Quartering a moose with Sawzall

billbmcleod

billbmcleod

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Back very close to Bruce County
We have almost always skinned and quartered our moose at the kill site. We have used a manual meat saw to split the quarters but someone has acquired a battery powered Sawzall(reciprocating saw) so we thought this would be worth taking. I think our hand saw is about 10 teeth per inch and I wonder what others who have used a battery saw use for blades. I would also think that the blade should be more than 6" to split the spine but I need some advice. Any experience would be great.Thanks.
 
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Take some long and short blades, and ensure enough battery power. Use a knife while cutting the fur as the blade will bind in the fur.
A sawzall (or reciprocating saw of any brand) works great for cutting through wild game bones and cartilage and will make shorter work, in my opinion and experience.
Good luck.
 
yup these are the catz bum for sure....always worry about lead based paint on the Chinese blades but stainless butcher blades are stupid expensive...I wire wheel the paint off

left a quarter hanging in the woodshed once and it froze solid to -35...my saw cut some nice steaks and the dogs and birds fought over the sawdust...
 
Get the whole moose hanging tail up, skin it ( gravity helps with this and a ladder will be needed) and away you go. The saw operator will want to wear coveralls ( disposable is best) and will find the reciprocating saw is very easy to control to stay on the centre line all the way down. Best blades are the 12" Demolition blades that can cut nails, bone dulls regular blades rather quickly and 12" is barely long enough on a good sized bull. You'll never go back to muscle power!
 
I found that the fat can gum up the works eventually near the housing / blade entrance, but it sure is a nice clean method!
 
not sure where we got our blades but they are 8" and 12" and came with no paint.
Hardened stainless and have 16 and 22 teeth per inch
No bone chips, just dust and they cut like crazy.
I like the 22tooth blade for zipping the ribs up right away and packaging after cleaning so they don't dry out and become burger meat.
 
Use a decent quality saw. Our first time we used a cheap Motomaster saw,it lasted about 15 minutes before it gave up. It does make quartering a lot easier.
 
caver77 said:
I think you'll find the long pruning sawsall blade to work best for you.
Click to expand...

dunno about that..... I got my blades directly from a full time meat cutter.
with the finer teeth they make very little mess like the larger toothed blades.
Standard types of Sawzall blades , pruning blades included , tear the meat making a mess of your arm and saw and they also create splinters and bone fragments that are quite undesireable.
That and most standard blades are painted and need the paint burnt off before use.

find out where the meat cutters order these blades from and grab a few.
I'll see if I can find out where they came from but the butcher guy I got them from retired and moved over the summer and no idea where to for asking him.
 
I butcher 12-15 steers, 30-40 pigs and numerous deer and elk every fall and have found the pruning blades for cutting green wood work excellent for the price and are easy to find.
 
45ACPKING said:
dunno about that..... I got my blades directly from a full time meat cutter.
with the finer teeth they make very little mess like the larger toothed blades.
Standard types of Sawzall blades , pruning blades included , tear the meat making a mess of your arm and saw and they also create splinters and bone fragments that are quite undesireable.
That and most standard blades are painted and need the paint burnt off before use.

find out where the meat cutters order these blades from and grab a few.
I'll see if I can find out where they came from but the butcher guy I got them from retired and moved over the summer and no idea where to for asking him.
Click to expand...

that would be great

the pruning blades are not the answer, more teeth are better.

I like the suggestion about the bottom of a milk jug as a splatter guard.
 
I just use a folding handsaw and leave the spine in the bush... if you are carrying any distance, six pieces are less weight and less awkward to carry.
 
I have a Milwaukie Sawsall [Smaller Model] and it works like a hot knife through butter.
Just did a moose today....took about 6 minutes to cut from one end to the other.
Highly recommend these units. Dave.
 
A heavy duty vinyl glove works great to keep the guts out of the inner workings of the tool , just slide it over the front end like a condom then install a blade long enough that the animal material doesn't come near entering the tool.

Another nifty tip, the body bags used by the coroners office/funeral centers/ect make great game bags if you just want to quickly gut a deer and get out of the bush fast without making a mess of your vehicle. ;)

Very useful if you have a lot of bear activity near your hunt site.
 
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