americanhunter.org ❘ 39 ❘ august 2019
terrain, a specialized sled can circumvent
back pain.
Along with your knife and a supply of
latex gloves, take along a sharpener. You
may be able to do an entire deer without a
blade touchup, but the thick skin of an elk
dulls a blade quickly. Dull blades slow the
job and invite accidents.
For insect-infested areas or lengthy
wait times between pack loads, pack along
game bags. Cotton, canvas and even new
synthetic options handle all temperatures
and degrees of ruggedness. Another light-
weight addition is plastic garbage bags to
use as a liner outside game bags to avoid
blood spillage in your pack or to keep
blood from soaking through to your cloth-
ing. Only use a bag briefly as the plastic
prohibits proper meat cooling. (Addition-
ally, plastic garbage bags should not be
used to store meat directly as they may
contain harmful chemicals.) Still, plastic
bags definitely save on cleanup time after
transportation. They also serve as a wrap
for messy skull plates or full heads, again
protecting you from surprise body-fluid
leakage. A tarp on which to lay skinned
quarters or an entire carcass also should
be considered for camp, and for vehicles.
Freshly skinned meat has a sticky texture.Every pine needle and loose oak leaf will
stick to it, and so will dirt.
A small folding saw is handy, too, espe-
cially for removing the skull plate. If you
dig European mounts you should be able
to remove all other body parts with a sharp
knife and cartilage knowledge. Flex any
joints and slice into the recesses to sepa-
rate tissue.
To get that knowledge and brush up
on field-dressing, you have permission
to visit the Internet. My first gutting job
occurred while I was by myself, in the
dark and holding a flashlight in my mouth
while looking at photos in a book. Online
videos make it easier.
For elk, it pays to study the gutless
method of meat removal to save time. It’sfairly straightforward. Skin a quarter and
either debone it or remove it in its entirety.
Peel away the back hide and slice along the
backbone to unfasten the beefy backstraps.
After that, move around the neck and
shoulders to fillet off extra scraps. Don’t
skip the ending where you cut through the
ribs to remove the inside loins that actually
trump backstraps for flavor.
For any other big-game species with
mandatory gut removal, focus on the finer
points of removing the anus, bowel and a
plump bladder. If you goof up on any of
these and spill the contents it could taint
a future dinner. For any “oops” moment,
wash away any goop with clean water and
repeat before processing.The Shot
With prep and online schooling complete,
it’s time for the hunt—but before you pull
that trigger think, Mmmm. Make a bad
shot with your firearm or even a broad-
head, and it can lead to undesirable facial
expressions at the table later.
Resist the urge to shoot animals in the
neck or head to “save meat.” The risk is
simply too high for wounding game. It’s
your duty to cleanly put down any game. A
shot to either region means you’re aimingat a target 4 inches square or less. That’s
tiny and especially unethical when utilizing
archery tackle. There’s also the option to
take a “Texas heart shot” right up a deer’s
bum. Don’t. Bullet expansion and its devas-
tating path can spread feces and burst the
bladder. This spreads bacteria throughout
edible portions of your dinner, particularly
near the inside loins.
Instead, aim for the traditional vital
zone that expands the killing zone, lungs
and heart, to the size of a basketball. Yes,
there could be some meat loss due to
bullet expansion, but it’s better to lose
a burger or two as opposed to an entire
winter’s supply of meat. It’s rare for any
animal to escape a double-lung tap to the
boiler room.I
n this day of instant information at
our fingertips, I was aghast at the sight
before me. I had pulled into the alley
of my buddy’s garage to load some hunt-
ing gear. Across the alley, hanging at the
neighbor’s house was an unskinned doe.
The sight of it hanging there didn’t shock
me, but its haggard looks did. It was an
overly warm fall, and it was clear the doe
had hung there for more than a night. A
simple online search would have suggested
this wasn’t the road to fine dining.
The road to the perfect backstrap
dinner begins well before the hanging of
game at camp or at home. Nevertheless,
missteps like these lay the groundwork for
wrinkled noses and scraps being shuffled
under the dinner table to an eager canine
secretly tasked with food disposal duties.
To take a living, breathing game animal
and transform it to the purest source of
tasty protein takes a dedicated plan that
starts long before the hunt begins. Consider
these measures and you might discover
a world of taste you’ve been missing in
Mother Nature’s well-stocked grocery aisle.The Gear
While you clean your firearm, attach
broadheads and dust off optical elements,
add “meat recovery” to your to-do list. No
doubt you have a hunting knife packed, but
think of every possible scenario and line up
the proper gear to retrieve the meat from
a buck or bull. If you’re lucky and hunt-
ing Uncle Frank’s farm, you may be able to
drive to a deer and load it into your truck.
If you’re 5 miles into the backcountry, you’ll
need to be prepared to take out the entire,
legal amount of meat on your back unless
you have access to pack animals.
A sturdy length of rope comes in
handy to hoist a deer out of a ravine with
human or vehicle assistance. Several feet
of paracord is also invaluable when hunt-
ing solo when there’s no extra hand to
hold up a leg. A comfortable, well-made
backpack that will easily bear 100-pound
loads has merit for deer or elk, even if you
only have to pack quarters from a wood-
lot to the road due to muddy conditions.
And if the terrain allows, research game
cart options, but keep in mind mountain
terrain isn’t always wheel-hospitable. In
addition, regulations within some wilder-
ness areas prohibit “mechanical transport.”
That includes wheeled carts. However, in
Photo: Mitch Kezar / WindigoImages.comsome conditions, namely in snow or on flat
The road to the perfect
backstrap dinner begins well
before the hanging of game ....