Hanging Moose Whole: Why?

X-man

X-man

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I've gotta' ask you guys hunting on the mainland. Why do you guys drag a whole moose out of the woods and/or hang it whole at your camp? Are you guys hunting in areas that are always easily accessible by pick-up or what?

Down here on The Rock, almost always, we quarter the moose where he/she drops and pack out the quarters on our backs. If its a really big 'un, we'll use a hand barrow and a couple of guys will pack it out.

I guess, maybe its the fact that most areas we hunt really aren't accessible or the ground is so broken/has so many obstacles to make the task of hauling a whole moose out of the woods not only impractical, but impossible.

At the same time, just about every picture posted by a successful mainland moose hunt, shows a whole moose hanging from a tree or tripod by its hind legs. Got me scratching my head?:D
 
Quads and road hunters, mostly. Most guys I know wouldn't dream of shooting a moose out of rope distance from their trucks. My family has never been able to pull this off, every moose we've taken has been quartered and boated out, save for one calf we managed to get on the road, which we STILL needed to halve to get in the truck. I can't fathom getting a whole bull in the truck
 
I think people do it 'cause they can. Might as well get it back in one piece and butcher it in the comfort of your own yard. Also saves packing, obviously. We only managed to do it once, when we shot a moose on our way to school (cool!) and a neighbor showed up with a winch and winched the whole moose into the back of our truck and then winched the whole thing into a tree to butcher at home. Went great, but don't count on it being regular or anything. Usually ot's cut onto packable pieces...
 
If you happen to get a moose to drop somewhere you can load him whole (or get close with a tractor) why not hang him whole and skin him out there?
 
For me, it's more a matter of convenience and circumstances. Most often, we quarter and debone the animal so that it is manageable to pack out on horses. If it is reachable by truck, then it may as well get home in one piece.
Good topic...:)
 
For us, it depends on circumstance. There has been one occasion where we SHOULD have quartered and packed. A couple times, we've smaked them on a lakeshore, so we just get the boat, float him across the lake to the launch and lob him in the back of the truck. Hang him at camp. The past 2 years, we've gotten them in areas where packing out wasn't required.
 
I for one won't shoot a moose where it hs to be moved any great distance to a road. They are just too big and I don't need a moose that bad, now a nice big buck is a different story. I've shot them quite a way from a road and we just drag them out.
 
Thanks, X-man, I've been wondering the same thing myself. They seem to do the same in the States too. Seems strange to us.
 
Why does quartering and carrying out your moose by back make NL moose hunts better than mainlander's/US moose hunts. Does it matter? Just the impression I'm getting from this forum...:confused:
 
44fordy said:
For us, it depends on circumstance. There has been one occasion where we SHOULD have quartered and packed. A couple times, we've smaked them on a lakeshore, so we just get the boat, float him across the lake to the launch and lob him in the back of the truck. Hang him at camp. The past 2 years, we've gotten them in areas where packing out wasn't required.
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44fordy,

No flame at all, but I would enjoy watching you guys "lob" one of our bulls into the back of a truck.

The video would be priceless! :D

Ted
 
X-man said:
I've gotta' ask you guys hunting on the mainland. Why do you guys drag a whole moose out of the woods and/or hang it whole at your camp? Are you guys hunting in areas that are always easily accessible by pick-up or what?

Down here on The Rock, almost always, we quarter the moose where he/she drops and pack out the quarters on our backs. If its a really big 'un, we'll use a hand barrow and a couple of guys will pack it out.

I guess, maybe its the fact that most areas we hunt really aren't accessible or the ground is so broken/has so many obstacles to make the task of hauling a whole moose out of the woods not only impractical, but impossible.

At the same time, just about every picture posted by a successful mainland moose hunt, shows a whole moose hanging from a tree or tripod by its hind legs. Got me scratching my head?:D
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I hunt with two other guys. Our ages are from 65 to 75. We only shoot bull moose (preferably young) and we will not shoot anything we can not get a rope on and pull to the truck. Once a moose is down it is all work.

We prefer to drag our moose out whole to assist in keeping it clean. We also have a ramp and a come along and load the carcass less head and lower legs into the truck whole to assist in keeping it clean.

We hang it in camp from the rear legs as it is easy to do using the tendon just above the "knees". Then we skin it cleaning it well and it allows you to cut the moose in half right down the center of the spine. Then we cut off (just past the second rib from the rear) the front quarters and wrap them in cheese cloth (game bags) to keep flies off and wrap the rear quarters as well and hang them all to cool well. Two of us can handle a skinned quarter.

We cut the "jelled" gun shot meat off the ribs...
moose%202.jpg
 
nlevandier said:
Why does quartering and carrying out your moose by back make NL moose hunts better than mainlander's/US moose hunts. Does it matter? Just the impression I'm getting from this forum...:confused:
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Feeling sensitive today ? :p Nobody is suggesting its any better. Its just very different from what we're used to.
 
CV32 said:
Feeling sensitive today ? :p Nobody is suggesting its any better. Its just very different from what we're used to.
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Ya probably a bit...not very good at being bored and been sitting at work for about 3 days in a row doing s$%t all! Especially when you're trying to look for something to keep you busy so the time flies until monday (deer opens for rifle in NB)...
 
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nlevandier said:
Ya probably a bit...not very good at being bored and been sitting at work for about 3 days in a row doing s$%t all! Especially when you're trying to look for something to keep you busy so the time flies until monday (deer opens for rifle in NB)...
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I hear ya. ;) We're going next week for moose, etc. Re topic, I'm still wondering how you NB guys managed to get that monster moose (the 63 incher) in the back of that pickup while it was still in the whole ! :eek: :D
 
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