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Butchering an Elk.

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Butchering an Elk.

Postby Swede » 02 09, 2023 •  [Post 1]

Last September my brother came out to watch and help a little as I butchered my elk. It was late at night; my lighting was poor as I had forgotten my headlamp. The ground was very steep below the elk. When I stood on the ground on the lower side, I could barely see over the top of the elk carcass. In addition, I had nothing around to tie anything heavy off to. When it was all over, my brother said it was the worst butchering job he had ever seen. At that I looked at him and simply said, you should have seen the job I did on the elk last year. At any rate the meat was all clean and none was wasted. It made hamburger if it did not go out for steaks.

Maybe you can give me a good butchering tip or have a good butchering story.
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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby saddlesore » 02 09, 2023 •  [Post 2]

Could be worse.Tip Do not let elk fall in a beaver pond. 2nd tip. Wait until elk is on flat ground.

This was after I pulled her out of the beaver pond with my mule and scraped a lot of the mud off.

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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby wawhitey » 02 09, 2023 •  [Post 3]

Butchering in the woods is usually less than perfect. Especially if the job is being done by 2 hands. And when its hot and time is a factor. If we all killed everything in 20 degree weather we could take our time, but thats not always how it goes. It is what it is. Stew meat is very useful too.
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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby Lefty » 02 09, 2023 •  [Post 4]

My last deer hardly took any time to package. Most of the muscle groups were separated in the mountain. No bone came down at all .
Andrews 2021 elk same thing Totally boned.
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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby 7mmfan » 02 10, 2023 •  [Post 5]

The only animal I've ever completely boned out in the mountains was a bear, and that was because the majority of that was being turned into sausage, and we had to pack it about 9 miles with camp on our backs. Deer and elk, I prefer to leave bone in the hind quarters at least, I think they pack and age better that way. The front shoulders are mainly roasts so I don't worry too much about it.

I don't have any dramatic, or even entertaining, mountain butchering stories. If there was one that comes to memory as particularly difficult, it was a spike bull that I killed in Idaho in 2018. Dad and I were 5-6 miles back on a closed road system. It was noon and we were eating lunch when two spikes came over the ridge across the gulley from us. They disappeared down into the bottom where we could see all around and didn't come out. Dad got setup on the road and I went down in after them. I got to right where I knew they had to be and backed off a little and managed to cow call them on a line right to me. I dropped the one in the lead and he rolled straight down the hill right into the creek in the bottom. Not only was he in the creek, but he was laying in a mess of tangled alders that were growing out of it. Dad and I tried everything we could to move that animal but he was locked in. We ended up cutting down a couple of small alders just to be able to navigate the spot and then tossed a bunch of rocks in around the elk so we had a dry spot to stand. Once we were able to get the first side done we were able to move the rest of the carcass into a slightly better position. Then it was a belly crawl up out of the creek for the first 40 or 50 yards, and then a straight up climb for the remaining couple hundred yards to the road. We ferried all the meat up and headed for the truck with the first load at about 4:00. We dropped that load as the sun set and returned for the remaining meat. That load hit the tailgate about 11:30 if I remember right. We had just effectively hiked a marathon, half of it was with packs full of elk on our backs.

Another one that turned out ok, but started off with potential to be horrendous was a spike bull that I killed the very next year in 2019. My hunting partner and I had hiked up into a series of steep north side canyons that elk were living in. We had been watching them from afar for a couple of days and had a pretty good game plan set. We got in early afternoon and waited, watching the hillside where they had been coming out each evening. Come evening, no elk. I got impatient and got up and walked up the canyon a little to glass some other spots. Low and behold, there they were, they had just changed their routine a little. It was about 15 minutes to dark when I got setup to shoot at the spike that was on a point in the ridge across from me, about 350 yards away. My partner watched the shot, and said it was good, but the animal made it over the backside of the ridge and disappeared. By the time we got over there it was pitch black. We managed to get to the spot he had been standing, found blood and followed it and tracks back the way he had gone. It was very steep, rocky, and brushy here with woods below us about 50 yards towards the bottom of the gulley. We lost the blood and any sign that an animal had passed through there, and past experience told me he had likely went down. We got to last blood and started moving down the steep hill carefully looking for sign. We found some spots of blood periodically for about 20 yards, then a couple of big smears and loose rocks where he had tumbled. As we got down to the tree line we had to work around a medium sized down spruce tree, the kind that are really full and bushy. We looked all over for about 5 minutes and could not find any sign of the animal so I backtracked up the hill to the last sign of the elk and stood there just shining my headlamp down looking, and there he was. He had tumbled so dramatically down the hill that he had gone airborne. He ended up landing on top of the downed spruce tree and stuck, he was about 6' in the air buried in branches. We had been within feet of him, even looking under the tree briefly, but never thought to look up. With a little saw work we were able to remove a couple key branches and get him loose. From there he rocketed down hill another 40 yards or so and came to rest in a nice flat rocky spot where we were able to get him taken care of. We got all the meat hung high, as there was bear sign in the gulley we were in, and then packed a load out, planning to come back the next morning. All went off without a hitch, arriving back at camp about 12:30 or so.

SIDE NOTE: My partner had brought his Dad along on this trip. His Dad was not a hunter, but he was curious about the trip and the process and being outdoors. What his Dad did not seem to understand, despite being warned of several times, was that we hunted until dark and then headed for camp. We would be late getting back most evenings. In addition, if we killed something we may be very late. On that particular night, his Dad begun to lose it when we weren't back by 10:00 or so. Luckily my Dad and Uncle were in camp and managed to keep him calm or I think search and rescue would have been called.

Most of my kills are October and later, cool weather, no rush, and I never rush myself even if it's getting dark. I just tune up the headlamp and maybe build a small fire if it's cool enough to warrant it. I enjoy those dark nights where all I can see is what is in my headlamp beam and the fire glow and I'm working on a downed animal. It feels primal and very right.
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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby Swede » 02 10, 2023 •  [Post 6]

:lol: I can't imagine finding my dead elk six feet up in a tree. That is a first. For someone that had nothing to add, you managed to find a couple of good examples.
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Re: Butchering an Elk.

Postby Jhg » 02 10, 2023 •  [Post 7]

Its the gutless method, like everyone else. But then there is the "on a steep slope against a log" elk that is just plain hard work. I pride myself in getting a quartered elk into bags and ready to pack out within a couple hours. But then there was....
my last elk that took 7 hours to gutless and bone out. After awhile, it was really just three voices in my head: 1) this is starting to really suck 2) OMG! When is this going to end?! and 3) Keep moving forward. Do not quit.

Any majestic feelings about an archery bull had been long gone by the first load out. Then it was lean on a tree every hundred yards for two miles.

Being alone, maybe the hardest aspect of boning out an elk is having to pull hide, pieces and also keep track of the cuts while you, the elk parts and everything are in weird positions.....and also remaining patient.

My advice? Have something along to manage the flies if its warm. If its a bull, get his head or rack off right away. Remind yourself how good this will all taste coming off the grill or in a big pot recipe.

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