Article #3: Back Country Quartering, by Shaun Mathewson

I remember very well the first time I walked up to a downed big game animal and thought, “Now what?”.

I had migrated to bowhunting the previous year and in the process had become a much more serious big-game hunter. Up until that point I had taken a couple dozen deer and a few elk with both rifle and muzzle loader. All of the animals were taken off the mountain either using horses, quarters on a pack frame (hide on, very heavy) or the old fashioned way – drag, sweat, stumble, curse, repeat. Bowhunting however, caused me to stray farther afield than before, and I’d given little thought to the extraction process other than to keep a pretty good backpack in camp.

The story goes something like this. I was right at 10,000 ft elevation and was traversing a big basin with my eye on a good buck feeding on the opposite side of the bowl. As I made my initial approach to a vantage point opposite the deer I happened to notice a 4-point bull elk that was in the same bowl I was, moving directly towards me on the same shelf of ground I was using to traverse the basin. Well, I’ve always been a strong believer in the old “bird in the hand” adage, and I was also in possession of an archery elk tag. So, to make the long story a little shorter, I abandoned the pursuit of the deer and set up in front and slightly to the side of what I thought the elk’s path would be. When the bull paused at 26 yards, my arrow found its mark and a short time later I found the bull about a hundred yards straight down hill from where he had been standing when the arrow hit. I spent a moment thinking about the animal and how magnificent he was both in life and in death. He was beautiful, with his dark mane of hair on his shoulders and neck, dark antlers, and the strong smell of elk all about him. As I sat thinking about the morning, the mountain, and the experience I noticed that he had died on a very steep hill, and had come to rest against a huge quaking aspen. I stood, gripped the antlers to reposition the body and was unable to move him even an inch. Hence the next thought,”Now what?”

At that point it was either sink or swim. It was mid September but very warm still and I knew I couldn’t even consider going for help as much of the precious meat would be lost in the time it would take, so I took out some rope and a knife and went to work. I can’t remember ever working much harder than I did for the next two or three hours as I would tie a loop around the elk’s hoof, throw the rope over an overhead limb, hoist the leg into the air by pulling down on the rope and then working with the knife. In the course of my work, I managed to separate the front shoulders, back straps, tenderloins, and hind quarters from the carcass. I’ll tell you this though, it wasn’t pretty and I’m sure that if I had done a little more research I would have approached the whole process differently.

Well, I’ve done a little research on the subject. As a result, the animals I’ve taken since haven’t been nearly as difficult to take care of as that first elk was. In fact, I can’t remember even having to gut a deer or elk I’ve taken in the back country since that time. The process of quartering a deer or elk for transport is quite simple, so I’ll break it down to its basic elements. Keep in mind while reading what follows that everything like this gets better with practice so if this method doesn’t work out great the first time don’t abandon the idea.

Before you get started keep in mind that in order to do this you’ll have to locate, stalk, shoot and recover a big game animal which is great because for me, the pursuit is the reason I hunt at all. Once the animal is ensured to be completely and not mostly dead (there’s a big difference) take some time and enjoy the moment. Take some pictures and rest because there is a lot of work to come.

The first consideration before you start is whether or not you plan to do a head mount of the animal. If you plan to keep the cape for mounting you will need to alter your approach slightly to preserve the cape from the midline of the animal forward.

• If possible, position the animal so its legs and feet are downhill.
• Start by making a cut through the hide beginning at the base of the skull and continuing all the way to the tail.
• Next, make a cut that begins at the spine behind the shoulder and continue cutting through the hide from the spine all the way around one side of the rib cage to the sternum.
• Now, skin the front shoulder. Before your hunt, talk to your taxidermist about the way to skin the front legs most appropriately for mounting purposes, but most recommend that you cut along the seam of hair on the back of the leg.
• Once the shoulder is skinned, remove it by cutting it free from the rib cage. This is done by pulling the leg up and away from the rib cage and cutting up under the scapula (shoulder blade) During this step you can also remove a lot of meat from the ribs and neck.
• As you remove each large piece of meat, place it in a game bag and suspend it above the ground for rapid cooling.
• Next, skin the hind quarter beginning at the cut in the skin along the spine.
• Remove the hind quarter by cutting along the pelvis until you reach the ball and socket joint of the hip. Cut through the ligament holding things together. This will release the hind quarter. (Note: it’s a good idea to have the game bag for the hind quarter handy as the hind quarters are very heavy and will tend to have a mind of their own and want to follow gravity once they release from the pelvis)
• You can now remove the back straps by cutting along the spine between the pelvis and head. After making the first cut, peel the meat away from the backbone and cut it free from the rib cage.
• The tenderloins are next. They can be reached through the opening between the ribs and pelvis and will come out easily although the ends may need to be cut for easier removal.
• Now, the carcass should be much lighter and can be rolled over to repeat earlier steps beginning with the cut that runs along the backbone and goes down the rib cage to the sternum.
• You should now have several neatly packaged game bags ready for transport. You can now remove the cape and head from the carcass and you’re ready to make your first trip out. If you’re not keeping the cape skin for a head mount, skinning the head completely will save a lot of weight.

Note: This type of quartering/skinning does leave some hide and a bit of meat on the mountain. Be sure to check local game laws as to what is required to be removed from the animal and transported out. And as always, good ethics should prevail.