Packing elk out

[TIM B]

Just wondering-  what's the average weight of the hindquarter of a cow elk?  Skin off, bone in.
Thanks
TIM B

[Elk whisperer]

80-100

[d. ward]

it only takes a couple minutes to remove that bone and saves packing another 5-10 pounds out of the woods ? just some food for thought bd

[Ringneck]

I'm with bowdoc, bone it all out and save some weight.

[Whip]

If you bone it all out on the spot I think the total weight will end up more in the range of 200-250# total.  Break that down into 3 or 4 loads and it becomes very managable.

[joel smith]

and by boning it out you'll open up those heat-holding bone sour trouble spots like the shoulder and hip joints. doesn't take long and you'll have more and better meat for the table besides the lighter load

[TIM B]

Glad I asked!  Good food for thought!  
Thanks and keep the info coming!
TIM B

[Old Chief]

There is a site, Elk101.com, that has a clip titled "Gutless Video."  It is a how to on boning an elk, and looks like a better method then what I have been using. It might be of help.

[IdahoCurt]

Very rarely do you get the opportunity that you don't have to bone it out right away to save the meat from spoilage.
Figure the average sized 6point is about 5-6 packs of de-boned meat.
Good luck!

[wingnut]

We've boned out our large game animals for years and packed only meat.  Saves the meat from souring and your back and legs from collapsing.  LOL

With a little practice you can bone one as fast as you can quarter one.

Mike

[PaddyMac]

RE one of those IdahoCurt's times. A friend of mind in Philomath Oregon stuck a nice 6x6 bull up in the Tillamook State Forest near Timber back in the 80s. It ran down hill and then over a ridge. Phil waited and waited and fretted and then trailed it. Found it down on a steep bank right above the road. He ended up lowering his tail gate and backed into the high bank and the bull and a load of dirt slid right into the bed.

One in a zillion.

[Pete McMiller]

The Gutless Method is great.  Two of us had a bull down to the skeleton and the meat hung on a pole in 45 minutes one year - it was getting dark and we only had mag lites with us.  With the advent of headlamps like the Black Diamond and Petzel it would be no problem in the dark.

[mark land]

Much easier to bone out the carcass and as others have said saves alot of unnecessary weight and typically you can skin and bone out a carcass without having to remove any of the sections as well and no gutting!  Just lay the meat out on the skinned out hide and seperate into equal bundles to pack out.  Hint-game bags come in very handy for this when stuffing in your pack!  2 or 3 guys can carry out a smaller boned out elk fairly easily in 1 trip!

[TOEJAMMER]

If in Colorado, just remember you need to leave the evidence of sex
attached to a quarter or you will be in big trouble.

[LKH]

It would be a very rare cow that weighed 100, or even 80 if cut off at the hips.  

 I cut both hinds off a Roosevelt cow, just in front of the hips and packed them out in one piece.  They weighed 165 pounds.  When done, and the pack wasn't that far, I thought I had herniated everything, down to my nose hairs.  

Toejammer's advice is pretty good for all states.

[Pete McMiller]

LKH,

That's funny    

I DO know what you are saying, though I've never even contemplated a pack that heavy.  Heaviest I did was 94#'s for 4 1/2 miles up hill and ended at 9500 ft. - never again.

[oxnam]

I would estimate 70-85.  I had a decent raghorn whose hind quarter (with half the of pelvic bone attached) only weighed about 80.

[screamin]

I gutted my first elk and will never do that again, it was a complete waste of time. I also had my brother with me that trip and he took out a hind quarter bone and all, it felt like it weighed about 80 pounds or so. Definitely a load all by itself.

My next one I skipped the gutting and boned out the entire elk. One load included the meat from one hind quarter, the backstrap from that side, the tenderloin and a little shoulder meat. Second load is the same and the third load you take the rest of shoulders and neck. Each load weighs around 50 to 60 pounds. The 4th load would be the rack, head and hide. For me if its a cow, there is no 4th load.

[Bobaru]

For a 6'5" guy, packing out a hind quarter with the hoof on means all the tree limbs below 10 feet are %#$%#!.  

In fact, I could become even more descriptive.... 'cause I've done that before....

Let me just say that, when you whack a tree limb carrying that much weight on your back, you'd wish you'd done it differently. And that's not even mentioning the cooling effect of boning the meat on the spot.