Gone are the days....
The infamous No Gut or Gutless method.
To gut or not to gut, is it really a question?
This method has been around for many years. I've heard it also called the fillet method. If you don't know about it or are new to the art, it means simply skinning the whole animal in the field immediately after the kill and cutting each leg or "quarter" (as there are usually four) off of the main torso or carcass which would basically be the spine, rib cage and hip. This includes the backstrap along the spine and the tender loins or the fillet mignon for you meat connoisseurs. Those are under the spine between the rib cage and the hip and they are outside the gut lining.
You may have been doing this method for decades and know all about it. I had heard about the method for a long time but was introduced to it around the turn of the century when I came across a carcass while hunting. I noticed the quarters were gone, but the carcass still had the guts in it. I did the no gut method on the next elk I shot and unless the circumstances require gutting due to time restraints or to keep the whole carcass in tact, I will never gut a big game animal again.
In more recent years I've heard about and seen where some guys that kill an animal in the evening just roll it onto its belly with its legs tucked like it would be laying down and leave it till the morning. Then the next day they do a dorsal cut and debone removing only the top portions of the quarters while leaving the majority of the lower, less desirable parts of the quarters. This to me is a lazy practice and is not a very appreciative way of harvesting game meat. It does not allow for the meat to cool properly and will still be warm in most areas. And in many instances can even be illegal if it is proven that you left significant edible portions of the quarters in the field to rot.
But no matter which version you choose, the gutless method has gained in popularity over the last two decades thanks to word of mouth and the era of the internet's information super highway. It is now in many camps the only way to do it. And is gaining in popularity even in the eastern whitetail crowd no matter where the kill takes place. Soon you will see more and more of a shift this direction in both practice and specialty products available in that aspect. The Top Hand is one of those and we will continue to develop products along those lines.
After the shot. Now the work begins.
So you made your shot, found blood, followed the trail and are now on top of your game. In the past you might have had some things along with you that included many of the essentials for field processing. Today this has been dubbed a "kill kit". But if you are by yourself, you never had that extra hand that could hold the animals leg here and there for you until it is skinned and separated from the carcass.
Maybe you got lucky and your game fell under a stout tree branch. But most of the time you would be holding a leg up over your shoulder, across your thigh or between your own legs using a very sharp knife sometimes within inches of your femoral artery. And then when you finally got that quarter free of the carcass you had to fumble around getting it into a game bag by yourself.
You might hunt where you can get your truck or ATV right to your game, in which you might be thinking why should I quarter or part out my animal when I can take it home whole? Well that decision depends on a lot of subjective factors, like number one, whether you want to gut it or not. Then you need to consider the outside temperature, is it morning, evening, how far will you have to drive and what will you do with the carcass and hide afterwards. And that goes without even mentioning the word "drag".
Maybe you who are in the whitetail crowd have done it like this before?...
Who's the actual animal in that pic?
How about this?...
Gotta love the pipe! He probably got a free backpack or tent with the purchase of 10 cartons of cigarettes back then too.
If you hunt with a buddy I'm sure you've tried this... I have, and never again.
Those pictures were pulled from a 1960's Field and Stream magazine. It's the way it used to be done. Most of you now just use an ATV, and why not? I get it, but the next time you shoot your buck on the back 40 you should try the gutless method and pack it out on your back. I can almost guarantee you the meat will taste better and your wife may actually like to cook it, but not because it smells or tastes better, because you actually packed it out on you back. So this could benefit you in other ways as well...
I've been using a homemade tripod to quarter animals myself both medium size and larger big game since 2010. I've never worked at a butcher plant but I've taken apart likely well north of 150 big game animals in my lifetime and the majority of those while in the field. I have found that the gutless method of taking apart any animal in the field is by far worth the time. Even if it were shot in a convenient location for a whole animal retrieval. BTW we aren't getting into the topic of deboning just yet.
The amount of cooling that occurs by skinning the hide off right away is essential in early seasons which is why the gutless method has become more popular. Archery has also become more popular. Some argue that you must leave the hide on in late season so the meat will be less apt to freeze in which there is no tenderization or decomposing below freezing temps. This is a valid point but there are measures you can take to keep meat from freezing solid. It takes a long time and very cold temps to freeze a quarter to the bone. I know for a fact it don't happen over night even in sub zero temps.
We all know the guts are full of bad bacteria. And leaving all that alone while taking only the leg quarters and meat potions off the outside will significantly reduce the chance of getting bacteria on the meat before it goes into a game bag or meat wrap. I elaborate on the game bag vs meat wrap in another blog.
So if you've never tried the gutless or no gut method before. I encourage you to try it. Especially you who are in the whitetail crowd. May as well practice a few times on a deer before attempting an elk if you've never done it before. A deer is just a really small elk. God built them with the same bone structure. Don't be afraid, once you try it, you will do it better and better each time, maybe learning some of your own tactics.
If you're still here and still don't know exactly how to do this method, the following steps are an overview of how it's done. In very basic terms you are skinning one whole side from belly to spine then removing the legs from the ribs and the hip and then carving off the backstrap and removing the inside loins. There is a vertual plethora of videos on YouTube regarding the no gut or gutless method. However many of them depict doing it totally wrong in my opinion, even by some well known name brands out here. If you want to watch videos of this method using the Top Hand Tripod you can watch them on our original tripod product page or our YouTube channel.
About the author:
Jamin Florell is 47 and considers himself a proficiently standard outdoorsman. He is a professional hunting guide working exclusively for Medicine Bow Outfitters on Colorado's public land back country for over 20 years. He has hunted Big Game since he was 10 and killed his first Elk when he was allowed to get an Elk tag at the age of 12. He has hunted Elk every year since then. He has also successfully hunted and guided for Deer, Bear, Mt Lion, Pronghorn, and Moose. He's an inventor, and the proprietor of the Top Hand Tripod.