Lark Bunting
New member
- Sep 14, 2016
- 710
Sorry to repeat this but it's valuable to me to get as much perspective as possible. Input appreciated (don't feel obligated if you replied on the other forum...)
I apologize if this is a repeat but I would like to learn from the experts.
The simple facts: truck was at trail head, camp was 2 miles in, dead elk was 3.125 miles in. We were scheduled to be there from Saturday - Monday.
I'm hoping you can tell me exactly what you do from Field to Freezer. I will share my recent experience, and I have been told that we didn't have to rush and worry ourselves like we did. We packed an elk out all night and it made for a miserable time. Yes, it was worth it, but it was seriously miserable.
We were up at 5:00 AM on Saturday, drove 5.5 hours, packed in 2 hours. My bull was shot at 5:20 at night. It ran 27 yards and crashed but we waited about 20 minutes before looking for the arrow, blood, and actually saw the elk dead at 5:40 PM. Photos, a brief conversation, retrieving packs from the place of the shot took about 20 minutes and we began the field dressing in the field around 6:00. I had never done the boneless method and was learning from a newbie as well. The first load of meat was coming off the mountain around 10:00 PM and we were just over 3 miles to the truck where I had my large cooler stuffed with frozen jugs of water and two old sleeping bags to help insulate.
It took us 2.5+ hours to get to the truck and 2+ hours to hike back to the site. We began packing just after 10:15 PM and got the last load of meat to the truck at 6:30 AM (Out, in, Out). We slept for 3 hours and had to go back in to retrieve camp and the bull's head/antlers. We never slept in camp and chose to rest for the few hours at the truck at the trail head. We were absolutely dead at 6:30 AM, dehydrated, sore, blistered, and quite frankly at that time I had regretted shooting. (Yeah, I was being a bit of a baby but I'm being honest here)
The bull died in a small creek in dark timber. My initial impression was that we could hang the meat over the creek or create a lattice of logs over the creek and leave them until morning, while we packed out our first load and hiked back into camp. This would have put us in camp around 2:30 AM. Still not a great night sleep.
The other option was to hang it all over the creek and head to camp around 10:15 PM, in camp around 11:15 and a good night sleep after a back strap steak and a shot of whiskey. That would have left the meat hanging over night, over a creek in the shade but we'd have had to pack meat out all day on Sunday in 80° heat.
One last option (but not very likely since our camp was fairly open and no creek near by ) was to pack all the meat the 1.125 miles back and forth to camp and deal with it in the AM. I didn't like this option since it was hot outside.
I'm not sure what exactly I'm looking for here or if I'd actually change anything at all, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this since I'm taking my son back up this weekend. I've never been so nervous to have elk encounters as I feel we may have a pretty good shot at another elk. I say that since at one point we had 5 elk bugling around us while my bull was down. We had a bull come inside 15 yards as we were field dressing my bull and while I went to retrieve the head on Sunday my buddy and son were in camp packing up and had a 4x4 bull come inside 12 yards from where they were resting on a log. This area is littered with elk! I want to make sure that if we get another down that we make the correct decision on getting it back to the cooler without causing undue stress.
Field to Freezer:
Once I got home with the elk all deboned and in the cooler full of frozen jugs I knew I'd be okay that night but began butchering it the next morning. I worked on meat all day. That's when I met up with a member here (dropping off my elk head to get euromount cleaned) and he told me to not rush the process and that I was okay to throw it in the freezer and thaw out pieces and process it as time allowed.
At this point I now have about 3/4 of the elk processed down to steaks, roasts and scraps for grind/jerky, all packaged up nicely and about 1/4 of the elk in a game bag inside of a trash bag in the bottom of my freezer.
As I mentioned before, I am quite new to ALL of this and I really enjoy learning from the pro's. I value your knowledge and experience so please share your thoughts!!!
I apologize if this is a repeat but I would like to learn from the experts.
The simple facts: truck was at trail head, camp was 2 miles in, dead elk was 3.125 miles in. We were scheduled to be there from Saturday - Monday.
I'm hoping you can tell me exactly what you do from Field to Freezer. I will share my recent experience, and I have been told that we didn't have to rush and worry ourselves like we did. We packed an elk out all night and it made for a miserable time. Yes, it was worth it, but it was seriously miserable.
We were up at 5:00 AM on Saturday, drove 5.5 hours, packed in 2 hours. My bull was shot at 5:20 at night. It ran 27 yards and crashed but we waited about 20 minutes before looking for the arrow, blood, and actually saw the elk dead at 5:40 PM. Photos, a brief conversation, retrieving packs from the place of the shot took about 20 minutes and we began the field dressing in the field around 6:00. I had never done the boneless method and was learning from a newbie as well. The first load of meat was coming off the mountain around 10:00 PM and we were just over 3 miles to the truck where I had my large cooler stuffed with frozen jugs of water and two old sleeping bags to help insulate.
It took us 2.5+ hours to get to the truck and 2+ hours to hike back to the site. We began packing just after 10:15 PM and got the last load of meat to the truck at 6:30 AM (Out, in, Out). We slept for 3 hours and had to go back in to retrieve camp and the bull's head/antlers. We never slept in camp and chose to rest for the few hours at the truck at the trail head. We were absolutely dead at 6:30 AM, dehydrated, sore, blistered, and quite frankly at that time I had regretted shooting. (Yeah, I was being a bit of a baby but I'm being honest here)
The bull died in a small creek in dark timber. My initial impression was that we could hang the meat over the creek or create a lattice of logs over the creek and leave them until morning, while we packed out our first load and hiked back into camp. This would have put us in camp around 2:30 AM. Still not a great night sleep.
The other option was to hang it all over the creek and head to camp around 10:15 PM, in camp around 11:15 and a good night sleep after a back strap steak and a shot of whiskey. That would have left the meat hanging over night, over a creek in the shade but we'd have had to pack meat out all day on Sunday in 80° heat.
One last option (but not very likely since our camp was fairly open and no creek near by ) was to pack all the meat the 1.125 miles back and forth to camp and deal with it in the AM. I didn't like this option since it was hot outside.
I'm not sure what exactly I'm looking for here or if I'd actually change anything at all, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this since I'm taking my son back up this weekend. I've never been so nervous to have elk encounters as I feel we may have a pretty good shot at another elk. I say that since at one point we had 5 elk bugling around us while my bull was down. We had a bull come inside 15 yards as we were field dressing my bull and while I went to retrieve the head on Sunday my buddy and son were in camp packing up and had a 4x4 bull come inside 12 yards from where they were resting on a log. This area is littered with elk! I want to make sure that if we get another down that we make the correct decision on getting it back to the cooler without causing undue stress.
Field to Freezer:
Once I got home with the elk all deboned and in the cooler full of frozen jugs I knew I'd be okay that night but began butchering it the next morning. I worked on meat all day. That's when I met up with a member here (dropping off my elk head to get euromount cleaned) and he told me to not rush the process and that I was okay to throw it in the freezer and thaw out pieces and process it as time allowed.
At this point I now have about 3/4 of the elk processed down to steaks, roasts and scraps for grind/jerky, all packaged up nicely and about 1/4 of the elk in a game bag inside of a trash bag in the bottom of my freezer.
As I mentioned before, I am quite new to ALL of this and I really enjoy learning from the pro's. I value your knowledge and experience so please share your thoughts!!!
)
