after he's down

[fly-in]

I was just wondering how you guys go about getting the dirty (or just heavy) work done after you have downed your moose?

I have never shot a moose yet, but my father inlaw tells me that he just skins half the moose then takes off the front and rear quarters and the loin, then flips him over and does the other side (and of corse the horns). He doesn't even unzip him (so the back straps are wasted, yes). He might take off alittle more meat but that is it.

I was just wondering how others do it, the way he talks I could do it all myself (and I might have to if I hunt alone for afew days)

[roscoe]

if you think you can roll him over by yourself i'd advise lightin a fire and eatin him right there! seems a shame to waste alot of good meat.

[adkRoy]

I have heard of old time guides using a light weight axe to quarter the moose.

[fly-in]

I have heard of old time guides using a light weight axe to quarter the moose.

you can quarter no problem with just a knife, you can just slice the front quarter off starting from under the leg, in the back it is simular you slice until you get to the hip socket then cut around the ball until you can just pop it out then continue to slice the quarter off, no ax no saw. (but you might want the ax for the horns)

[Terrygonefishing]

That is what we call haming a moose fly-in . Great for long pack outs. You do end up with more than 4 pieces. More like 4 pieces and a big rib cage. Some oldtimers around here did that but very wasteful of meat as they just hammed the moose packing out the 4 legs with some meat attached. Didn't even have to gut them. Just left the rib cage piece there guts and all.
I like the ribs though

I have quartered them with an axe before by cutting down one side where the ribs meet the spine. Makes one side a little bigger than other.
I usually now just haul them whole with my ATV. Slap down a reinforced piece of plywood angled onto tailgate with a pulley at front of box of pickup. Hook rope onto head of moose thru pulley and then tied onto ATV or another truck if big one. Pulls it up easily whole.

My uncle has a big pulley that he ties up to a big tree (high up) along road where the moose is down. Has 2800 feet of airplane cable (thin) in different lengths pieces. Runs the cable from the moose rope (tie a rope on neck so if hangs up then just the rope breaks and not the cable)
thru the pulley up high in tree, to truck. Hops in truck and just drives. We usually have 2 way radios so I tell him when to stop. Sometimes we tie off the moose in tree if pulley high enough, then back truck under and lower the moose down to pick up box.

Once came upon this 74 yr old hunter on road and he shot a moose that was 750 yards across a huge swamp. He was trying to think how to get it across there when we pulled up. We offered a hand and did the previous mentioned. Only took us 30 mins to get it from other side of swamp to the back of his truck whole (guts out of course). He was very happy getting that huge moose in there. Filled up the whole box and had 59 inch spread.

[HuntFishSled]

Read about these guys on another forum that just drag 'em out by hand. 

My wife shot a 610# 42" bull saturday morning 1 mile from the road. It took us until 2:00 PM sunday for us to get it on the trailer Two of us pulled it out by hand,my buddy was the camera man. and my wife carried the winch,gas and extra cable (all down hill) strapped him to a truck bed liner and away we go. We did need the winch twice to get him out of low spots.Needed a beer real bad after that.
We were going by dualmas' advice( and others in the know) and headed for the high country. We were at 2865 feet where he went down with one shot to the neck in 5" of snow real pretty.

This was my reply........

You dragged a 610 lb. moose out of the woods a mile by hand. That's quite a feat.  We shot a 570 lb. cow this year and 2 of us couldn't budge it by hand.

We couldn't have done it without the snow on the ground at the time. Strapped him to a truck bedliner we draged up the mountain. and it was all down hill. we used the chainsaw winch twice. The rest was really myself and my buddy dragging. My wife carring the winch, and gas, and extra cable. When we were done dragging the moose, we were dragging a$$ big time

.....guess they're alot stronger than I am. 

[fly-in]

If we ever shoot a moose (I have hunted for four seasons now, no moose) we have to fly it out of our cabin, in a piper cub, it takes two or three trips I'm told to get just the quarters out (I'm just 5'8" and 170lbs and I have enough truoble sqeezeing into that plane)

[Terrygonefishing]

Read about these guys on another forum that just drag 'em out by hand. 

This was my reply........

You dragged a 610 lb. moose out of the woods a mile by hand. That's quite a feat.  We shot a 570 lb. cow this year and 2 of us couldn't budge it by hand.



.....guess they're alot stronger than I am. 

A plastic truck bed liner would pull very easily on the snow. It could work. But sounds like lots of work getting something that wide a mile out of the bush with trees and stumps, logs, brush etc.

[brian d]

We have a winch in the back of the truck similar to what TGF mentioned and instead of plywood we have rollers.
Just as we get the moose half in the back of the truck we do are best to turn it and gut it there while it's half hanging.
Or if further in the bush then hoped for, we use the quad and we are lucky to have use of a long trailer and tie the antlers right to the quad rack and drive it right into the trailer. But it's still a 3 man fight to get the moose in. Works better with elk.

[MASTERGUIDE]

Last spring it took three of us to pull a 600 pound black bear a 1/4 of a mile out of the woods, thank God part was downhill, then it took and hour and a half to figure out how to hoist him in the back of my truck, and we were on a major highway, that must have looked funny, but we got em on there, and we were tired for about two days after that, and I was sick at the time so it made it even worse. we started to look for it at 10 at night and found it at 3 am and we were gone with the bear by about 6 am.  we used dog leads and tied them to his head and paws and dragged him out, he ended up measuring 8.5 feet long, thats a big black bear.

MASTERGUIDE

[HuntinFool]

ive gotten the moose butcherin process down to a smooth system...quite simple if you have the rights essential tools...the main thing is a good sharp knife (i carry 3), a good steel,a good bone saw or pocket axe, a stout length of rope, and an 8x10 tarp...now depending on which way the bull fall, and of course, where, you can use the terrain to your advantage....the most important thing about bagging moose and properly handling the meat is shot placement....best you can do is a one shot kill (i prefer spine shots) that will drop their legs from under them so's they fall sittin up kinda. If i cant do that, i use the rope and a good solid tree limb or log to turn them into that position....i then start skinning from the top of the neck, down the back to the rump, cut out the backstraps, then skin down the ribs on both sides and make the hide out like a blanket to keep the ribs out of the dirt....once done with cuttin off the ribs on the top side, you take your tarp, tuck it under the carcass with a stick, and then get in there and separate the guts from the backbone, then roll them out onto the tarp and drag them out of the way.... afterwards, chop off the head, carve up the neckmeat into good chunks ( takes a minute longer but makes the pack lighter), then you can pretty much manuever the remaining carcass without too much trouble....now i know a pain in the ass is keeping the quarters standing up on their own, and a good piece of rope can eliminate this problem...with our alaskan moose quarters averaging from 175- 250lbs each and sometimes more, i prefer to spend the extra 10 minutes or so boning out the top halves.I then use the tarp to wrap up and nice managable load and tie it up tight to my frame pack with the rope, and head on out..the fastest we (my hunting partner and I) ever had a mature moose quartered and loaded was 25 minutes in 2 feet of snow, 35 below temperatures and 400 yards from the truck.....accessibility is very limited here compared to other areas, and we try our best to not hunt any farther than 1-2 miles from a trail or highway...i hope this method works for others...some of you mite find it otherwise...i find it works fast, efficient, and saves alot of trouble back in the shop..

[Alces_alces]

Use a chainsaw with vegetable oil instead of bar and chain oil.   

[brace]

By no means am I an expert on this subject, but have taken part in the recovery of 3 moose.  Closest was 100 yards from road and farthest was about 500 yards from road.  After gutting the moose, we used a block & tackle and 2 trucks to pull it out, then hooked up the trailer and used the same equipment to pull into the trailer.  I guess we've been pretty lucky, as all 3 moose came out quite easily.  From there a quick trip to the butcher shop to handle the cutting. 

Good luck with your moose hunt!!

[fly-in]

I talked to a friend a couple years ago, he told me that his inlaw's shot a moose and to get it out they pretty well made a road into the bush with the chainsaw to drive a fourwheeler in to pull it out, he told me he saw the pictures, they just cut logs and lied them across to make a trail for the quad to drive on. Sounds like too much work, I like the idea of the winches, but we can't do that at our cabin as you can't get a truck within ten miles, and the moose has to fit in the piper cub.

[HuntinFool]

I was just wondering how you guys go about getting the dirty (or just heavy) work done after you have downed your moose?

I have never shot a moose yet, but my father inlaw tells me that he just skins half the moose then takes off the front and rear quarters and the loin, then flips him over and does the other side (and of corse the horns). He doesn't even unzip him (so the back straps are wasted, yes). He might take off alittle more meat but that is it.

I was just wondering how others do it, the way he talks I could do it all myself (and I might have to if I hunt alone for afew days)

here in the state of alaska, ALL MEAT must be harvested....backstraps, brisket, ribs, rump, neck, tenderloins, all quarters...everything...in some places it must remain on the bone while until it has reached the destination of butchering....i re-perfected my technique of moose....i was cut from the top of the neck to the anus, then skin it down to the bottom of the rib cage and slice back to the brisket, and bone everything out in the field ( if legal)......dont even have to touch the guts....but....this takes quite a while....best to have a friend or 2


and he leaves the back straps? thats the best part!!!!