I assume that you use a horse or two to take out the meat, and hide, and antlers, no?
Even boned, its not beyond reasonable expectations to have more than 500 lbs. of meat, with the hide weighing another 100 lbs.
When I bone my deer at home, I first cut away the Sirloins, on the back along the spine, as one long muscle on each side.Those loins are rolled up and placed in their own container for "aging", in my refrigerator.
Then I separate the hind "quarters", so that I can remove the large muscles that form Rump Roasts, and steaks( I could save the large rear leg bones for soup stock, but I am not a huge fan of soups).
Now, I have access to the inner side of the carcass, and I remove the Tenderloins, each as a longer muscle, from both sides of the spine. I run my knife down the ribs, both sides, to produce a long strip of rib meat, and cut it loose at the vertebrae.
The forelegs are separated from the upper ribcage, and I begin simply cutting the meat from the bones. There are far fewer large muscles in the forelegs, but lots of sinew, and tendons I can't eat. I usually chunk cut those muscles into cubes, and bag them to use for chili or stew, or Stroganoff. By working with those small muscles in the forelegs, to make smaller chunks, I am able to cut away a lot of the connecting( white) tissues, and scrap them.
I then cut away the flank meat on the neck, and work as much of the scraps off the neck and vertebrae to give me the makings for ground something. Any connecting tissue I can cut away gets left in the garbage with the bones.
I do save the liver, the heart, and the tongue. The rest of the carcass is garbage, altho I keep trying to expand my knowledge about cooking other organs of the animals so that I make even greater use of the meat, and leave much less for the coyotes and vultures. I do save the hides, and have them tanned- some with the fur on to use in camp as throws, and others tanned for clothing.
Cheesecloth, bought in your auto supply department of your favorite discount house( sold for waxing car finishes) is cheap, comes in 7 yard packages, and made into a cylinder, like ladies nylon stockings. You can cut it to pieces to cover buckets, or simply cover the carcass( in parts) and tie the ends. It keeps the dirt away from the meat, preventing bacterial transfer, and spoilage. Plastic garbage bags, and plastic buckets today are very light weight containers for transporting from a camp site, to the kill site, and back again. The large, 5 gal. buckets can hold a lot of meat, and, lined with a plastic bag liner, can keep the meat clean for packing.
You can put the buckets full of meat into the shallows of any mountain stream to cool the meat down. Just leave the top off, to let the heat out, and cover the top temporarily with cheesecloth, or a T-shirt, to keep the blow-flies and no-see-ums, out, if the day is warm enough for them to be a problem.
If its really hot, you can put a cup of water( not any more because that water also weighs a lot!) inside the bucket, between the wall of the plastic bucket, and the plastic liner holding the meat.
Water transfers heat much faster than air. Since the lid on these buckets is only there to keep the flies out, you can poke a few small holes into the lids, to let the heat out, and simply cover the liner and meat inside with that cheesecloth, in case a bug does manage to get inside.I put the cheesecloth inside the plastic bag/liner, and then fold over the plastic bag or top to help seal out the critters.
Obviously, if you have access to ice, or even old snow in a bank at the higher altitudes, use it to cool down the meat to below 40 degrees. Your refrigerator is kept at 38 degrees, because that temperature is where the water molecule is the most dense. Hotter or colder than 38 degrees, and the water molecule expands. Bacteria cannot grow or multiply at that temperature very well.
While don't keep bones from whitetails to make various equipment, including knife handles, or spindle holders, The bones on Elk are larger, and more dense, and might be worth keeping. The sinew on any deer family member can be kept to make into sewing thread later. People often keep more of the organs than i have mentioned here, the feet, and even the brains of a deer or Elk to eat, or use for tanning purposes. Just plan ahead as to what you intend to keep, and what you will leave behind. You won't have a scale out there with you to know exactly the weight of everything you are packing out. Take care of your own back, and the horses you use to pack all this out.
If you hire an Outfitter, or guide, discuss your plans with him long before the season, so that you work with him, and not against him. Some guides don't want the animals field dressed, or processed at the kill site. :hatsoff: :hatsoff:
