Field dressing a moose in the night

[KodiakHntr]

Apparently hunters have gotten soft over time. If I had to wait to go hunting until someone was available to hold my hand I wouldn’t ever go out.

Sometimes it takes learning a lesson the hard way a few times, but there is one irrefutable truth, and that is that if you break a large animal down into pieces that you can physically handle it will ALWAYS be easier on your body, and you will work faster. Not to mention your meat will cool faster.

The only thing you NEED to break down a moose or elk into manageable pieces is a sharp knife. Stuff that will help a bunch is a good (fully charged) headlamp, some paracord, game bags, and a good pack (unless it fell on the road), and if you are feeling like moose ribs, a sharp axe to pop the rib cage off.

Looking back through a few pics and the time stamps (all of them skinned and quartered and in game bags and loaded for the trip out either in the truck or sxs):
-last years (very large) bull moose was 4 hrs and 12 minutes and included strap down time.
-2022 bull moose 2 hours 50 minutes, 4 hr pack out to the atv, 5 trips.
-2021 bull moose 1hr 50 minutes, 1 hr 50 minutes pack out, 5 trips.
-2020 bull moose, 1hr 13 minutes, 1hr 10 minute pack out. 2 trips (that was with my hunting buddy though.)

-2023 bull elk 4hr even, and a half hour of packing. - 4 trips. That one took longer as my headlamp would only work on the lowest setting and I ran a havalon into my left thumb and it stuck in the bone when I had to snatch up
the rifle as an aggressive black bear came in to 4 feet. Each quarter I moved away 20 yards after they were all bagged and stabbed a few holes in the stomach before I started packing quarters out. Was slightly disconcerting having 3 feet of light from the headlamp and listening to him growl and break ribs coming back for each load. Didn’t spend much time strapping stuff down either, just sloshed bagged quarters into the SG pack and started hoofing lol.
-2022 bull elk, 2 hrs 32 minutes
-2021 bull elk 2 hrs 7 minutes

It really isn’t as daunting of a task as guys make it out to be as long as you are mentally prepared for the experience. If you go into it thinking its some huge ordeal, its going to become a huge ordeal.

Being efficient with what you are doing is really the biggest hurdle. Pop the lower legs off first, slide your blade from ears to tail, then down the outside of each leg top dead center. Prop the leg joint into your belly button and skin it down 10”. Take a rolled up game bag and put that over the end stuck in your belly and keep skinning. Roll the bag down as you go and by the time you are ready to lift off that quarter it’s bagged and clean.
Rinse and repeat.

[elker]

THank you all for the responses, please keep coming!
I just got the draw for 2 moose at the areas where I saw moose within 10 minutes of each time I went in last year! I agree with KodiakHunter! I do not quarter, I quarter the quarter! Make the weight managable! I have about 8 LED USB chargable lights. I will buyer a few headlamps for sure. One thing I may do different than Kodiakhunter is that I will never use Havlon. I feel sorry for your incident. I heard other more serious cuts with Havlon. I will use my stone sharpener to help my knife.

I will surely report to your guys of my success! I will even try to shoot wolves by ambusing them not far away from the gut pile.

Please keep your comments coming. I need them!!

[WhiteTailAB]

Shot my first bull moose last year, took me and a buddy 6hrs to get it out of the bush and into the shop hanging. Could probably go quicker next time.

[Bustercluck]

Apparently hunters have gotten soft over time. If I had to wait to go hunting until someone was available to hold my hand I wouldn’t ever go out.

Sometimes it takes learning a lesson the hard way a few times, but there is one irrefutable truth, and that is that if you break a large animal down into pieces that you can physically handle it will ALWAYS be easier on your body, and you will work faster. Not to mention your meat will cool faster.

The only thing you NEED to break down a moose or elk into manageable pieces is a sharp knife. Stuff that will help a bunch is a good (fully charged) headlamp, some paracord, game bags, and a good pack (unless it fell on the road), and if you are feeling like moose ribs, a sharp axe to pop the rib cage off.

Looking back through a few pics and the time stamps (all of them skinned and quartered and in game bags and loaded for the trip out either in the truck or sxs):
-last years (very large) bull moose was 4 hrs and 12 minutes and included strap down time.
-2022 bull moose 2 hours 50 minutes, 4 hr pack out to the atv, 5 trips.
-2021 bull moose 1hr 50 minutes, 1 hr 50 minutes pack out, 5 trips.
-2020 bull moose, 1hr 13 minutes, 1hr 10 minute pack out. 2 trips (that was with my hunting buddy though.)

-2023 bull elk 4hr even, and a half hour of packing. - 4 trips. That one took longer as my headlamp would only work on the lowest setting and I ran a havalon into my left thumb and it stuck in the bone when I had to snatch up
the rifle as an aggressive black bear came in to 4 feet. Each quarter I moved away 20 yards after they were all bagged and stabbed a few holes in the stomach before I started packing quarters out. Was slightly disconcerting having 3 feet of light from the headlamp and listening to him growl and break ribs coming back for each load. Didn’t spend much time strapping stuff down either, just sloshed bagged quarters into the SG pack and started hoofing lol.
-2022 bull elk, 2 hrs 32 minutes
-2021 bull elk 2 hrs 7 minutes

It really isn’t as daunting of a task as guys make it out to be as long as you are mentally prepared for the experience. If you go into it thinking its some huge ordeal, its going to become a huge ordeal.

Being efficient with what you are doing is really the biggest hurdle. Pop the lower legs off first, slide your blade from ears to tail, then down the outside of each leg top dead center. Prop the leg joint into your belly button and skin it down 10”. Take a rolled up game bag and put that over the end stuck in your belly and keep skinning. Roll the bag down as you go and by the time you are ready to lift off that quarter it’s bagged and clean.
Rinse and repeat.

Share some pics on here. I don’t remember seeing too many of yours on this site.

[moosinaround]

Share some pics on here. I don’t remember seeing too many of yours on this site.

https://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showt...le-and-a-Moose

[TheObserver]

A generator tells me your planning on shooting it from a road, which may not be your option.

I always carry a headlamp and a backup headlamp and a flashlight. With batteries for each.

Contrary to popular belief, human sh!+ and piss actually attracts bears and not the other way around. Your scent like sweat hair and skin would probably do more to deter.

Ive only done up Bear and Deer alone in the dark so nothing compared to Moose but sometimes ill play some music, could be good to deter because the noise and voices but if something were to be curious and move in I wouldnt hear it and id be fvcked lol.

The best thing I would think is to have a small fire, this is what i'll do when I kill an Elk solo. Anyone else here ever have a fire when working on big animals like Elk or Moose in Grizz/wolf country at night solo? Keep them away?

[wallz]

4 hours or less with a bone out gutless for moose, strapped to sxs and ready to go. 2 people, well 1 1/2. The other person was my 18 yr old daughter that had never done that, so it was a bit slower, teaching session along the way.

I invested in those nice olight headlamps a few years ago, and a few spare batteries. And go figure, have not had to use them yet, but they are awesome bright, and run 6-8 hrs roughly on each battery, so 1 in, 2 spares, I think I'm covered good.

I have hunted lots solo moose, and will continue to do so. Yea, with someone its better, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

The fire is a good idea, and should work, as long as you can safely have one.

[KodiakHntr]

https://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showt...le-and-a-Moose

My goodness! I’d *almost* forgotten about that thread!
Side note, won’t be hunting with the Moose Hammer this year… Got my favoritest rifle back last November from Corlanes with a new fast twist tube on it, so it’s up this year to stack heartbeats.

[Redthies]

Dark is not fun.
My bear this year was done with the gutless method and the truck could be driven to within 50 yards.
The Kershaw Lonerock Zipit Pro opened her up from the base of the cull to the middle of the back on the first cut and to the tail on the second cut.
The hide was then peeled back with no fur/hair on the meat. Taken to the truck as the hind hams, the shoulders and shank then the back straps.
The Kershaw has about 3" of cutting edge and works slicker than snot.
My Son's old sow was a brute to get out and wish we had done a gutless entry on her too.

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR]

I love my Kershaw knives. Just ordered 2 of the Lonerocks (me and kid). Thanks for the suggestion!

[Redthies]

The fire is a good idea, and should work, as long as you can safely have one.

Aside from the natural deterrent of the flame, the smoke might cover the scent of carcass to some extent as well. Gutless method would also help a bit with scent.