Western Elk Part 7: Field Dressing and Meat Care
You filled your tag! Now you’ve got one of the largest deer species on the ground and it’s time to go to work. This is a continuation of the conversation between James and Joe from The Fair Chase Podcast, focusing on field care of elk and transporting meat after a successful hunt.
Catch the full discussion here!
James: Once you've shot an elk, what's your process for field dressing?
Joe: "I don't gut any elk. I almost always do the gutless method, even if it is an overnight situation. I just open them up. Get that hide off of them as soon as you can. The first thing I would do in any situation is flip it to the opposite side whether there's snow or not. That's just a good practice if you can flip it."
James: How do you prepare your work area for field dressing?
Joe: "Get your workstation as clean as you can. If there's a bunch of pine needles and debris and stuff or sticks hanging out everywhere, just kind of clear out a nice spot. You're going to empty your pack, dump everything out, you're going to have your kill kit out, you're going to have water out. It sounds silly, but like you get dehydrated moving this thing around."
James: Can you walk us through your process of breaking down the elk?
Joe: "Get the hide off of him, start on one side. I go right down the back strap from the tail all the way up to his head, assuming you're not doing a shoulder mount. I just kind of peel that sucker right off and work half to half. I'll get the hide completely off this side, I'll take that back leg off, cut it off of the joint, get it hanging. I won't necessarily put it in a game bag right away if I have the paracord and if I have a canopy above me that I can just hang him like that and just kind of let the blood drain out, let him dry a little bit."
James: How do you handle the meat once it's off the animal?
Joe: "If it's super hot out, one thing that I'll also do is I'll take that rear ham, because that bone is so hot in the middle, and I'll break down that - on the bone, leave it intact, but I'll cut the muscle groups so that that bone can breathe out a little bit. If you can get it all out in one shot, great. If you can't, take paracord and get it up into a tree out away from the trunk as best as you can so the bears can't steal it."
James: What's in your kill kit?
Joe: "The other stuff that I have in my kill kit is zip ties to secure the tag to something. Tags suck now - Montana, it's literally printer paper. So it'll be in like a little sandwich Ziploc baggy. I'll notch it all out and then I'll zip tie it to the animal itself. Evidence of sex - you often have to leave that on. There's a whole bunch of things that has to happen state by state that you need to include in that kill kit."
James: How do you transport meat when flying?
Joe: "Assuming you flew, which a lot of my elk hunts are, you'll have two checked bags getting there, you'll have probably four more coming home. From there, I'll go to whatever grocery store is in town and buy four of those 40-quart cheap $25 coolers. I'll put all that meat in there, either frozen or in Ziploc bags or vacuum sealed with dry ice on top, duct tape the hell out of it shut, write your name and stuff on the top of it and literally just put it in as a check bag. As long as it's 50 lbs, it's not that expensive."
James: Any tips for flying with meat?
Joe: "A luggage scale is huge because it's like you want to be like 47, 48 lbs, then no matter what when you're there, you're probably fine. They are getting - airlines over time suck more and more, but I haven't really lost, I've never lost any meat. Now they're actually allowing dry ice. As long as it's in its original package and it's still sealed, you can still do it now."
James: What about transporting meat when driving?
Joe: "If you're driving, consequently I've got a pile of giant like high-quality coolers. If you're driving with it, might as well go that route, then it's super simple. You can even throw a freezer in the back of a pickup truck with a generator if you want, having it frozen solid when you get home."
Thanks for reading! If you'd like to watch the full discussion, you can catch it here.