I shoot upwards of fifty geese every fall and don't have freezer space for that many carcasses. They get boned.
Anyone who throws away the thighs on grouse or pheasants should be cited. I am not an advocate of the step on wings and strip the breast only method.
I use a four-inch drop point hunting knife to dress uplands. Make sure it's fairly sharp and as first step before skinning, place wing on cutting board and with blade as close to shoulder as possible, push down on top of blade with free hand until the bone breaks. Sometimes I wiggle the blade back and forth while pushing down. Then cut away wings. Go to legs and cut skin and tendons at knee knuckle. Then bend the joint sideways till cartilage pops. Then finish cutting the scale skin lower leg away. In Montana one leg/foot of rooster must remain attached. I usually just leave it hanging by a flap of skin so it can be tucked out of the way when bagging it (one rooster will fit snugly in a quart freezer bag if breast inserted first - I use the bags with zippers as they are easier to close when bag filled to capacity). Once legs and wings are removed, start skinning from center of breast. Chop off the tail with knife same as wings when you get to that point. Should cut off the bung hole with tail. Entire rest of skin (sans wings, feet, and tail) should stay together with head when it's cut off. Then gut the bird. Depending on how badly the bird is shot up, I can do one in five minutes. For birds that are going to be consumed, I bone out. Leave wings attached, skin back the breast and bone it, pull skin back off legs and thighs starting at thigh-drumstick joint and skinning both directions, bend thigh back till the hip joint breaks loose, cut skinned thigh and leg off together at hip joint, then bone thigh meat, then break the thigh to drumstick joint by bending backwards on upper leg bone, cut away the drumstick, clean all boned meat sections, place in saltwater overnight in fridge, drain, and prepare for cooking.
A word of warning: you cannot transport boned meat. Carcasses must be maintained whole as proof of possession limit. One leg must be retained on pheasants in Montana (to identify bird species and gender) and one wing on all other uplands and waterfowl.
