Nearly cried

[jag]

7am Tuesday, cow and calf, 7:10ish a cow, 7:15 a fork horn, WOW first for sure legal bull in 4yrs. (7-13) 7:16 bang, flop. Feeling really lucky. New .358Win. hits hard. Worked like a dog to get it home and hung in this heat. So sore and stiff on Wed. I could hardly move. Went out to skin the little beauty this evening and guess what, some SOB had already shot it, right thru the meaty part of both hind quarters, not much meat salvagable on the hind quarters. Man i'm just sick, but the dog thinks it's just great.

[Steeleco]

That sucks big time. How old was the wound channel? Had it healed any of was is it very fresh?

[jag]

The wound was very fresh, as far as I can tell, probably made the night before opening, as I was the only one in there and I never heard any shots.

[Sofa King]

thankfully you killed it and ended it's suffering.
congrats on the moose though.

[RiverOtter]

Went out to skin the little beauty this evening

You let it sit in its hide the whole day????

Congrats on your moose, hope what's left isn't spoiled.

[bigredchev]

You let it sit in its hide the whole day????.


i caught that too. Shame to waste such a good section of the meat. Less processing i guess

[KodiakHntr]

Thinking with the hide left on for a day like that, as soon as you open up the quarters you'll find it's starting to bone sour.

Elk and moose aren't like deer, the HAVE to be peeled as soon as you can when it's warm.

[ianwuzhere]

You skinned it the next day in this heat?? :shock::shock:

[jag]

I agree that it's best to remove the hide asap, but with the blow fly problem due to the heat I prefer to leave the hide on. There are ways to cool an animal with the hide on, if you have the means, which I have. The meat will not sour if taken care of properly, which I did. Had a few little steaks for supper last nite, tasted great.

[BiG Boar]

What's the secret to chilling the meat in this sort of heat with the hide still on?

[1899]

Well, others mentioned the first thing I noticed too....

Congrats on finding the elusive spike-fork. One other thing you need to watch out for is tapeworm cysts. Those are the little round "gizmos" you see in the meat. Make sure there are none in the raw meat you feed to your dog.

[Islandeer]

What's the secret to chilling the meat in this sort of heat with the hide still on?

I am betting on a walk in freezer

[Foxton Gundogs]

When I was up north best investment we ever made was a 26' pup trailer with a reefer unit., pulled the axels and set it up on blocks, 4 guys $250 each saved that much meat the first season.

[skibum]

Not doubting your story about putting one down, but don't understand how it could be shot through both hind quarters and you did not notice the fresh wound while gutting it? Shot high/rear in the quarters?

More I think about it I see how I could maybe have missed it if I did not skin it

[Jagermeister]

Even in a cooler, the hide side is not going to dissipate temperature that rapidly.
Think about it, that ole moose hide is thick enough to keep the animal warm at -40 temps so it must have good insulating qualities.
To the rest of you nimrods, get that hide off asap. Also, it is much easier to seperate the hide from the animal when it is still warm.
And for the blowflys, take a large container of ground black pepper and liberally dose the areas where the flesh had be cut. Blowflys like to lay their eggs where the flesh has been cut and not so eager on the "cased" areas but you can sprinkle it on there too.

[jag]

Lots of extra work because of the hot weather,but what can a guy do. As soon as I get home I remove the head, prop the animal up on its back and clean up all blood and remove fat etc. Leave large intestine tied off, and making sure throat is open. Insert garden hose in body cavity and leave run for a couple of hours while making a tent around the area where animal will hang. In my case I have a 12X 12 pump house, water will drain out of the throat, ensuring constant water movement, then I dry the body cavity well, split the pelvis and brisket and remove large intestine, open the hide on all legs, making sure the front legs are are parcially seperated from body. Then I hang animal in tent and place air conditioner set on lowest temp. in tent and leave for a day or so, to insure meat is throughly cooled. I have also used this method on the Island on BT's when needed. Lots of extra work, yes, but the results will get you by without the need of a butcher with a walk in cooler.
I did notice some of those little white nodules in the meat, will freezing kill them? To late now for the dog, so off to the vet for worm pills.

[jag]

Not doubting your story about putting one down, but don't understand how it could be shot through both hind quarters and you did not notice the fresh wound while gutting it? Shot high/rear in the quarters?

More I think about it I see how I could maybe have missed it if I did not skin it

I did notice a very small amount of blood on the hind quarters, but thought it must of somehow gotten there from positioning animal for dressing.

[1899]

IMHO you need to get the hide off moose immediately. It is such a good insulator that the meat will start to go sour very quickly, even in cool weather. In this heat....you have to work fast!

[BiG Boar]

IMHO you need to get the hide off moose immediately. It is such a good insulator that the meat will start to go sour very quickly, even in cool weather. In this heat....you have to work fast!

LISTEN up 1998! He said it works fine on island black tails! So obviously it would work for moose too! Moose hair isn't that great of an insulator anyways, otherwise eskimos would be using it for clothing. Thinsulate....now that is something. Who cares if the hide was on for like 10 hours....he had WATER!!! Eventually.

[BRvalley]

regardless of how he butchered his moose, it sounds like he did the best he could and is enjoying his harvest, and has likely learned some tips from this thread...so why condemn him? should be thanking him for ending somebody else's job....

the internet police should be condemning the guy who sniped the rear quarters

congrats on your moose

[Dannybuoy]

regardless of how he butchered his moose, it sounds like he did the best he could and is enjoying his harvest, and has likely learned some tips from this thread...so why condemn him? should be thanking him for ending somebody else's job....

the internet police should be condemning the guy who sniped the rear quarters

congrats on your moose
Right on brvalley ! sometimes you make due with what you have to work with , skinning asap would be the first choice another variation of what jag did would be to put the whole carcass in a nice cool stream with hide attached . The one thing I would recommend to jag would be to take the guts out in the bush .

[Rackem]

I am glad he got it and ended its suffering. We all learn new things everyday, or what is the point of being alive? Kudos to him for doing the best he could with what he had.

Ideally getting that skin off and guts out would have cooled the meat a lot faster in this hot weather, halting the decomp. Chilling it fast is the goal.

But no matter what he did, there would be that Meat Jello stuff from the impact of the bullet causing loss. Rubbing some black pepper on the cut meat would deter blow flies. This probably would have been a good time for the gutless method too, get the meat off and chilled..

Moose hide is VERY thick...I tanned a moose hide with my grampa when I was 16, and I made a sheath for my hunting knife out of it, and believe me, some of the hide was over an inch thick. So they don't need hair to keep warm, as they are wearing such a thick hide..

[Rackem]

I did notice some of those little white nodules in the meat, will freezing kill them? To late now for the dog, so off to the vet for worm pills.

Freezing doesn't always kill them, but cooking generally does, however I tend to pick them out if I see them on my meat...bleh.

Just deworm your dog regularly, our dogs ate all the bones and scraps etc, raw, and so we just dewormed them every couple of months.

[jag]

Just to clear things up. I did field dress the moose, then went home got the quad and trailer went out and brought the moose home. Then done my hot weather thing to it. I know it's not the answer, but I'm on a disability pension and sometimes you have to improvise, by the way it does work, and the meat is in fine shape and tastes great. Had some for supper and some more for breakfast.
Rackem, I was hoping that freezing the meat killed the little buggers,(yeah ugh) I also remove the ones I see, but there must be lots in the roasts that cannot be seen, and I'm sure I don't see all of them in the other cuts. I like my meat pinkish when cooked. Will I end up with a tape worm?

[Rackem]

Just to clear things up. I did field dress the moose, then went home got the quad and trailer went out and brought the moose home. Then done my hot weather thing to it. I know it's not the answer, but I'm on a disability pension and sometimes you have to improvise, by the way it does work, and the meat is in fine shape and tastes great. Had some for supper and some more for breakfast.
Rackem, I was hoping that freezing the meat killed the little buggers,(yeah ugh) I also remove the ones I see, but there must be lots in the roasts that cannot be seen, and I'm sure I don't see all of them in the other cuts. I like my meat pinkish when cooked. Will I end up with a tape worm?

Possibly if you eat one, but that's not the end of the world, if you want to lose weight, they can be very handy, but if you resent the parasite, you can also deworm yourself!

If I know a moose has a lot of tapes, I just slice the meat thin and keep my eyes peeled for em...

[35 Whelen]

Jag....sorry to hear someone else had already shot the bull, hopefully you salvaged some. I also shoot a 358 Win and a big 35 fan for years. Tell me about the load you were shooting please. What bullet weight did you go with, velocity etc...handloads? Like to hear what people think of the 225 or 250 grain loads for the Winny.....
Thanks

[Caveman]

I've said this before and I'll say it again, I've hung many moose with the hide on for upwards of a week. Open the chest cavity wide, hang it sheltered from the sun, a small smudge fire if in the woods to keep the flies at bay during the day. They go away once the sun goes down. As long as the temperature is dropping to a reasonable temperature over night, it will be fine. I've done this with the daytime temps around 24 and the overnight getting down to 7c. I have never lost one, or any part of one. This being said if a cooler is available, I would take it there, hide off, but if attention is paid to it, you can get away with it. Moose body temperature is about 38 degrees, so is the outside temperature is 20, cooling it taking place anyway through the exposed rib cage, etc. As the outside temperature drops overnight, this continues. Once the meat feels cool to the touch, you are fine. This will happen in the first 24 hrs. A good tip if hanging it in the garge in extremely hot weather is to direct a window AC unit at it. It assists with the cooling

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c247/cavemn94/scan0002-3.jpg (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/cavemn94/media/scan0002-3.jpg.html)

By the way, congrats on the moose.

[325]

Just to clear things up. I did field dress the moose, then went home got the quad and trailer went out and brought the moose home. Then done my hot weather thing to it. I know it's not the answer, but I'm on a disability pension and sometimes you have to improvise, by the way it does work, and the meat is in fine shape and tastes great. Had some for supper and some more for breakfast.
Rackem, I was hoping that freezing the meat killed the little buggers,(yeah ugh) I also remove the ones I see, but there must be lots in the roasts that cannot be seen, and I'm sure I don't see all of them in the other cuts. I like my meat pinkish when cooked. Will I end up with a tape worm?

NO! Tapeworm cysts are easy to kill with freezing. 12 hours at -20 C for red meat cysts will kill them. The tapeworms that infect trout and salmon are tougher and require 24 hours at -20 C to kill.

Also, the tapeworms that infect moose, elk and deer cannot survive in a human gut, but they will do quite well in your dog. Caribou tapeworms can potentially infect humans.

[40incher]

I've said this before and I'll say it again, I've hung many moose with the hide on for upwards of a week. Open the chest cavity wide, hang it sheltered from the sun, a small smudge fire if in the woods to keep the flies at bay during the day. They go away once the sun goes down. As long as the temperature is dropping to a reasonable temperature over night, it will be fine. I've done this with the daytime temps around 24 and the overnight getting down to 7c. I have never lost one, or any part of one. This being said if a cooler is available, I would take it there, hide off, but if attention is paid to it, you can get away with it. Moose body temperature is about 38 degrees, so is the outside temperature is 20, cooling it taking place anyway through the exposed rib cage, etc. As the outside temperature drops overnight, this continues. Once the meat feels cool to the touch, you are fine. This will happen in the first 24 hrs. A good tip if hanging it in the garge in extremely hot weather is to direct a window AC unit at it. It assists with the cooling

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c247/cavemn94/scan0002-3.jpg (http://s28.photobucket.com/user/cavemn94/media/scan0002-3.jpg.html)

By the way, congrats on the moose.

I agree ... get it gutted and hung. Once it's cooled down the hide actually helps insulate the meat and keep it cool. You need to treat each situation on its own ... but keeping the hide on is not a bad thing! Have some vinegar on hand and wipe the inside daily, trim off any questionable parts ... Congrats on the moose.