and a saw.
cut a pole and tie to tree you are hanging the elk in about shoulder high. You can walk up pole to hang cum-a-long. Start going up and skinning. The block and tackle go on the other hind leg to pull to the side and spread. Once skinned I cut the forelegs and neck off and bag.
3rd part has changed a bit. Back in the 70s and 80s a smaller elk like a spike or a raghorn or even a bigger bull if it was close to the road, I would cut in half. Three loads, front half, hind half and head, forelegs, neck and gear on a third pack.
A really big one would make four trips, saw the hind half in two and the front half makes three with the other stuff rounding out with four trips.
I had a three year run back in the 80s of what now everybody calls 7 points, used to call them fivers. All of them were four trips and none were close to the road. Oh, to be young again!
This last years ended up being 6 trips. Hey you slow down when you get older. Quarters, still take the neck and forelegs off. It makes a nicer pack out of the front quarters. Then the head and gear and this year I had to pack my powersaw in because there was a lot of blowdown to go through so that made for the sixth trip.
Only once has it taken more then one day to get an elk out once I started packing. I would say 50% of my elk have been solo and the other half I have had help.
Never did one laying on the ground. If out in a clearcut always yarded it out but that has been very few.

My initiation into packing elk was when I was I think 13 but maybe 14. Two spikes down on the Kalalock easily better then a mile off the road. Dad and his partner and his just out of college son and me. Skinned them and cut them half. One trip out. I got a front half. Almost out to the car there was a log jamb you had to cross. Dad came back and took my pack from there because he had caulk shoes and those logs were slippery so I got out of the last 500 feet of that pack.

Deer, never had to cut one in half except a three point I killed one time that had to go across a really treacherous slide. Mostly just make a pack out of them or drag out. Game cart comes in handy when you get to the road and you still have a way to go to the gate.

[shallowforks]

I have never and never will do the gutless method. I've seen it done and watched videos of it done and frankly I am appalled by the wastage.
Call me old school then, I'll turn 64 in March so it's the school I graduated from.
We're talking elk now.

Im sure many do leave a lot of good meat and offal behind whether they do gutless or not but I assure you it is very much possible to pick an elk clean using the gutless method. I think the amount of waste comes more from the knowledge of the hunter and not from the method

[7mmfan]

This is what was left of my elk two years ago. The only way I could have gotten more meat off would have been to cut the neck off completely, which I've considered.

[WapitiTalk1]

Geez Rory, you’re like a pack of hungry wolves on a kill  . You really cleaned that bull up!

[KFhunter]

iwsh everyone would clean up their elk like that,  good on ya 

[7mmfan]

Thanks! I'm sure the birds and coyotes were disappointed, just the way I want them.

[Tbar]

I have never and never will do the gutless method. I've seen it done and watched videos of it done and frankly I am appalled by the wastage.
Call me old school then, I'll turn 64 in March so it's the school I graduated from.
We're talking elk now.

Im sure many do leave a lot of good meat and offal behind whether they do gutless or not but I assure you it is very much possible to pick an elk clean using the gutless method. I think the amount of waste comes more from the knowledge of the hunter and not from the method

I  agree 100% on this. I've witnessed both sides of this.  The further back, the tends to be more waste (in my limited experience). I'm not one to waste anything of it can be avoided and I use the gutless method.

[boneaddict]

iwsh everyone would clean up their elk like that,  good on ya 

   Nicely done

[boneaddict]

When the situation presents itself, I load it into the truck with a tractor and haul it to another guys field to take the pics and do the gutting....


I’ve done both gut and gutless
Leave on the bone if backpacking and one meat bag for loose meat.  I know, makes little sense for weight, but I feel it’s easier to manage, hang, clean and cool. 

[Humptulips]

This is what was left of my elk two years ago. The only way I could have gotten more meat off would have been to cut the neck off completely, which I've considered.

I have to say that is the exception rather than the rule. Lot of work to do it right and I'm not sure I see the point over getting it home where you can work on it in comfort rather than a rain storm which seems to be the rule more often then not.
What I have seen is typically the rib meat gets left, the flanks, forelegs and sometimes the neck. Also I am friends with a butcher and I see these pieced out elk come in to his shop and they are usually filthy. I find it so much easier to keep things clean the less cutting that happens in the field.
I will say you are one up on me in that there is no way I am taking the liver.