A buddy of mine got his first elk the other day, and he gave me the distinct pleasure of helping him pack it out. It was a dandy 5x6 about 3-4 years old. He'd have been a 6x6 had one of his eye guards not been broken off earlier in the year.
This was the first elk either of us had tackled. I've hunted whitetails for 15 years now and have dressed and dragged my share, but never an elk. I know that like myself there are others here who hope to find one day they get lucky enough to put an elk on the ground. Here are a few lessons that we learned and I thought I would share with others. I'll warn you it may be a lengthy post, but bear with me!!
Even my buddy admits the shot was a poor one, made at last light at 45 yards. He was using a .300 Weatherby Magnum and gut shot the elk. I know this guy pretty well, he is typically a good shot, and I'm guessing that he got excited. Should the shot have been taken? We could debate it, but it was and he had enough fortitude to return the next day looking for his elk. Temps that day were around freezing at the time of the shot and the mercury went down to 18 that night. He found it the next day, 400 yards from the shot (artery hit in stomach we guess), he gutted the elk at 11 AM, came out and called me to return to cut and pack. When we returned at 2 PM, steam was still rising from the brisket!! These are big animals SLIT THE PELVIC BONE AND PROP OPEN THAT BRISKET!! The bile ruined the sirloins in the rear quarters unfortunately. Goes to say, make a good shot and every effort to find the animal quickly if you can.
Okay, so he's down. Elk are big, but two grown men can scoot one around to work on it. I won't go into quartering with or without gutting but will say this, before going hunting, know how to take care of one. My buddy wasn't sure, and though I had never done it, I knew enough of what needed to be done. Find a place to start and get to it, as long as you have a plan and know what needs to be done. And remember if you are in Grizzly country as we are, make sure to check 360 degrees at different intervals. Don't want ol' Mr. Grizz dining on two carcasses.
Three knives are best, two will do with a sharpener. One for gutting, one for cutting up meat and one for skinning. (I carry a Marble's Field Craft for skinning, a Gerber Gator for gutting and a Buck 119 for cutting meat). Wyoming Saws and Kodiak saws have their uses, and are light to pack, but find a hatchet to take too. We didn't have one and wanted one badly. Ergo, the Gerber Pack Hatchet went back into my pack bag, there's just no room to work with a saw sometimes.
The cheesecloth game bags are okay if it's all you have, but good, heavy cotton/canvas, large game bags are best. We could fit two quarters into these bags and they held it, no sag no problem. The cheesecloth bags he had we used for backstraps and tenderloins, picture a basketball in a pair of pantyhose and you will understand my complaint there.
Take the 4 quarters, backstraps, tenderloins, head and other meat/organs desired or required by state. There is some meat on the neck, but it has a lot of tendons in it, and the only use I see for it is stew meat or ground up. Many folks here leave it, that's your call.
Have a good back pack or pack frame. His elk went down 3 feet from an old closed logging road, but not all of us will be so fortunate. I carry a Bull-Pac and I'm not sure, but I think I could pack anything on that frame. Either way, have one handy if you need it, he didn't and he was worried how to get it out. fortunately, I had invested in the dual wheeled Cabela's Super Mag Game Cart this fall. Best investment I've ever made. Our forrest in Montana has a lot of old logging roads. We loaded all 4 quarters, head, backstraps and tenderloins on that cart, and strapped it down with ratchet straps. It was only a mile to the road, but how awesome it was to say we packed it out in one trip. Had we time to bone it out we would have, but one man could handle that entire elk on that cart. Definitely worth the money.
We were back at the trucks at 6 PM, only a total of 4 hours to skin, quarter, hike in and pack out. We both felt that for our first elk we did well. In the future, depending on circumstances and time, I'll probably bone out the elk. I know many folks don't gut one first, but I was convinced it isn't a bad idea. After all, many hours had past, in below freezing temps and that elk was still warm inside. (We both felt he died the night before, only 400 yards from where the shot came and he had fallen over dead, he had not layed down and died). Perhaps with more experience I'll streamline the process. I'm guessing there are many elk hunters out there with advice. This is just my .02 for those who've never done it. I had been slightly intimidated by the size of elk and horror stories I had heard. After this first one I determined, that one man can do it by himself, albeit it would take longer, but 2 men can handle one quite well.
Now if only I could get into the elk during season. Oh one more thing I'm convinced of, I'm pretty sure the state issues the regs to elk herds as well, seems the day opening season comes around, all the elk go on vacation. At least they do when I grab the .45-70 and slip into the timber!!
I'd be interested if others have tips on this subject. Afterall, everytime is a learning process. Safe hunting.
