Backcountry Meat Care and Trophy Prep for Big Game Hunters
KUIU Staff
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out on your hunting journey, this article will cover basic care essentials as well as tips and considerations to ensure both your game meat and trophy come home in great condition. We’ll highlight the proper gear, field dressing techniques, meat and trophy preservation as well as pack out strategies. Pre-hunt planning and being proficient in the backcountry is vital to having a successful hunt and will help avoid common issues.
- Knives and Cutting Tools: There’re a lot of personal preferences on fixed blade vs quick-change blades, short vs long blades, etc. Personally, I find that a 3-to-4-inch blade gets the job done and still allows me to get into tight areas when needed. Scalpels are preferred for caping, turning lips and any detailed work. Try a few different knives and find what works for you.
- Trophy-Specific Items: Pre-hunt plan for your specific hunt if you need salt for the hide, citric acid, and velvet spray or injectables. Whether you’re getting dropped by bush plane or riding pack stock into a remote hunt area packing salt to prevent hair slippage is a good idea.
- Protective and Storage Gear: High quality game bags, a tarp for a clean debris-free work area, and gloves will help you handle the game meat efficiently and minimize waste.
- Caping for Mounts: Start incisions carefully, go with the direction of the hair. Take your time around horn bases, the eye, and while turning lips/ears. Avoid short capes, always give the taxidermist a little extra to work with.
- Handling Antlers and Skulls: Try to protect velvet antlers and avoid touching them as much as possible. Make sure to boil the skull and clean out the brain in accordance with any state laws prior to traveling out of your hunt area. Follow local regulations on transporting and CWD testing.
- Hide Care: Flesh excess meat, salt liberally (hair down), roll skin-to-skin when transporting. Unroll at camp to cool and air out, keep dry.
If the weather is unseasonably warm or the pack out is extreme, deboning quarters right away could be a good option to prevent meat spoilage and reduce weight. A downside to deboning quarters is that it often takes longer to process the meat when I’m back home because of the additional trimming and cleaning that needs to be done. Spoilage sets in fast – bacteria thrive above 40°F so cooling the meat is top priority. After a few quick celebratory photos are taken get that hide off to allow the heat to escape.
Making the first few cuts is really where most go wrong, as they cut against or across the hair and get the meat covered in hair and debris. Take time to make careful first cuts going with the hair direction to minimize the amount of cut hair. I try to make very few initial cuts with the blade down towards the hair, then switch to having the cutting edge of the blade up and ride just under the hide above the meat. Running longer dorsal and leg cuts like this will minimize cut hair and the dulling of your blade. Really only the lower leg or hock cut is the circular cut where you’ll cut across some hair. Brush any loose hair off before you proceed to skinning.
- Prep the Area: Clear the area where you’ll be working on the animal. When possible, lay out a clean tarp or game bag to set quarters on and help keep dirt and debris off. In a pinch, a clean rock or elevated fallen tree has worked as a prep surface and cooling area for the meat before it goes in game bags.
- Initial Cuts: Cut with the direction of the hair. For long cuts run the blade up just under the hide to minimize cut hair, debris and dulling your knife. Skinning: Pull hide with tension, slicing fascia carefully. Avoid punctures or excess meat on hide. Skin one side, remove quarters/backstraps, then roll animal over and repeat.
- Skinning: Pull hide with tension, slicing fascia carefully. Avoid punctures or excess meat on hide. Skin one side, remove quarters/backstraps, then roll animal.
- Front Quarter Removal: Cut armpit connective tissue as you lift the leg up and away from body. No joint – run blade under scapula and just over the ribs.
- Rear Quarter Removal: Cut from spine to pelvis, follow along the pelvis close with your knife. Cut around the vent and lift leg as you slice to expose ball/socket; cut connective tissue to free the quarter. Add a cooling cut from the ball down along the bone in hot conditions to allow heat to escape and prevent souring.
- Backstraps: Cut down the spine, the seam where the ribs start and above the pelvis. It doesn’t matter which direction you go just lift and peel up as you slice freeing up the meat. Typically end cut at base of neck.
- Neck and Rib Meat: Like the backstrap technique with lifting and slicing cuts. Follow bone closely; check unit regs if you need to take out whole with a bone saw or if you can do the “Rib Roll”.
- Tenderloins: Sometimes using a short blade inside the body cavity can make things easier. Relieve gut pressure with side cuts to give yourself enough room; avoid popping the gut bag.
Hands on experience and watching it done are the best ways to learn, I do recommend pulling up any of the well-done videos on the internet for a deep dive that show all the different methods and step-by-step processes.
Key takeaways for skinning, quartering, and meat care:
- Safety and cleanliness are the priority, take your time and don’t rush
- Have a sharp knife and avoid cutting towards yourself or partner
- Cut the fascia tissue where the meat and skin connect, tends to be easier with a freshly killed animal verses after rigor mortis has set in
- Take smooth cuts and let the knife do the work, the belly of the blade is used most while the tip of the blade is reserved for making the initial hole in the hide and freeing up hard to reach connective tendons
- Sometimes laying the freshly skinned area back down can cover it and help keep dirt and debris off both the hide and meat when transitioning or moving around
- Follow the bone closely with your blade to minimize meat waste, but don’t dull your knife
- Having a partner to hold up legs or get the proper position for detaching a quarter makes things easier
- Avoid popping the gut bag, making relief cuts to the connective tissue around the sides can help release pressure and make reaching in to get the tender loins a lot easier
- Use your phone and take pictures of the carcass as well as any bloodshot areas to show the game warden if you are ever stopped or questioned about getting all the required meat packed out
Each hunt is very different, so take advantage of any terrain features and make use of any creeks or coulees for the natural cooling they provide. Cold mountain streams on shaded north facing slopes can have a huge temp difference than the average air temps in the general area. Moving water or wind channeling through a canyon can really help on those hot hunts. The best bet when it’s extremely hot in a worst-case scenario, is to pack out as fast as possible. Part of the hunt plan that shouldn’t be overlooked is on getting meat out, so whether you’re hiking, packing stock horses, or have truck or ATV access plan accordingly. Preplanning with coolers and large block ice or even dry ice is probably the way to go, especially if the forecast is calling for hot temps.
Once you make it back to camp or your truck, getting the meat on ice is the safest bet on hot hunts. Try elevating the meat in the cooler with wire racks or baskets and keep the ice on the bottom. Dry ice works great, just be safe handling it and make sure you don’t let it touch the meat, as it will cause freezer burn or cryo burn. Using cardboard and a towel you can lay down over the dry ice and then load your quarters on top to help keep them separate is top notch cooler work and extra towels may be needed here to fill in gaps in the cooler.
- Cooling meat is critical: Remove hide, hang quarters in game bags from trees or meat pole for airflow in natural cooling terrain areas.
- Hot Weather: If the forecast calls for hot temps pre-plan coolers with dry ice and pack out fast.
- Transport Coolers: Even if it’s not hot, coolers will help keep meat clean from debris and dust from forest service roads. Elevate meat in coolers, utilize block ice or dry ice.
- Never use Trash Bags: When transporting meat use a quality game bag that breathes. Trash Bags don’t breathe; they’ll trap heat and moisture – if your set on using plastic for any reason make sure it’s a food grade plastic (typically get from local butcher).
- Predator Deterrence: If hunting in Brown bear or Grizzly country, hang meat high if possible and far away from where you’re camping.
SHOP THE GEAR
Explore some of the products featured in the article.
1. KUIU Boned Out Game Bags
Full zipper for easy loading, keeps your game meat protected from debris while cooling.
2. KUIU Quarter Game Bag
High strength and breathable fabric to protect your game meat from debris and flies.
