Note: this article is for education purposes. Be advised descriptions can be graphic because we are talking about killed game animals. We assume those reading this article have a basic understanding and respect for the hunter’s responsibilities after a successful kill. We do not endorse trophy hunting without harvesting the meat.
Once your game animal has been harvested, the real work begins. Many hunters spend countless hours visualizing the hunt itself, and preparing for the pursuit of an animal. Very few put as much thought into what to do after the fact.
Cleaning the animal and packing out the meat
Our guides are trained and experienced in the first step of processing a harvested animal, field-dressing it. Depending on who you ask, this process has different names: cleaning it out, dressing it out, gutting it, etc.. Whatever you call the process, the clock is ticking, and if you do not quickly cut open the animal to let the meat begin to cool, it will spoil. Do not waste precious time. Sometimes this process can take hours.
Perhaps you have some whitetail hunting experience, and you have cleaned out a whitetail deer. That’s great! The skills necessary for cleaning a whitetail are the same skills needed for mule deer and elk. Anatomically speaking, elk are basically enormous deer. The process for field-dressing black bear is similar too, though the technique is different. Our guides will lead this part of your journey, and we hope all of our hunting clients participate as much as possible. After all, it’s your animal.
For mule deer and elk, the difference between them and a whitetail deer is the sheer mass of the animal. A mature East Coast whitetail buck might be 140-200 pounds on the hoof. Larger midwestern whitetails can be upwards of 220 pounds, with very few exceptions. Whitetail does are generally smaller, between 60-140 pounds.
Contrast that with a cow elk, which range from about 300-500 pounds on the hoof. Mature bull elk are typically over 600 pounds, and can be over 1000 pounds at full maturity. The average bull elk is approximately 750 pounds. That’s a casual 600 pounds more than a typical whitetail.
So while you might be able to move a whitetail carcass to a convenient spot to field dress, elk must be cleaned where they fall…even if it’s on a steep slope of the Idaho rocky mountains.
Cutting, gutting, quartering
Without being too graphic, our guides may need your help to hold a leg or two while they cut open the animal and clear out its internal organs (we recommend keeping the heart and liver, which are some of the best meat in the animal). You will need several game bags to put meat into. Do not come empty handed! Game bags are your responsibility as a hunter. Without them, you would be carrying raw meat out of the wilderness and it would get dirty and ruined.
Field dressing a harvested bull elk
Once the animal is cleaned out, the meat begins to cool, which is essential to prevent spoiling. The animal is then cut into quarters (each leg and its shoulder or hip are considered a quarter). The meat can be cut off the bone later (“deboned”) to reduce pack out weight. In the short term, get the entire leg with its meat into the game bags to protect it from flies and other insect that will inevitably find your animal before you do.
An ungulate like deer or elk will also have desireable cuts of meat that are not included in the quarters. We recommend keeping the neck meat (neck roast), tenderloins and back straps. The more meat you pull off, the more meat you can take home…but also the more you must carry to the pack mules (or back to camp if you did not opt for pack mules).
Loading and hauling
Once the meat is in game bags, it needs to be loaded onto your hunting pack. The best hunting packs for hauling game meat involve a frame and straps that can be adjusted to fit large bags of meat. Top hunting pack brands all offer packs with meat hauling capabilities. There are plenty on the market to pick from.
Depending on how large your animal is, and how many people are in your group, it may take multiple trips to get your meat back to camp. In fact, sometimes, game bags must be hung up in trees overnight because we simply run out of daylight. All we can do is hope that bears and wolves do not find the meat before we return the next morning. This is where being in physical condition is so important. Packing out heavy bags of meat is exhausting; especially in steep terrain like ours. Even the strongest guys who train for this fatigue quickly when moving hundreds of pounds of meat up a mountain.
We offer pack mules for an additional service fee, or you can opt to include them in your reservation with us. Our mules know these mountains well and can easily carry over 200 pounds of meat per mule. They substantially reduce the amount of physical effort needed to bring meat back to camp.
Camp, cleaning, freezing
When your meat makes it back to camp, we will rinse it off with fresh spring water (running 24/7 at basecamp) if it’s dirty. If it’s reasonably clean, the meat will go directly in our deep freezer, powered day and night by a generator. By the time your hunt is done, all your meat will be frozen and ready for transport.
How to get your meat home
How to get meat home is one of the more common questions we get at Ridgerunner Outfitters. There are several ways, and you can begin by educating yourself on everything involved. There’s a good podcast called “From Field to Plate“.
Local butchers
There are some local meat processors within a few hours of basecamp. They are located in the towns of Orofino, Weippe and Kamiah. Keep in mind, we are in the remote backcountry of northern Idaho, and there are no guarantees if these butchers will have capacity for your meat. During the COVID years, these shops did not have capacity for more meat due to the backlog of cattle.
We recommend planning your trip as if local meat processors are not going to be available. And if they are not available, you can still donate some of your meat locally. We can help you with that.
Flying home with meat
Most of our hunters fly in and out of Spokane airport (GEG). Flying with meat might not be an economical option, depending on how much meat you’re trying to take home. First, you would need styrofoam-insulated cardboard cooler boxes to pack the frozen meat into. You would need to buy those in Spokane before driving to camp. They may also be available in Lewiston, ID. Then, you need to check each box, and airlines will charge for the additional luggage. This may prove to be the most effective means of getting meat home quickly, but it comes at a cost of extra luggage fees.
If you do fly home with your meat, you can either find a local butcher in your hometown, or butcher the meat yourself. It’s up to you. Just recognize that it is not uncommon to pull 200+ pounds of meat off an elk. That takes up space, and it surprises most first-time hunters. So plan for success!
Driving home with meat
Even if you’re flying home, come to Ridgerunner basecamp with a few large coolers so you can transport your meat. Whether you’re taking it to a larger town with more options for butchering, or to the airport, or you plan on driving your meat home. The last thing you want to do is let the meat spoil because it could not stay cold.
Yes, many of our clients will drive their meat home across the country. If you come here and harvest several animals, it will be too much meat to fly with. Have a plan.
We hope this helps you prepare for a successful hunt with us! If you have any questions, contact us.
