Your guide to getting a moose out of the Maine woods

By V. Paul Reynolds

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has created this guide to educate prospective moose hunters on 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, and the resulting trove of wild meat is a precious commodity that must 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. Today, moose are more wary and are often taken far from roads.

Successful hunters increasingly find their animals in remote clear cuts and bogs, where field dressing and quartering are strongly encouraged for easier transport and better meat preservation.

Think of a moose as coming in seven primary pieces – two hind quarters, two front quarters, two back straps, one large package of trimmed meat  and an optional head.

Because moose are now more frequently harvested away from roadways, quartering is often the most practical – and sometimes the only – choice.

Make sure you have a large backpack or pack frames, headlamps, rope, six good game bags, a sharp knife and sharpener and a tarp or cloth to keep meat off the dirt.

Field dressing (Gutless method)

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 start cooling the carcass quickly.

Always cut with the hair grain – cutting against it removes hair, contaminates meat and dulls your blade.

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 it 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 the pelvis. Grip the strap and make a cut 90 degrees to the first cut, right along the top of the ribs. Peel the strap away as you go. At the hip-spine intersection, cut it free.

With the moose still on its side, lift the back leg high to access the pelvic area. Tie the leg off or have a partner hold it while you work.

Legal requirements

Maine law requires genitalia to remain attached as proof of sex, so plan which hind quarter will retain that evidence. The head must also be packed out for further identification at the tagging station.

Back leg and hind quarter

At the pelvis, fillet along the bone until you reach the ball-joint socket of the hip. Cut the tendon in the hip socket to release the hind quarter. Finish trimming the rump from the pelvis. Remove the hoof and place the quarter in a game bag.

Trim and tenderloins
Remove all trim meat from this side, especially the flank, ribs and neck. The neck will have a lot of meat. To access the tenderloin (inner loin), 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.

Flip the moose over and repeat the process on the other side.

When both sides are complete, load the quarters and transport the meat to the nearest tagging station and then to a processor as soon as possible.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com.