How to Butcher an Elk
You've butchered an elk and, if you're lucky, hauled the carcass out on an ATV trailer. The hunt was just the beginning. Now you're faced with up to 600 pounds of meat, guts and skin all tied together in the complex body of an animal. It's time to separate them, one by one.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Place the elk on its back with all four legs in the air. Use nylon cord to tie one of its legs to a solid tree or rock to help stabilize the elk and keep him in place.
-
2
Lift a fold of skin from the animal's belly near the anus and carefully puncture this with the knife. Cut a slit all the way from anus to throat, making sure not to puncture its stomach. You won't be able to cut through the sternum or pelvis bones. Just cut down to them and keep going.
-
-
3
Use your bone saw to cut through the sternum and pelvic bone. Go slowly to avoid perforating the bladder, which is just under the pelvic bone.
-
4
Sever the elk's windpipe just below the chin. Take hold of this and gently pull it out, cutting away the smooth muscle that connects it to the body as you go. This will let you remove all the entrails. Make sure you've removed everything, including the colon and the bladder, entirely. You may need to sharpen your knife occasionally to keep it moving efficiently.
-
5
Cut skin and tendons from the lower joint of each leg, then snap it over your knee. Slit the skin, without puncturing the meat, from the anus along the inside of the back legs and from sternum center along the inside of the front legs, down to the severed joint.
-
6
Peel the skin slowly away from the meat using just your body weight. There is no need to cut it, in fact it's better not to; cutting it endangers both the skin and the meat. Just peel the skin away and it will separate along the natural membrane that separates it from the meat.
-
7
Remove the elk's head at the neck, split it down the backbone with the bone saw, and cut each side in half again. Cut along the major muscle dividing lines for steaks and roasts; meat that comes out ragged or is especially tough can be ground into elk burger.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
In most states you must leave evidence of the animal's sex attached to the carcass. Check your local regulations to be sure, but if you're at all in doubt as to whether this is necessary, leave the testicles and mammary glands attached as you butcher until the meat is receiving its final processing.
