# To the person that wasted an elk



## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

To you the person that shot a spike elk in miners gulch on sept 7th. You on the red Honda 4wheeler. We found your elk stashed under a tree across from the miners gulch trail entrance in the camp with the pick nick table. We were the guys unloading our utv when you drove by. 

It was very sad to see you only took the two hides quarters, back straps and cut the spike antlers from its head. And left the rest to waste. I can’t believe you even left the tenderloins must be some kind of idiot. 
Well FYI we have contacted the DNR and they will be investigating. So I hope you do get caught. So if you in this forum. Go turn yourself in you dirtbag POS. 

sorry for the rant but this kind of crap pisses me off.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Every year I find more and more deer and elk that people have left in the field that look just like that. 

They call it the gutless method.


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## Ray (May 10, 2018)

Critter said:


> Every year I find more and more deer and elk that people have left in the field that look just like that.
> 
> They call it the gutless method.


Well technically with the gutless you should take the front shoulders, hindquarters, backstraps and neck roast. I always take the entire head as well so all that's left behind is the ribs and spine essentially. I also skim meat off the ribs to add to my burger pile.

I hunt alone and I hunt deep into the woods, so it's the method that makes the most sense.

If it's later in the season and cold, I'll take my time with it.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I have used the gutless on both deer and elk. By the time that I am done even the ravens have very little other than the actual guts to eat. But more and more hunters are using this as a excuse to leave the shoulders, neck, rib meat, and everything else that they actually have to work with to get out.


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

This wasn’t a gutless method. This was just pure waste. There wasn’t a knife cut anywhere beyond what they took
And it was gutted


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## Ray (May 10, 2018)

Critter said:


> I have used the gutless on both deer and elk. By the time that I am done even the ravens have very little other than the actual guts to eat. But more and more hunters are using this as a excuse to leave the shoulders, neck, rib meat, and everything else that they actually have to work with to get out.


I agree 100% those jerks give the rest of us a bad name.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Critter said:


> Every year I find more and more deer and elk that people have left in the field that look just like that.
> 
> They call it the gutless method.


They may call it that but the official term is wanton waste. There's nothing about the gutless method that suggests leaving the front's.

Good on the OP for reporting the offenders.


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## TPrawitt91 (Sep 1, 2015)

Yeah that’s just wasteful. We used the gutless method on my elk and took all 4 quarters, backstraps, tenderloins, and some neck scraps. Left very little on the carcass. And we did it in the dark with 1 guy holding the flashlight. Still only took a little more than an hour


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I would like to see Utah enact a law similar to what Alaska has. All the meat has to come out before you even think of bringing out the head or you can be fined. 

But then that would require the DOW officers to actually get out into the field and do some checking along with follow ups.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

I usually only use the "gutless" method on pronghorn. Shoot it, snap some pict's, split off the 4 quarters, peel off the backstraps, split off the neck, quick incision following the rear rib on each side and you can get out the tenderloins. After that its a mad dash to the ice cooler. Get'em on ice within 20min of death is my goal. I dont take rib meat and both UT DWR and WY DWR officers I've talked to say what we get is sufficient.



Elk I bring out whole... always. 





-DallanC


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

But not everyone shoots a elk out on flat terrine where they can drive a wheeler or other vehicle to. 

I have been hunting elk now for close to 50 years and of all the elk that I have shot I have only been able to bring 2 out whole. I could of gotten a third one out whole if the Forest Service hadn't pilled some boulders the size of trucks in the middle of the road.


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## Ray (May 10, 2018)

Yeah, where I elk hunt getting them out whole is an impossibility, especially since I'm almost always by myself. Deer I can get out in one piece on occasion, depending on if it's a small meat buck or an old bruiser


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

I have never had to quarter a deer in the field, always dragged them out or drove to them. Elk are a different story, dragged some, quartered some and did the gutless method on others.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

DallanC said:


> I usually only use the "gutless" method on pronghorn. Shoot it, snap some pict's, split off the 4 quarters, peel off the backstraps, split off the neck, quick incision following the rear rib on each side and you can get out the tenderloins. After that its a mad dash to the ice cooler. Get'em on ice within 20min of death is my goal. I dont take rib meat and both UT DWR and WY DWR officers I've talked to say what we get is sufficient.
> 
> Elk I bring out whole... always. -DallanC


Your the exception, not everyone can hunt private land were you can drive where ever you want. It always seems your bragging about bring out elk whole but I kind of see you as a flat land private property easy elk hunter, nothing wrong with that but it sure isn't bragging rights in my book.


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

Fowlmouth said:


> I have never had to quarter a deer in the field, always dragged them out or drove to them. Elk are a different story, dragged some, quartered some and did the gutless method on others.


Anymore I always quarter even if I'm 5 feet from the truck as I like to leave all the mess right there and only have to deal with the meat. I leave the head on antlerless, hide and bones.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Critter said:


> But not everyone shoots a elk out on flat terrine where they can drive a wheeler or other vehicle to.
> 
> I have been hunting elk now for close to 50 years and of all the elk that I have shot I have only been able to bring 2 out whole. I could of gotten a third one out whole if the Forest Service hadn't pilled some boulders the size of trucks in the middle of the road.


Hunt smarter not harder?  Lots of elk on the flatlands... just as fun to shoot.

-DallanC


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

Most USFS and some BLM land don't allow motorized off-road game retrieval. Things have really changed over the years.

If I can drive a 4 wheeler up to an elk, deer, or whatever, I will. Otherwise, break them down and bone them out before packing out. I have never done "the gutless method". Does this mean there is a gutting method?

Funny how modern hunting has complicated things...


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

muddydogs said:


> Your the exception, not everyone can hunt private land were you can drive where ever you want. It always seems your bragging about bring out elk whole but I kind of see you as a flat land private property easy elk hunter, nothing wrong with that but it sure isn't bragging rights in my book.


Oh no, we've shot some elk in some pretty steep nasty places things with wheels cant get to, but they've always been uphill from a road so we've usually been able to roll'em down near the road before breaking out the knives. Very few have been on actual flat-land where you can just back up the truck. A few we've had to run long strong ropes to drag them into places the atvs can get to. I always keep 100 yards of strong rope with us for recovery.

/shrug

-DallanC


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## hazmat (Apr 23, 2009)

DallanC said:


> I usually only use the "gutless" method on pronghorn. Shoot it, snap some pict's, split off the 4 quarters, peel off the backstraps, split off the neck, quick incision following the rear rib on each side and you can get out the tenderloins. After that its a mad dash to the ice cooler. Get'em on ice within 20min of death is my goal. I dont take rib meat and both UT DWR and WY DWR officers I've talked to say what we get is sufficient.
> 
> Elk I bring out whole... always.
> 
> -DallanC


Elk Bring out whole always that's funny. I am the other way around if you are able to bring elk out whole consistently.you are either hunting farm bulls or bulls that see very little hunting pressure so they are easy to hunt. 
their is a fine line but there is no way in some of the steep nasty canyons we harvest bulls in you are bringing every last bone out. 
the back straps front quarters hine quarters tenderloins hart neck meat and what rib meat you can carve out leaves little meat left and the bull or cow is definitely not waisted.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Devils advocate - could person on red honda wheeler come back for a 2nd load? I know we are trying to massacre a bad guy but did you talk to him? I have a hard time believing someone takes the hinds and backstraps but goes through the trouble of sawing off the spikes without dealing with the front shoulders that are by far the easiest part of the animal to deal with. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

Ok here is the story. 
12 pm we arrive and unload utv. While doing this two guys one on a red 4wheeler and one on a yellow 4 wheeler drive down the trail past us with a small spike elk on the front of the red 4wheeler. This is at the bottom in a parking area. 
Across the road is a camp where they are camping with others. We do not talk. 
We go up and hunt the weekend never coming off the mountain. And we leave the following Sunday sept9th. 
I returned on sept 11th to hunt alone but then meet up with a friend on the 13th and that camp is empty so we decided to stay a night in the bottom. We go to the camp and it stinks of death. We look around and there is a small spike elk hidden under a tree with the hinds and back straps cut off and antlers removed. 
We also seen the same two guys on sat sept 8th riding the same atvs. 

So no this was not a lazy field dress or attempt at gutless. Or a return trip to get the rest of the meat. This is also not the first incident in this area that we have encountered. Last year 4 guys shot and killed one cow elk and one bull. Then hiked up and cut the head and only the head off the bull and left. 
This is the kind of people that continue to give a black eye to all hunters and this activity has to stop. It seems these things are not always reported but we need to hold these criminals responsiable for these actions.


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## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

3arabians said:


> I have a hard time believing someone takes the hinds and backstraps but goes through the trouble of sawing off the spikes without dealing with the front shoulders that are by far the easiest part of the animal to deal with.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


best cuts are tenderloin, backstrap and in the hinds. shoulder is hamburger.

was this an archery hunt or rifle? i know a lot of people aim for the shoulder and write it off as lost meat. personally, i'm a meat hunter and have never taken a shot thru the shoulder on purpose. after sending one frangible bullet into a shoulder, i can see why someone might want to leave that shoulder on the animal.


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## Hoopermat (Dec 17, 2010)

Archery hunt. 
I am surprised that people are kind of standing up for this POS. 
I guess I should have taken a picture of it. 
But to paint the picture the hide was on the entire animal except peeled back to access the back straps and the hinds removed. The elk was gutted someware else when we saw it on the wheeler it was gutted. 
And the tenderloins were not removed.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

The shoulders can be cut into roast and stew meat along with burger. 

I once read on this very forum that a member considered the tenderloins as a part of the guts and refused to cut them out of a animal, I about fell off of my chair. 

The sad thing is that I have some relatives that figure that the hinds and backstrap is all there is that is any good on a deer or a elk. I told them that if I ever saw them just bring the hinds and backstraps out without bringing out the rest of the animal I would turn them in. Perhaps that is why they have never invited me to go hunting with them.


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

Hoopermat said:


> Ok here is the story.
> 12 pm we arrive and unload utv. While doing this two guys one on a red 4wheeler and one on a yellow 4 wheeler drive down the trail past us with a small spike elk on the front of the red 4wheeler. This is at the bottom in a parking area.
> Across the road is a camp where they are camping with others. We do not talk.
> We go up and hunt the weekend never coming off the mountain. And we leave the following Sunday sept9th.
> ...


They must have had mental issues or just be real worthless trash to do this, it makes no sense why someone who could take the animal out whole would just leave so much to waste. We can only hope they blow a tire and get stuck somewhere.


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## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

Hoopermat said:


> Archery hunt.
> I am surprised that people are kind of standing up for this POS.
> I guess I should have taken a picture of it.
> But to paint the picture the hide was on the entire animal except peeled back to access the back straps and the hinds removed. The elk was gutted someware else when we saw it on the wheeler it was gutted.
> And the tenderloins were not removed.


certainly not standing up for the behavior, just not shocked at it either. i've seen evidence of too many violations in this state to be overly surprised at this.

i do hope the CO's catch up with these folks.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

Hoopermat said:


> Archery hunt.
> I am surprised that people are kind of standing up for this POS.
> I guess I should have taken a picture of it.
> But to paint the picture the hide was on the entire animal except peeled back to access the back straps and the hinds removed. The elk was gutted someware else when we saw it on the wheeler it was gutted.
> And the tenderloins were not removed.


No excuse then - looks like they had a pretty easy retrieval if it was gutted and sitting where you could drive up to it...


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

i went with the "gutless" method this year on our spike elk and it went pretty good. After all 4 quarters were removed and the back straps he had finally started to bloat up enough it was hard as hell to get the tender loins out but we did it. No way i was going to leave that tender steak for the coyotes.


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## percheye (Jan 15, 2008)

I shot a buck antelope this weekend and did the "gutless" method. I think it worked great. I went to cut meat from between the ribs and their just wasn't much. I did get a little neck meat. Man those critters are small.


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## MadHunter (Nov 17, 2009)

Hoopermat said:


> To you the person that shot a spike elk in miners gulch on sept 7th. You on the red Honda 4wheeler. We found your elk stashed under a tree across from the miners gulch trail entrance in the camp with the pick nick table. We were the guys unloading our utv when you drove by.
> 
> It was very sad to see you only took the two hides quarters, back straps and cut the spike antlers from its head. And left the rest to waste. I can't believe you even left the tenderloins must be some kind of idiot.
> Well FYI we have contacted the DNR and they will be investigating. So I hope you do get caught. So if you in this forum. Go turn yourself in you dirtbag POS.
> ...


You have nothing to be sorry about. Thanks for doing the right thing and reporting this. People like that give us a bad reputation. I hope they do get caught.


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

percheye said:


> I shot a buck antelope this weekend and did the "gutless" method. I think it worked great. I went to cut meat from between the ribs and their just wasn't much. I did get a little neck meat. Man those critters are small.


nice packing out in 1 load though :mrgreen::mrgreen:


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

cdbright said:


> i went with the "gutless" method this year on our spike elk and it went pretty good. After all 4 quarters were removed and the back straps he had finally started to bloat up enough it was hard as hell to get the tender loins out but we did it. No way i was going to leave that tender steak for the coyotes.


Before cutting into the cavity to remove the tender loins split the diagram a little like you would if gutting the animal that way some of the guts spill out taking the pressure off and making it easy to get to the tender loins. Most of the time you can set the ribs on the guts and get both loins without having to roll the rib cage over. Not sure why the cool guys that make all the gutless videos haven't figured this out or maybe they just think its cool to fight with the guts while trying to remove the loins. Took me all of one time to figure out there wasn't a need to fight the guts.


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## mr.seven (Sep 18, 2007)

no need to remove guts or reach in the cavity go to to last rib by spine make a slit go back about 10 inchs to the hip bone make a slit put your finger in grasp the tender loin cut it go back to other slit cut it then pull out the tender loin about one minute to remove each side


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## cdbright (Aug 24, 2016)

other than a slight cut at the ends they tore out mostly with my hands, they were so tender i **** near took a bite right there


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## APD (Nov 16, 2008)

cdbright said:


> i went with the "gutless" method this year on our spike elk and it went pretty good. After all 4 quarters were removed and the back straps he had finally started to bloat up enough it was hard as hell to get the tender loins out but we did it. No way i was going to leave that tender steak for the coyotes.


in this situation i actually open up the abdominal cavity, carefully, to alleviate the bloat pressure. it makes getting the tenderloins easier.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

mr.seven said:


> no need to remove guts or reach in the cavity go to to last rib by spine make a slit go back about 10 inchs to the hip bone make a slit put your finger in grasp the tender loin cut it go back to other slit cut it then pull out the tender loin about one minute to remove each side


+1

-DallanC


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

mr.seven said:


> no need to remove guts or reach in the cavity go to to last rib by spine make a slit go back about 10 inchs to the hip bone make a slit put your finger in grasp the tender loin cut it go back to other slit cut it then pull out the tender loin about one minute to remove each side


I didn't say remove the guts I said open the cavity a little to remove pressure then do like you stated. Makes it easier then fighting the guts trying to come out the hole by the tenderloins. But do it how you want, I just like to do it the easy way.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

muddydogs said:


> I didn't say remove the guts I said open the cavity a little to remove pressure then do like you stated. Makes it easier then fighting the guts trying to come out the hole by the tenderloins. But do it how you want, I just like to do it the easy way.


I'm with you on this. I like to release the bloat and have some space whole I get tenders. Especially on larger animals where the tender takes more work than a deer or antelope


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

muddydogs said:


> DallanC said:
> 
> 
> > I usually only use the "gutless" method on pronghorn. Shoot it, snap some pict's, split off the 4 quarters, peel off the backstraps, split off the neck, quick incision following the rear rib on each side and you can get out the tenderloins. After that its a mad dash to the ice cooler. Get'em on ice within 20min of death is my goal. I dont take rib meat and both UT DWR and WY DWR officers I've talked to say what we get is sufficient.
> ...


I have no idea where he hunts but I also have always pulled my Elk out whole. I go in prepared for a quartering job but so far have had luck either shooting them uphill from the ATV or by shooting a small one that can be dragged by 2-3 people.

And I also don't hunt alone so I guess all those factors have played a role.

I hunt the Central Manti/South unit which is far from flat or private.


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## mr.seven (Sep 18, 2007)

muddy dog if your fighting guts coming out the ribs your sticking your knife to deep the diafram keeps the guts away from the tenderloins unless you puncture it sorry to piss you off .


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