Elk down.

[MIKEXRAY]

Thought I would share my concerns about when you have an elk down. (for you young / new hunters ). I think alot about how un-prepared I was for lots of years and how much I would of been screwed if I did get an elk as far as getting it out of the woods. I hunted for years and only carried a knife. Stupid, I always told myself that you have to get one first and then worry about it, but that is so untrue. You need to worry about it now and plan for it. Over the years I've added items to my kit as I figured it out what works best. I take with me    Meat packs (2 even if hunting alone, dude you meet on the road could become your new best friend.), Knives, saw, gut hook, sharpen stone, game bags, lots of bottle water & towel to clean as you go, disposable gloves (long), two big plastic tubs for meat ( I put them in & keeps blood out of camper & ice down meat if long drive), garbage bags ( I lay them under the area I'm working on to keep dirt out), rope & disposable camera. I keep all the items above in a big bag (except tubs) bungied to my meat pack all ready to go. I also bought a dvd called quarter & debone big game by Seneca creek prod that was great. Shows you all you need to know to do a proper job of quatering. I also have a butcher I use and they give out cell phone numers to customers in case you come in late or weekend when closed. I carry the business card with my tag. Sweet to hang meat right away. So don't be like me, get all your stuff together now and be ready. Good luck this hunting season.

[SuperDave]

Good points, have been there myself!  Last year while hunting in Wyoming, my buddy had brought along a space blanket that we used to lay quarters on and kept them clean and also kept predators away! 

[DeKuma]

Been there too!

Got my first elk in 91.  All by myself, out in the middle of nowhere, with just a rifle and a small pocket knife.  Elk fell against a small tree and a stump and I could not get enough leverage to roll him over.  Had no rope to use to help roll him and keep him form rolling down the hill.  Managed to get the head cut-off and I packed that out and then went and called for help.  Luckily there it was near dark and there was a light snow falling to keep the meat cool.  I had no way of marking where he was so I left my hat hanging from a brach and then cut markers into the trees and made rock arrows on the ground on the way out so I could find him again.

No such thing as over prepared!

Great points and good post!

[bowhuntin]

Good topic, I got a quick question for those of you that hunt in the early bow season, once you have an elk down do you have much trouble with flies or bees around your meat?

If so what do you use to keep them at bay. I have heard pepper works and also I think it was water mixed with a bit of vinegar.

[DeKuma]

never had an elk down buthave bear or deer and the flies and bees were awful!  I would be interested in a good rememdy too!

[MountainWalk]

Ive found ok results with hanging a foot long strip of hide with a little meat on it hear and there hung off to the side of you and the carcass works. doesnt keep em all off, but seems to help.  in early archery camps, hand some raw meat or fish scrap and keep a pan of water under neath. they gorge on meat and fall into the water.

[MIKEXRAY]

I gutted mine first then rolled over away from pile. The I covered chest cavity opening with game bag while I skinned legs and quartered. Flies & bees prefered gut pile to what I was up to, they didn't bother me that much. Reading your reply Decuma reminds me I have a roll of that orange tape to mark a trail out, and also I have a strobe light from my buddy at the airforce base. Suppose to last three days on batteries, not that I need that long but should last at night if I want to go back or I thought the light might keep yotes or cougar from dining.

[TheHunt]

I bring two huge 3 foot by 4 foot game bags if hunting along way from the truck (4 + miles of hiking)  I can bone out an entire elk in those two bags.  If I am closer I will go get the other bags two bags and pack that out.  If I am hunting with another person they carry two bags.  Then you can quarter it or bone out the quarter per bag. 

I also bring a sawsall with the 12 or 14 inch blades.  You can quarter out an elk in about five minutes.  After you gut the elk you just move the quarters or meat bags away from the elk about 100 yard if possible in a coolest area you can find. 

If I have all four bags I can gut, skin, quarter and bag each in about 20 min.  If I have to cape the head that takes time as well...

gut first,
Skin one side first,  If you are caping the animal start at the spine and skin down.  After you have one side finished and the two legs are off at he knee you can lay two bags down and roll the elk over on the bags and continue the skinning.
After the skinning take the head off at base of the skull.
Measure three ribs from the bottom and cut and seperate the meat from the ribs.  You have to cut the spin and your knife can do it.  Sawsall for this works fantastic. 
Set the top half on top of the bottom half and run the sawsall through the spine.  The trick here is the last four inches slip two bags over the quarters as far as you can down the quarters.  Finish the cut with the sawsall, the quarters will seperate and fall over.  Just pull the bags ends and you have half the elk in bags.  Leave those bags down drag close together.  Now roll the back half up on the two filled bags.  Start cutting with sawsall until you get close and take the bags that were laying on the ground shake the crap off the bags (down wind) pull over each back quarter, finish the cut and pull the end of the bags and you know have each quarter in a game bag.


That is how I do it... Seams to work great, I have very little if any dirt or anything on the meat.  Packing out is where you call a young hunter and have them pack it out.

[scudmaster]

I am quite lucky to have not downed an animal in my first few hunts.  I was so woefully unprepared!  Thank goodness, I have had good friend willing to share their plentiful knowledge. 

Have any of you skinned elk from the back.  You can actually quarter out your elk without ever gutting it. Pretty slick and certainly much cleaner. 

Also I will include a link to the best skinning knife below.  It uses 2 1/2" scalpel blades that you replace in the field.  No longer need to sharpen that skinning knife.  (You still need a heavier blade to get through the thick stuff) but it is faster and sharper and much cleaner to work with than utility knives.  It also gives you a much better finished product for your trophy.

Also, Trash compactor bags are much more sturdy and less likely to leak than regular trash bags.

http://www.osograndeknives.com/Havalon/havalon_new_product_releases.htm

Hope you all find this info useful.

Scud

[TheHunt]

A friend gave me a Bladetech so I will most likely use that.  But I also purchased a Havalon. 

[Elknut1]

  Good post & stuff guys!! Always be prepared!!  Heck, I'd be embarrassed to share with you how I first started elk hunting & what I had with me instead of what I should've had with me!!!! Thanks, you've brought back memories!!!

  ElkNut1

[tmike]

I've carried a sawsall in my truck in anticipation, but never have used it. Early season I always take the 4 quarters, flank, backstraps and neck meat before I go in for the tenderloins. It gets the meat cooling a lot faster and it's very clean. I also make my own bags out of sheets. I've also passed on a few elk where I knew I couldn't get the meat out on time.

[dreamingbig]

Good topic, I got a quick question for those of you that hunt in the early bow season, once you have an elk down do you have much trouble with flies or bees around your meat?

If so what do you use to keep them at bay. I have heard pepper works and also I think it was water mixed with a bit of vinegar.

Two guys.  One to do the cutting and butchering while the other fans the animal with a large pine bough to keep them away.  Have shot two in the early season the past three years and have had tons of both flies and bees.  A distraction pile does help but not for all.  They seriously do not like a breeze so the fanning does help.  We have tried pepper with mixed results.  Getting the meat into game bags asap is the best bet but know that if there hasn't been significant cold weather you will have issues with flies and bees.  It was in the high 70s/low 80s on opening day last year.

Didn't lose any meat but fighting the heat and bugs wasn't fun.  It made us work faster.

[Todd_ID]

After 20-some elk down in the woods and many more with friends, I've got to say, "GREAT TOPIC!"  I learn something every year about meat care.  A lot of mine have been during early archery season, so it's something that I take very seriously.  What I learned this year was that normal black plastic garbage bags are not meat-friendly.  I've never had a problem using them, but I've read that we're better off using food-grade bags from a butcher. 

I use the garbage bags on top of normal heavy cotton game bags when I need to submerge the meat in a creek to help cool it out when it's over about 60 in the cool draws.  I always carry 4 garbage bags for this purpose (plus, they help in the rain).  I think that you only want food-grade bags touching meat, but I never have the bags touching meat, so that may be why I've never had a problem.

Cool and dry are the major buzz-words for caring for meat.  You have to get the original body heat out of the animal as quick as you can.  I like to submerge the quarters in a creek for a couple hours to get the temp moving down quickly; I put them in heavy cotton game bags then in garbage bags to keep the water off.  Body heat comes from proteins breaking down in the meat, and stopping this process is what we attempt to do to reduce spoilage.  Air circulation all around the meat is a must: you can, and will, lose meat if you leave it lying on snow since no air is moving around the meat to carry the heat away and snow is an insulator.  You can leave meat hanging in a cool creek bottom in 70-75 degree days for a week without worrying about losing meat, but you have to hang it or build a bridge between stumps to keep it off the ground. 

As for flies and bees....  Working quickly is a key thing since the blow flies can work pretty quickly.  I just swish them away as I'm working on cleaning and quartering then get each quarter in game bags as fast as I can.  I soak my bags in the summer time in a bucket of lemon juice and crushed red peppers then hang them over the line to dry before vacuum sealing them for the season.  This works well for keeping the critters away from the hanging quarters, but it doesn't help any for the cleaning process.

[MIKEXRAY]

Great ideas guys, thanks. Shows that no matter how good you think you are doing things, there are other ideas to fine tune that you have not thought of. One thing I know is I never have enough water with me to clean knife, saw, meat etc. I bring more each time but always run out.