Hide on or off on Elk quarters?

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Bowfreak

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Aug 4, 2017
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I am just curious what you guys do? I have never killed an elk but I have broken down a ton of deer over the years. I realize an elk is WAY bigger but it is basically the same as a deer anatomically. Lets assume we are doing the gutless method....do you guys skin and remove quarters or leave skin on and quarter? Also...for those that leave hide on, do these quarters go into a game bag too? I am a fan of extremely clean meat and if it weren\'t extremely hot I would probably be inclined to leave the hide on. I have a friend who does this and actually removes the bone too. So....he is packing out boneless unskinned quarters. I am a little concerned about the insulating properties of the hide but I feel that overall it would be a positive. Once meat does cool down, the hide would act as an insulator to keep it cool longer. I have also read that many butchers prefer receiving elk meat that has not been skinned.

Also...I have seen the discussion on bone in our out quarters many times but I have never seen a discussion on what you do when you get your meat to the truck? I am curious how guys that are driving back east 20+ hours handle their elk meat.
 
Good questions Mark. A lot depends on how far you have to pack the elk out. My pack out this year was a little over a mile, so I elected to remove the hide and put the quarters in game bags. The weight of the hide is significant, so I wanted to remove as much weight as I could while not de-boning the meat.

As far as guys who travel, I have seen a bunch of different methods including people bringing freezers and generators with them. The big thing is to keep the meat cool, but you also don\'t want that meat under a bunch of ice that will melt on the meat. A simple way to do that is to put the meat on top of bags of ice in a cooler. When I do this, I also lay a few garbage bags on top of the ice to separate the meat from the ice. If you don\'t have large enough coolers, using a tarp can work as well. I have also heard of many folks using a sleeping bag with a tarp to provide extra insulation.

Many ways to do all of this. Just all a matter of personal preference really.
 
\"cohunter14\" said:
Good questions Mark. A lot depends on how far you have to pack the elk out. My pack out this year was a little over a mile, so I elected to remove the hide and put the quarters in game bags. The weight of the hide is significant, so I wanted to remove as much weight as I could while not de-boning the meat.

As far as guys who travel, I have seen a bunch of different methods including people bringing freezers and generators with them. The big thing is to keep the meat cool, but you also don\'t want that meat under a bunch of ice that will melt on the meat. A simple way to do that is to put the meat on top of bags of ice in a cooler. When I do this, I also lay a few garbage bags on top of the ice to separate the meat from the ice. If you don\'t have large enough coolers, using a tarp can work as well. I have also heard of many folks using a sleeping bag with a tarp to provide extra insulation.

Many ways to do all of this. Just all a matter of personal preference really.
Click to expand...

So....what do you think an average sized bull elk hind would weigh, bone in and hide on and what would that some one way skinned and deboned?
 
I weighed my elk quarters this year.

My bull hind quarters were right at 50lb, bone in with no hide
Fronts were at 35lb, bone in with no hide.

My cow weighed in just a few lbs less than the bull. Not much tho.

More on hide on/off in a bit
 
I like to get the hide off and the quarter in a bag. I will debone if it is a long haul but the bone helps keep the meat spread out and not a ball in the bottom of the pack.

I take a freezer and generator to keep meat cool.

My bull last year weights = Hinds 67 and 69 I weighed the bone after removal at home. 7 lbs each

Front leg with loins bag weighed 72. The front leg bone was 8 lbs

The other front leg with neck trimmings bag was 82.

So you could drop 30 lbs if you remove the bones.
 
Like Derek mentioned, there are many factors to decide it I take the hide off or not.
Same apply to debone or not

Such as:
How far do I have pack this elk?
Do I have a spike camp, or base camp?
Time of day?
Weather?
Day of hunt?
Am I alone or do I have help?
 
I always remove the hide. The skinned out quarters are immediately placed in good game bags and generally kept clean. I leave the bone in, but in the future will remove it if the pack out is long. Long distance is relative and getting shorter as the years go by. I do not remember what each quarter weighed this season, but the total was 296 pounds on the butcher scale after we prepped it some.
 
Hide on for me.

I stick them in game bags, but the hide on still adds protection.
If I took the hide off it also adds that layer of crusty dry skin on it. So I\'d have to remove that before butchering. I know it\'s not much, but it\'s less meat to cut off.
 
I always take hide off and debone on the spot. Packouts are usually over 2 miles and often solo. I don\'t see any reason to leave hide on and quite a few good reasons to take it off
 
We typically will use the gutless method and get the hide off as part of that process. The hide will keep heat in and I find that strands of hair will work themselves off the hide and onto the meat inside a game bag. We try to keep the meat as clean as we can, so we don\'t keep the hide on in order to keep hair off of it.

I have tried like Brad to have a tarp or keep the hide laid out to keep dirt off. But during the process (even trying to be cautious of not kicking up dirt), we always seem to kick up some loose dirt onto the tarp or hide and onto the meat. Usually there are trees around, so now I make a game pole using paracord (red and black in the photo below). After removing the hide and then a quarter, I have 4 peices of paracord already tied with loops in the ends (blue paracord in photo below). I loop one end around the game pole and then slide the end of one of the quarters through the other loop and let it hang. We put a game bag over these hanging quarters temporarily. This allows them to cool and keeps the flies off. I have been carrying a small spray bottle with some citric acid powder in it. I fill this with water upon harvest and spray the quarter down once it is hung. This keeps the ph at a level where bacteria doesn\'t grow and it also helps keep the flies off. After we get all the quarters up we start deboning them while they hang. This has really allowed us to keep the dirt and other debris off of each quarter. When we get to a point where most of a quarter is deboned, we have another guy help by putting the meat in a game bag and holding it from the bottom. Once the last peices are cut off the bone, that helper is already holding the game bag with the meat so that it doesn\'t fall once it is totally removed from the bone.

 
\"Baby Huey\" said:
We typically will use the gutless method and get the hide off as part of that process. The hide will keep heat in and I find that strands of hair will work themselves off the hide and onto the meat inside a game bag. We try to keep the meat as clean as we can, so we don\'t keep the hide on in order to keep hair off of it.

I have tried like Brad to have a tarp or keep the hide laid out to keep dirt off. But during the process (even trying to be cautious of not kicking up dirt), we always seem to kick up some loose dirt onto the tarp or hide and onto the meat. Usually there are trees around, so now I make a game pole using paracord (red and black in the photo below). After removing the hide and then a quarter, I have 4 peices of paracord already tied with loops in the ends (blue paracord in photo below). I loop one end around the game pole and then slide the end of one of the quarters through the other loop and let it hang. We put a game bag over these hanging quarters temporarily. This allows them to cool and keeps the flies off. I have been carrying a small spray bottle with some citric acid powder in it. I fill this with water upon harvest and spray the quarter down once it is hung. This keeps the ph at a level where bacteria doesn\'t grow and it also helps keep the flies off. After we get all the quarters up we start deboning them while they hang. This has really allowed us to keep the dirt and other debris off of each quarter. When we get to a point where most of a quarter is deboned, we have another guy help by putting the meat in a game bag and holding it from the bottom. Once the last peices are cut off the bone, that helper is already holding the game bag with the meat so that it doesn\'t fall once it is totally removed from the bone.

Click to expand...

Looks good. I like the idea of boning out the meat too. The only drawback I see is a tad bit more waste from the outer layer drying. I have boned out whitetails without quartering. Simply removing the muscle from the bone following the individual muscles. I have no idea but assuming one is solo, deboning without quartering might be a little easier to do than quartering, hanging and deboning into a game bag? Do you guys think this is the case?

Sorry for all the newb questions but I feel there is no better way to learn than to ask those with experience.

It seems that the consensus is deboning and normally when we have a consensus on anything with regard to hunting there is normally good reason. :p
 
Mark
Lets put it this way:

You tell me to buy you a \'car\'.

OK! I go buy you a blue Chevy Malibu
You say \'Nope - I didnt want a blue Chevy Malibu\'
But I say a blue Chevy Malibu works for me?
It is a \'car\'

So I go buy you a white Cadillac.
You say \'Nope\', a white Cadillac wont work for me.
But I say a white caddy works for others?
It is a \'car\'

See where Im going?
What works for someone, may not work for someone else.

Until you drive a few cars [or kill a few elk and pack them out], you wont really know what will work for you.

Heck, even the pack you use can determine if you leave the hair on or debone the quarters...
 
\"cnelk\" said:
Mark
Lets put it this way:

You tell me to buy you a \'car\'.

OK! I go buy you a blue Chevy Malibu
You say \'Nope - I didnt want a blue Chevy Malibu\'
But I say a blue Chevy Malibu works for me?
It is a \'car\'

So I go buy you a white Cadillac.
You say \'Nope\', a white Cadillac wont work for me.
But I say a white caddy works for others?
It is a \'car\'

See where Im going?
What works for someone, may not work for someone else.

Until you drive a few cars [or kill a few elk and pack them out], you wont really know what will work for you.

Heck, even the pack you use can determine if you leave the hair on or debone the quarters...
Click to expand...

My buddy had a 78 malibu when we were in high school. It was a straight up pimp mobile. I would take any of those cars....I had 2 Chevettes.

All joking aside....I understand what you are saying and realize I will just have to do it and see how it works for me. Then I can determine if I need to switch it up or not.
 
\"cnelk\" said:
Heck, even the pack you use can determine if you leave the hair on or debone the quarters...
Click to expand...

Ok, I\'ll bite. How does my pack determine if I leave the hide on or not? I have had several packs over the years and no pack at all. Still, I have never left the hide on a quarter to transport it. I could see it more if I had no game bag, but even then I have skinned the critter before packing.
 
I hate blood in or on my pack or even on me.
If some hide is left on to alleviate that I\'m gonna do it.

Not sure why all the hate of the hide.
You gotta clean the meat anyway and a few hairs aren\'t much to get off.
Want to know a good way to get rid of hair on meat?
A small propane torch.
Lightly burn the outside of the meat and the hair, which is hollow, will dissolve.
Then wipe the meat down with vinegar, a natural disinfectant

As my pics show, sometimes I leave the hide on, and sometimes I don\'t.
The factors I mentioned above assist my decision making

But like mentioned, refer to the car analogy above for hide, de boning
 
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