I am curious; never hunted Elk and I see guys walk out with the head and horns, I guess you take the back straps. What else of the meat do you recover?
Is the area you hunted so far back to get all the meat out would not be a reality?
Crossbow:
We did get all the meat out. On every hunt, we take everything. The networks will not let you show bloddy game bags, like I had in my pack. Lawnboy had the head and antlers. I had the tenderloins, backstraps, and as much other meat as I could get on that trip.
I went in the next morning and got the rest of it. We had it quartered and cooling in old dead trees before we left that night.
The network restriction about showing bloody meat and game bags is difficult for our show. The most common question I get is like yours, "What did you do with the meat."
Not only is it a legal issue about recovering the meat, but an ethical issue (at least in my mind).
Those who read the story that I posted last year, got to read about me feeling pretty lucky that a landowner on the other side of the mountian, let me cross his property to the Forest Service, and that saved me many miles of hiking. I had all the meat to my truck by 2:00 pm the next day.
Thanks for asking.
We are thinking of doing a web-only clip showing how we bone these critters and pack them, showing the gutless method of recovery all the useable meat. That should help with people thinking that maybe we only haul out the antlers. We take it all and eat it all.