Preferred method of dressing?

[AK Fireman]

What is the preferred way of dressing out your moose.  I used to gut it then use a chainsaw with mineral oil for the bar to take off the head and then quater it on the ground, and then haul it back to camp to hang and skin the quarters. it seems to work well but I tried a new method this last year, Myself and another guy started skinning the moose, we did not gut it, we just skinned the side that was facing up. Once we got the side skinned we just started breaking it down into smaller peices and laying them on the nice clean meat tarp, where I sacked em up. Once we got that side done we pulled the hide back over on top of it and rolled him over and repeated the process. About half way through this process we were cussing the old bastards that told us about this method, it was alot of work standing over this critter for that long. We through the 9 sacked peices of moose in the back of the argo and made our way to camp.  When we got to camp we hung the sacks and realized that all the work was done and the meat was the cleanest that we had ever seen, Those old bastards knew a thing or two.
We later decided that if we have the daylight we would do the gutless method and if it was getting dark we would use the chainsaw and get it back to camp for the skinning.
What method do you guys use?

[WindWalker-AK]

Mr. AK Fireman,
How did you go about getting the meat attached to the ribs or the meat attached to the underside of the spine?
Best Wishes

[AK Fireman]

I started by by taking the front R leg off by separating the shoulder blade from the chest, then the rear R leg off at the hip, then I took my chain saw(any meat saw would easily work) and split the sternum and then cut the ribs about 6" away from the spine(that gives you a nice little handle on your rib eye), I then reached inside and cut the diaphragm and then lifted the R side ribs off. We pulled the hide over it, rolled it over and repeated, once you have the other ribs off you end up with a complete spine attached to the pelvis, I took the neck off at the C-1 vertebrae and then cut the spine again just above the loins.  You end up with 2 front legs, 2 hinds, 2 rib racks, 1 neck, 1 upper spine, and, 1 lower spine attached to the pelvis.  I was told that this is the easiest way to do it if your by yourself, or if you need to packout the moose.  It is alot of work at the time, I think it took myself and another seasoned hunter about 4 hrs to get the moose loaded into the argo. The hard part is just bending over to skin for that amount of time and dealing with the bugs.

[WindWalker-AK]

Mr. AK Fireman,
That is a slick way of getting it done but just no way my ol' back is going to take that kind of stress.
Thank for sharing.
Best Wishes

[marinemagnum]

I may be different than alot of fellers but there is no way that I would take a chainsaw to my moose if I ever killed one, I would just do it the ole' fashion way.

[Rick Teal]

Usually we quarter the moose (hide still on) with a bone saw, and transport it (via ATV) back to somewhere that we can skin it and then take it to a butcher.  We used a chain saw once, and ended up with some awful looking cuts.

I have a battery operated reciprocating saw and a long blade that I hope to try out this year. 

[steve66]

my prefered method... sit back and let ur buddies do the work HAHA

we just do it the old fasion way, up to your chest in blood haha

[Daveinthebush]

We usually cut the hide down the back and peel the hide down to the belly.  Take off the two quarters and one back strap.  Roll over and repeat process.  Remove head and neck meat.  Then cut the abdomen and let the guts fall out.  Remove ribs, tender loins, heart, and any other meat.

I have done four this way and 7-8 caribou.

[corbanzo]

we do kinda like that, but from the underside.  Cut the hide at the knees, and the inward toward the center, then connect those cuts right up the middle, leaving the membrane to keep the guts in.  Strip the hide up the sides, taking off all the quarters.  Roll over to get the backstrap and neck meat from either side, keeping the animal on the hide to keep it clean. 

Then we open up the membrane and dump the guts to remove the tenderloin and the ribs.

That is for big animals like moose and caribou.

On smaller animals like deer and goats, take off the hide like described above, then cut out the anus, and the neck and dump all the guts, leaving the whole body intact to carry out.  Of course you can't do this with bigger animals.....  Well, maybe if you were a giant.