Making It Easy Loading An Elk

[bobbydean]

I have always taken my carcass, deer, oryx, or antelope whole from the field, Not the most efficient, but the way I have done it.

If Buzz says it not the right way, I agree, I am serious, The man knows his stuff.

But if I had an elk by a roadway, I would take it whole

 

[tjones]

TFF!

Real fine place there.. snicker

24 hour is calling you,,,,,,back.

 

[BuzzH]

24 hour is calling you,,,,,,back.

Shhhh...don't scare her away.

 

[shrapnel]

The inside of your house if you bone out your meat...

The inside of your house if you take your elk out whole...

 

[onpoint]

this one's gotten way weird...................... Do guys who get their elk out whole prefer boxers or tighty whiteys????????

 

[Gerald Martin]

I'm just mad because I never kill an elk where I can get it out whole. I hate all you guys.

 

[Khunter]

Granted I did put a whole moose in my truck this year, but it basically is not worth dragging a big critter any distance at all. I quarter pretty much everything, everytime. Too easy to do for it to be worth fooling around with. Even if they were to magically fall near a road.

The only reason I even bothered getting this moose into truck whole was it was headed STRAIGHT to my meat cutter 2 hours away. And because I already roped it with a 400 foot rope to a truck sitting on a 2 track 300 feet away so I could at least get it out of the middle of a deep, large pond.

If it had not piled up in a pond, I would have cut it up where it fell a few hundred feet from the 2 track. Dragging that large animal even with a rope and truck was a PIA.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

this one's gotten way weird...................... Do guys who get their elk out whole prefer boxers or tighty whiteys????????

Pretty much like every other thread on 24hrcf.

 

[ida homer]

Everyone bow down to the mighty BuzzH!! Be careful or he might post every pic that he has quartering his critters just to prove that he is Cameron Hanes's right hand man in the hunting royalty :hump::hump:

I hit the nail on the head, what's next buzz, a picture of all the cars? What is this, MTV cribs?

You crack me up. If you have to let everyone know how cool you are, then you are definitely not that cool. Shit, even I've realized that at half your age.

 

[onpoint]

I hit the nail on the head. People quoting themselves?

 

[jlh321]

You didn't get your cow back, how does getting an animal out whole effect the quality?

I am sure I got my elk back. The butcher was surprised when I had an elk that needed processed in late November (In South Dakota the seasons had been closed for over 3 weeks).. The butcher I used with the young cow was not my normal butcher and will not be getting any more animals from me. I received the meat frozen in less than 1 week of when I dropped it off to him, I believe the cow was not aged properly.
IMO proper aging has the most effect on getting "quality" meat. Aging whole on carcass will give you the least amount of waste from drying out.
How do you age your animals?

 

[sbhooper]

After reading all of this, I may as well throw my hat in the ring.

First, Buzz pretty well nailed everything in his posts. Why would anyone want to take an elk home whole? That is a lot of hassle and garbage to get rid of. All of the bones stay in the field when I kill an elk. I do the same with an antelope or whatever.

I have not seen a place where you can legally drive to an elk for many years. We got a talking-to from the BLM Ranger last winter for driving outside of drifted-in tracks. He could have fined us, but was very good about it. The only place that was totally OK with driving to pick up an elk, was on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico. If you could drive to it, you could go.

As far as aging goes, my animals get aged for whatever time it takes to get them from field to freezer. If I am out-of-state, then that may be several days in a cooler. If at home, the deer usually goes straight into the freezer, or spends some time in my downstairs fridge before gong into the freezer. I have done all of my own processing for many years, as I have been burned by processors and they are expensive when you kill as many animals as I do. I have found that meat tenderizes/ages while vac sealed in the freezer. Meat that has been in my freezer for an extended period of time, is definitely more tender. The flavor is no different aged "appropriately" or not. The only thing that really changes is the level of tenderness.

Unless you have a walk-in cooler, you can do more harm than good hanging animals in varying temperatures. Do what you want, but it is ridiculous. You are not dealing with beef! Try hanging an antelope for awhile and see what kind of mush you end up with. They need zero aging, as they are already super tender.

Back to the original post, good job figuring out how to make a job easier.

 

[Rancho Loco]

If I had a choice of cutting up an elk wedged into a tangle of blowdown, or cutting it up on the garage floor, the garage wins every time.

But that's just me.

Good thing we have a coulee right next to the rancho, it makes it real easy to toss the bones into, old washers and dryers, too.. Sometimes a car, etc.. Yeehaw.

 

[Nameless Range]

Interesting thread. Congrats on the elk shrapnel.

I would agree that it is nearly always easier to part an elk out as opposed to dealing with it whole. I think this applies to pretty much all big game animals.

That said, I think there is a certain aesthetic that exists when the whole animal is brought home in one piece. Last night I helped my brother, who rolled his ankle earlier this week, haul out a big mule deer - probably a half mile or so. It certainly would have been easier to cut it up, but afterwards we swung by our folk's house to have a beer and show them the deer intact.

 

[shootbrownelk]

My 30x40 shop has an overhead winch for hanging critters and it's set-up for processing them. I've always brought out my animals whole whenever I could. I enjoy doing my own butchering. I processed a cow moose that I shot this year and she came out whole. I was surprised at the number of guys on here that figure it's their way or the highway. As far as I could tell the OP did nothing illegal or unethical to get that much negative reaction. I figure that everybody has their own way of doing things, and Jimmy Crack Corn.

 

[Rancho Loco]

I might not live in city limits, but you're not seeing a sheetrock wrap anywhere in my shack!

 

[shrapnel]

I was surprised at the number of guys on here that figure it's their way or the highway.

The real disappointment is how this thread has become a thrashing on how someone else's methods are better and how illegal the initial activity is. That was not the purpose at all, this has all the earmarks of the discontent that has ruined the 24Hourcpfire...

 

[Art Vandeley]

I like the tractor pics Shrapnel, that's the way to do it! I think the winch in the back is a cool idea. I could see it in a lot of non hunting ways as well. Such as winching in a small row boat to the back of the truck etc. Congrats on the elk.

 

[noharleyyet]

Hunting season over already?

 

[putm2sleep]

Great discussion and talking points!
Some excellent ribbing as well.
Congrats on whole animals - not my style but I dig it!