Getting the Moose Out

By V. Paul Reynolds

To its credit, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) has begun to aggressively reach out and educate prospective moose hunters how best to deal with a moose once it is down.

The point cannot be stressed enough. The opportunity to hunt a Maine moose is a privilege of a lifetime and the resulting trove of delicious wild meat is a precious commodity that needs to be cared for properly to prevent spoilage. According to moose biologist Lee Kantar, “Moose are 101 degrees fahrenheit on the inside. Even if the day is cool, the moose is not. The sooner you can get the hide off and start cooling off the moose, the better.” 

In the early years of the Maine moose hunt, the typical hunt was a moose shot on a logging road, loaded on a snowmobile trailer and then driven to the tagging station for a celebratory weigh-in and a photo op.

Not so much anymore. Moose are more wary. Increasingly successful hunters will find their critters way back in the clear cuts and the remote bogs. With good reason, MDIF&W encourages hunters to dry dress their kill and quarter the animal for easier transport and better meat preservation.

Think of a moose as coming in seven or eight pieces—two hind quarters, two front quarters, two back straps, one big package of trim meat and an optional head. As moose increasingly shy away from roadways and roam more back in the clear cuts, the quartering option becomes the best, and sometimes only choice.

Make sure you have a big backpack or pack frames, headlamps, rope, six good game bags, a sharp knife and a way to keep it sharp. A small tarp or cloth to keep meat off the dirt helps.

I use the dry dressing, or sometimes called the gutless method, of cleaning my moose, which means simply I don’t gut it. I’ll explain.

Start with the moose on its side. Make one long dorsal cut from the base of the skull to the base of the tail, following the backbone. Skin the hide off one side to get it cooling fast.

As a reminder, always cut with the grain of the hair. Cutting across or into the grain removes more hair from the follicles, littering your meat. Working across the hair will dull your blade very fast.

Quartering

Once the hide is off, lift the front leg straight up, cutting the muscle and cartilage as you go. The front quarter will detach easily. Place the forward quarter in a game bag.

Starting at the base of the neck, cut the back strap free from the spine by making a cut parallel to the blades of the spine all the way to where the pelvis and hip join with the spine. Grip that back strap and make a cut 90 degrees perpendicular to your first cut, right along the top of the ribs. Peel the back strap away as you go. At the hip-spine intersect, cut off the back strap. Voila!

With the moose still on its side, lift the back leg as high as you can, giving you access to the pelvic area. Tie the leg off in the raised position, or have a friend hold it while you do your work. Maine requires the genitalia stay attached as proof of sex, so decide which hind quarter will retain that evidence. ( The law also requires you to pack out the head as well for further sex identification at the tagging station)

You now have access to where the pelvic bone comes together between the legs. Fillet the hind quarter along the pelvis bone until you get to the ball-joint socket of the hip. Cut the tendon in the hip socket, and it will release the entire hind quarter, allowing you to fillet the remainder of the rump off the pelvic bones. You can now cut the hoof off and place the hind quarter in a game bag.

Game Bags

Remove all trim meat from this side, the flank, and especially the meat over and between the ribs. The neck will have a lot of meat. To access the tenderloin or innerloin on this side, go in right behind the last rib and cut the tip of the tenderloin where it attaches to the bottom of the spine. Reach your hand in, loosening the tenderloin as you work down to where it connects to the pelvis, cutting it free.

You are now done with one side. Flip the moose over and repeat the process. When both sides are complete, get your moose quarters loaded and get the meat to the nearest tagging station then on to your processor as a soon as possible.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has an excellent video on its website that demonstrates in excellent detail the dry dressing and quartering process.

For more articles about hunting, fishing and the great outdoors, be sure to subscribe to the Northwoods Sporting Journal.