Feild dressing a moose help?

[Targa01]

Hi everyone, this year will be my first moose hunt and was wondering if anyone knows of a good wedsite for feild dressing tips. I googled it a bit but didn't find much. Or does anyone know of a web site that has a video of showing a moose being cleaned?

 

Thanks for the help

[wallyboss]

First thing to do is to make sure that you have a clean kill shot!!!

 

I just googled "Field dressing Big Game" And I got all the info that you would need except the name of the guy to go do it for you..

 

Nothing gross about it if you got a clean kill shot. It's the gut wound shots that are the nastiest ones to field dress.

[Guest gbfisher]

The best way is to WATCH a person from your group do it first.

Nothing like hands on knowledge though. I'm sure they can give you some work to do in the cleaning of it. If it is your animal, they can tell you what to do step by step and you can do it all yourself just by letting them guide you. That's how I learned. They all come apart the same way. You do not need a big knife either.

 

The MOST important thing is to NOT OPEN ANY STOMACH content , if you do where ever it touches the animal is PURE garbage!!!!

 

HAve fun!!!...That's what it is all about! Good shootin!!!

[POLLIWOGG]

Get Donny to help you with it! LOL

[misfish]

The best way is to WATCH a person from your group do it first.

Nothing like hands on knowledge though. I'm sure they can give you some work to do in the cleaning of it. If it is your animal, they can tell you what to do step by step and you can do it all yourself just by letting them guide you. That's how I learned. They all come apart the same way. You do not need a big knife either.

 

The MOST important thing is to NOT OPEN ANY STOMACH content , if you do where ever it touches the animal is PURE garbage!!!!

 

HAve fun!!!...That's what it is all about! Good shootin!!!

 

What Andy said is right on. When I first started hunting I had no idea.I asked (and dont be afraid to ask) to hold off if they can, the gutting of the animal til you get there.I watched a couple of different ways of doing it and like Andy says,watching and hands on learning is the best.

 

Happy hunting

[Roy]

Sorry I can't help you with that.

 

I suppose that depending on the occasion, a pink tutu might work.

[bigfish1965]

Get Donny to help you with it! LOL

Thanks..I spit cola all over my keyboard. That was funny, right there...and only an Ontarian would know why...

[danbo]

http://www.huntingnet.com/staticpages/stat...ail.aspx?id=255

[danbo]

http://www.huntingpa.com/Fielddress.html

[Terry]

it really was a funny reply...

[ecxstriper]

Roy what is it with you and those pink tutus?

[tjsa]

Yup, nothing beats first hand experience watching someone else do it.

But, if thats not possible??????

 

Start at the throat, cut the hide, and cut to the side of centre, so as you do not cut the windpipe.

Cut a good section of the windpipe free, down to the start of the ribs. Then, right under the chin of the animal, cut the windpipe, and excise it out. Tie a piece of small rope around it.

Now.....after you have cut it down to the rib area, you need to separate the ribcage, with a saw, a meat saw is best, but you can do it with other saws, start at the throat area, and work your way down, staying as much as possible to the centre of the ribcage. When you reach the end of the ribcage, STOP!!!

 

Now you need to cut open the belly area attached to the bottom of the ribcage. Just let your knife follow the bottom edge of the ribcage to almost the backbone. STOP!!!

 

Now, separate the ribcage, takes brute force sometimes, other times it separates easily.

 

Now with the rope around the windpipe, you pull towards the rear of the animal, and someone else gets in there with a knife, and disconnects the diaphram(that part that was connected to the bottom of the ribcage) from the animal(the main connecting tissue separating the lung area from the gut area) but take care you do not go to hog wild in doing this, as the diaphram is connected very close to the tenderloin area on the rear of the spine of the animal, moose or deer regardless.

 

Usually, if all goes well, if you have disconnected the diaphram properly, you can pull slowly, but with constant pressure, and the lungs, guts, will flow out of the body cavity of the animal.

 

Now, the tricky part. The bladder area.

 

If the bladder is full, you really don't want that to rupture, it does indeed spoil the meat if you cannot clean it immediately with water.

You now have to separate the sternum bone to be able to separate the rear legs properly. Again the proper saw comes into play, and a knowledge of how to use it, and how to angle it to achieve the purpose. And, some people can carve out the anal cavity to achieve this to make it easier(I have not mastered this yet after 30 yrs.) to make sure of no contamination of the meat.

Once that last bone area is cut, you can spread the rear legs apart, and the rest of the guts, bladder, anal tract, can be removed.

 

Then..........quartering. Unless you can back up the truck to the animal and load it whole.

 

Count up from the rear of the animal 3 ribs, insert knife, and cut the length of the ribs up to the backbone.

You might need the saw to get through the front of the ribs, its tough cartilage.

 

You will need the saw to cut through the backbone.

 

The reason for 3 ribs up, is to make sure you separate the front half of the animal from the rear of the animal AHEAD of the tenderloin, instead of cutting through it. (I think its 3 ribs up from the rear, lol).

 

BTW,have you ever eaten T-bone steaks, thats the tenderloin area.

 

After separation of front and rear, stand the halfs on end, and using the bone saw( lots of guys are now using battery powered sawsalls, and I can understand why) cut down the centre of the backbone on both halves of the animal, to finish the quartering.

 

There are webites describing this stuff, look for butchering sites, not just moose or deer, or hunting sites.

 

Having someone who has done it before do it right in front of you makes a world of difference.

 

I know, I will tell you right now, what I have just described, will not be what everyone else will/would do, everyone gets their own personal way of doing things, and sometimes I do it slightly differently. Personal tricks of the trade.

 

I learned about field dressing from a couple of guys I hunt with, and how they do it. And we also butcher the animal ourselves, tenderloin teased out(we don't make t-bone steaks) round steaks, flank steaks, rump roasts, shoulder roasts, and almost everything else goes into saugage, whether it be breakfast, legion, pepperettes, etc. etc.

 

We do everything bone free.

[cityfisher]

lots of great info !

 

I watched my buddy dress our camps first bull moose.. Took a while but he got it done.. the funny thing is that out of 9 guys that were there .NOBODY has dressed or shot a BULL moose before... only a couple calfs over the years....

 

Key... SHARP KNIFE...alot of friends to help. and a Polaris Ranger to haul it out... Makes it so much easier then qtring it on the spot

Edited September 18, 2007 by cityfisher