Field Dress an Elk
If you've taken down an elk, the work has just begun. There's a lot of meat to deal with, and depending on your animal, the situation, and what you want to pack out, there are a number of different ways to go about dressing out an elk. Saving the hide and antlers for taxidermy requires the careful process of capping around the head, while backcountry hunters will often only have enough space to carry out the meat, and need to leave the guts and bones in the field. Whatever your situation, you can learn to cape your elk, dress it out quickly to cool it down, or salvage as much meat as possible.
Contents
Steps
Caping the Elk for Shoulder Mounting
- Cape the elk if you want to save the hide for taxidermy. After you Hunt Elk, you need to get to work immediately to save the meat, but don't just jump in and start cutting away. For many hunters, the thrill of any big game kill is the trophy you'll get back from the taxidermist, meaning that you'll need to work carefully to keep the hide intact, giving yourself the best possible trophy.
- If you’re not interested in saving the horns or the hide for trophy purposes, you don’t need to worry about caping. You can move directly to dressing the elk out if you want to take the whole carcass, or using the gutless method if you’re only interested in the meat.
- Caping, dressing out, or gutting an elk isn't rocket science–it's an art form. The exact process will vary from hunter to hunter, so develop your own short-cuts and tricks of the trade to do what works best for you, the situation, and the animal you've downed.
- Never attempt to cut the animal's throat to "bleed it out." This is an unnecessary practice and a common misconception when inexperienced hunters are dressing an elk, and you'll risk spoiling the cape. Work quickly and there's no need to bleed an elk.
- Use the right tools for the job. With the right hunting knife, you can break down a whole elk relatively quickly, but you'll also need a foldable hunting saw to take with you and get through the rib-cage and the other tough bits. While it's possible to take most of the meat from an elk without using a rib-saw, you'll be making it a lot easier on yourself if you do. To be well prepared for all scenarios, when you're out hunting elk, it's a good idea to have:
- A very sharp hunting knife, with sharpener. Hunting knives are typically fixed-blade, but are also available in foldable varieties. They need to be kept honed to a razor's edge to carefully separate the hide from the meat in the field, efficiently and smoothly. For this reason, it's good to have a sharpener with you, kept on an easy-to-access lanyard. Gerber, Spyderco, and Kershaw are all popular brands.
- Foldable bone saws are also important for breaking down a large animal, like an elk. The best option is usually to get something like a Flip 'n Zip saw combo from Gerber, with a hunting blade and saw in tandem, but you can also shop around to find the best deal for you.
- Make a cut around the mid-point of each front quarter. For a good shoulder-mount, the whole cape will extend over the shoulders of the animal, down to about the middle of the front quarters, and back to the mid-brisket (the chest of the animal, just behind the shoulders).
- Mark where the cape will end by making a small incision around the mid-point of the animal's front quarters, to draw a guide line, then cut from the back of each front leg up the animal's torso, pulling the hide up toward the skull as you work, like you're pulling off a sweater. It should all start coming off in one big piece. Start pulling the hide, using your knife to ease it off, around each leg, and start working it off the front chest area of the animal.
- Work your knife up the neck between the shoulder blades. To start, you'll need to work the blade of the knife up between the shoulder blades, straight up the back of the animal's neck. Using one hand, gather the hide and pull backward to avoid cutting into the meat, easing your blade up the back of the neck until you get to the antlers.
- Use your knife to cut all the way around the animal's hide, perpendicular to your shoulder cut, around the torso just behind the shoulders. From here, you'll start working the hide off the shoulders, pulling it back and slipping it off like a jacket. Use your knife to scrape just along the white fatty tissue under the hide, being careful not to pull of and waste any meat. Continue working up toward the animal's skull.
- Work around each horn. Make your between-the-shoulders incision extend toward one antler, cutting all the way until your knife touches. Using one hand, pull the hide up and use the flat of your blade to scrape as close to the bone as possible, gently tugging the hide back away from the skull. When you get to the horn, scrape around the base, pulling the cape of the hide up and away from them, gently. This should create a flap that you can use to separate the hide from the skull, keeping it in one piece.
- Work around the top of the eye. One of the more gentle parts of the job is skinning the face of the animal, so it's important to go slowly and gently. As you start to pull the hide loose from the face, hold the eyelid down with your finger to keep it from coming with you. This is the most difficult part of the job, so go slowly and use care.
- Pull the hide back, folding the furry side in on itself and exposing the seam where the hide is attached to the skull, with fatty, waxy tissue. Work your knife into the crevices and the folds as you firmly pull the hide back and away.
- Continue separating the hide from the face. Work the hide loose and pull the top section of the cape away. Work your knife down the front of the face, pulling it loose as you work.
- Open the mouth of the animal and make a gum incision. To pull the hide free from the face of the animal, open the lips and work your knife up around the gum line, cutting through until you can feel the knife hit bone. Go all the way around the mouth. As you continue working the hide off the front, under the jaw and down the face, you should be able to pull it free eventually.
- Pack up the cape, skin-to-skin. After you've pulled the cape loose, fold the skin-side in on itself, so the fur won't get messed up, and fold up the cape neatly and tightly as possible. It's usually best to pack it up into a plastic bag or some kind of sack loosely. Air circulation is important to dry things out and keep it from getting too damp.
- When you get back to camp, keep the hide cool and dry. The worst thing that can happen to the hide is getting damp. If you notice condensation, unroll the hide and let it dry out before taking it to the taxidermist as soon as possible.
- Use a hacksaw to separate the skull plate. To make your pack-out lighter, it’s common to only remove the skull plate, where the antlers are attached, and let the taxidermist use a false skull for the trophy.
- Work your saw around the back of the skull, behind the antlers, straight down toward the eye sockets. Stop when you're just under the point at which the antlers attach to the skull. Remove the hacksaw, make another cut directly above the eye sockets, straight back under the antlers, meeting at the point where you stopped.
- If you're in the backcountry, it's common to strap the antlers to your back, with the points facing away from you. This way, if you should trip and fall backwards, the sharp points on the big antlers will go into the ground, not your skin.
Basic Field Dressing
- Use this method when you’re close to camp. When you're dressing out an elk, you've got to decide whether or not you want to take the bones with you. If you do, it helps to be close to camp, to make the moving process a lot easier. To start the process, you need to get the meat cooling down as quickly as possible by opening up the cavity and removing the internal organs.
- Elk are extremely heavy animals, making it difficult to drag a whole carcass back to camp, if you're in the back country. For this reason, it's common to just harvest the meat, leaving the bones and the guts in the field. This method is discussed in the following section.
- Make your first incision just below the sternum. Start just below the sternum, where the layer of hide and muscle gives you the most space from the guts. Use one hand to pinch the hide and pull it up and away from the ribs, using your other hand to make a small incision with the knife just under the sternum. Make the cut shallow, but make sure it's deep enough to get through the hide and into the membrane below, which attaches to the tissue below.
- Listen for a whoosh of air or a hissing sound, which is a sign that you've punctured the stomach. If you have, this means you need to work very quickly to get the cavity open and get the stomach out of there, to avoid tainting the meat. It'll be fine as long as you work quickly and carefully, and rinse it off when you're finished.
- Insert your fingers and feel for the membrane. Elk hide is thick, and the muscle is thicker. Below that, you’re still not all the way to the organs, but the final layer separating them from your knife–and from spoiled meat–is a thin membrane, which you can feel for with your fingers. Pull upward, to separate the membrane, muscle, and hide from the organs and give your knife enough clearance to work.
- Continue cutting all the way down to just above the anus. When you've got your fingers between the membrane and the muscle, you can pull the hide up and away, insert your knife, and work it down safely, knowing that you won't be cutting through into the guts. Be very careful of your fingers, working slowly and smoothly. Continue making your incision straight down the belly until you get just above the anus. You should stop when you can feel your knife touching the pelvis arch, the bone near the hips of the animal.
- If you've got a bull elk, cut around the penis, just deep enough to separate it from the skin. Do not cut the urethra that leads to the bladder or pull it loose. Instead, cut it free and let it hang. This and the bladder will all come out together later with the rest of the guts.
- Use a saw to separate the ribcage. You don’t need to worry about puncturing anything in the upper-half of the animal. The best tool for this job is a combination hunting saw and knife, like a Gerber E-Z saw. These are small, portable, and lightweight, making them ideal for backcountry work. Use the toothed edge to work in between the seam, where the ribs connect and close the chest cavity, then pull the ribcage apart to open up the interior and work.
- When you get to the top, it's also a good idea to go ahead and separate the wind-pipe at the neck. You can be sure that everything is separated on the inside and you can just start pulling things loose and discarding them (or saving what you want).
- Make small cuts to separate organs from the cavity walls. There's no big secret to gutting the animal at this point–just start pulling the "train" loose and making small cuts along the abdominal walls to separate them, where they're attached, if necessary. Everything, for the most part, should come out in one big clump, which you can start piling between the animal's back legs as you work, being careful not to puncture anything.
- Don't cut through the intestines to separate them. The intestinal tract of the animal will probably still contain feces, which will spoil your meat. Pile the innards between the hind legs of the animal and move to the next step to separate them safely.
- Split the pelvic arch to remove the bladder and rectum. Special care needs to be taken to avoid accidentally puncturing the intestines or the bladder, which will expose the meat to waste and spoilage. To do this, you'll need to split the pelvic arch and expose them more readily. Use the hacksaw or a hatchet to remove a chunk from the top of the pelvic bone and open up space to work the intestines free safely.
- Insert your thumb into the anus and use the knife to cut around your thumb. You can use a zip-tie to secure it and keep any waste from coming out, then pull the intestines up and free from the inside of the carcass. A plastic plug called a "Butt Out" is also available to do this, if you're uncomfortable playing elk proctologist..
- If you've left the penis intact, the bladder should now come loose easily, along with everything else. Be very careful not to let it split or pop as you're working. Handle it gently and you should be fine.
- Drain the carcass and pack it out. The cavity will likely be fairly damp and bloody, but it should be starting to cool down efficiently at this point. Some hunters like to turn the carcass over to allow it to drain some, promoting drying and cooling more effectively. If it's possible, you can hang the carcass and rinse it out with clean water if you're close enough to camp to have some to spare.
- Elk are extremely heavy. Even if you’re very close to camp, it’s usually best to break it down some, separating the hindquarters from the torso, just under the ribs, making it easier to pack out. Alternatively, you can also separate the meat and leave the bones in the field. It won't take long.
Gutless Boning Method
- Use this method for backcountry hunting. If you're just after meat, there's no reason to take a bunch of heavy bone back with you. There's a lot of meat on an elk, meaning there will be enough weight to pack out without fiddling around with bones. If you've got a long hike ahead of you, getting the good-quality meat is possible with the right tools and the right approach.
- With a sharp hunting knife, you should be able to break down an entire elk, just taking the meat, in an hour or two, plenty quick to avoid spoilage. Keep a couple of big plastic garbage bags on hand to get the meat into quickly and get it cooled down.
- Settle the carcass onto one side. Basically, you'll take all the meat you can from each side of the animal separately, working your way from the back to the front. After you've cleaned one side, you can flip the animal over to the other side. It won't matter that the skinned side is getting dirty, since you've already taken all the meat you want from it. It's quick and clean.
- Score the hide around each leg joint. Start working the hide off the hind leg on the side facing up by making a small cut around the lower joint below the ham. Pull the hide away from the meat, working your knife underneath to help unzip the hide and pull it loose as directed in the first section. Keep working until you've exposed the meat on the entire hindquarter.
- Find the seam in the meat along the hindquarter. You don't have to be an anatomist or a licensed butcher to see where the good meat is. Trim away any fatty layer along the outside of the meat to get a good look at the ham that you've got. There should be a seam, where the major thigh muscle separates from the other leg muscles, providing a nice seam to work down and separate your first big roast or ham of meat from the carcass.
- Work carefully, using your hunting knife to make small, clean cuts along the seam, pulling the meat loose in a big chunk as you work. Work down as close as possible to the bone as you can, taking as much as possible. This is some of the best meat for roasting or cutting into steaks on the elk. It's all good.
- Most of the cuts should just be through membrane, making it relatively easy and quick. Around the pelvis though, keep your knife flat against the bone to work the meat loose and you should be fine.
- You should spend the most time working at removing meat from the hindquarters. The most meat you'll get out of the animal will be there. Keep looking for the seams that separate muscles, cutting down until you get close to the leg bone, then pulling the meat loose. Place it directly into plastic bags.
- Continue skinning up the carcass. As you work up the animal, continue skinning as you go, working the hide up and pulling it back to expose the seam, working your knife along to loosen it.
- Remove the backstraps. Work the hide back over the backbone to expose it and remove the backstraps, which are like the outside tenderloin of the elk. These are two long "straps" of meat that run along each side of the backbone. You may only be able to get to the backstrap on the side you're working on, depending on how the animal is oriented, but if you know where to look for it, it's some of the best meat to get.
- Feel the side of the animal, where the ribs end, then trace upward until you get to the backbone. The backstrap should start about there, and extend all the way along the backbone. To get at it, insert your knife and keep it flat against the backbone, then cut along it, keeping tight into the bone, up toward the shoulders and back toward the pelvis. Separate the backstrap from the pelvis, and at the top near the shoulder blade.
- Find the seam several inches down the ribs of the animal to separate the backstrap completely. It forms a kind of "trough" along either side of the backbone, which you should be able to feel bulging slightly. It's about an inch or two deep and maybe five or six inches wide, running from the shoulder to the pelvis.
- Remove the meat from the front-quarters. There won't be as much meat from the front quarters are there will be along the back, but there's still a substantial amount. Work the hams off, finding the seams and separating the meat between the muscles. Work your knife until you hit the shoulder bone and separate your flank steak in a long strip.
- It's also a good idea to work your knife up along the side of the neck to get the neck meat from that side. There's a lot of it. This is excellent for stewing and slow-cooking.
- Go back and remove meat between the ribs. Because elk are so big, it's surprisingly easy to get the meat from the ribs without having to bother removing the ribs themselves. You can work your knife along the bone, using each rib as a guide, and separate the meat the connects them. Go slowly and carefully, making sure that you don't push your knife into the carcass too far. Remember, the guts are still in there, making it very important that you work carefully and gently.
- Carefully remove the tenderloin. The tenderloin is the meat that runs opposite the backstrap, along the inside of part of the backbone. It's the best meat on the animal, but it's also the most difficult to get to using this method. It's worth getting, though, every time.
- Carefully push down the membrane separating the intestines from the last foot or so of ribs, where the backstrap ended. Holding the intestines down, and using extreme caution, use your knife to separate the tenderloin from the backbone, using the bone as a guide and letting your knife do the work. Be extremely careful.
- Flip the carcass over and repeat on the other side. On a cool day–around 40 F or less–you can pack out all your meat in plastic bags and get it back to your camp to continue cooling down as quickly as possible. On hotter days, it may be a better idea to cool things down more actively. The biggest cause of spoilage is body heat, and not getting the meat cooled down quickly enough. If the temperature is higher than 70 F, you might want to rinse the meat in cool water to bring the temperature down before packing it out.
- Aging meat helps to dry it out and improve the flavor. Elk is no different. While you want to get it cooled down as quickly as possible, in temperatures of less than {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}, the meat should be fine for up to three days. Then cool it below 40 F for up to a week or two.
Warnings
- When you are cutting the pelvic bone watch out for the urine sac to not pop it and put urine all over the meat of the elk.
- Don't cut yourself with the knife.
- Watch out for the saws sharp edge when you are cutting the chest cavity.
Things You'll Need
- Hunting Knife
- Bone saw
- Rope in case you need to drag it
- Gerber hunting saw, or equivalent
- About two to three gallons of water
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