Drew my ND moose tag!

[NathanSteg]

I got so lucky and drew my North Dakota moose tag in unit M10 this year, and I’m very excited for this upcoming season. I’ll be out scouting as much as I can leading up to the season for sure.

I’ve deer hunted for years, but I’ve never processed one myself. I was planning to start last year but didn’t end up getting a tag and had no luck with my bow. If I am fortunate enough to harvest a moose, I’d really like to process it myself with some help from two friends. Only one of us has processed their own deer before, I wouldn't say were armatures in the area but definitely not pros.

For those who have done it, am I getting in over my head trying to process a moose for the first time? Any advice, things to plan for, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated. This is definitely not somthing i want to mess up.

Also open to any general tips on habitat or patterns in M10. Thanks in advance.

 

[thriller1]

I'd never do it again. The wife and I always process our own deer and make our own sausage, summer sausage, sticks, etc. I was lucky enough to get a cow tag 15yrs ago. That is a WAY bigger animal than a large deer. You better have the space to hang/skin it and a process for handling the quarters when you get to that point. I highly encourage anyone to process their own game but to start out with a moose? Not a good idea in my opinion.

 

[LBrandt]

Moose processing should be left to the professionals. Its a lot of work if you dont know what your doing. LB

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Congrats and good luck. I've done my own deer for years but if I were to get a moose I would plan to have a professional lined up. I guess if you want you can try to work it out with them to get a quarter and one of the backstraps to do yourselves and that will give you an idea what you would have been into.

 

[Downrigger]

Congrats and good luck. I've done my own deer for years but if I were to get a moose I would plan to have a professional lined up. I guess if you want you can try to work it out with them to get a quarter and one of the backstraps to do yourselves and that will give you an idea what you would have been into.

I agree with this statement. You’ll be overwhelmed with the amount of meat if you harvest one. I’d be more concerned with taking good care of the meat and getting it to a place that can handle the volume. Id save 20 lbs to play with yourself and learn the process if you want the experience. By the time you’ve ground the meat, mixed, seasoned and stuffed it using non-commercial grade equipment, you’ll probably feel like that’s enough.

 

[NodakBob]

My last elk I quartered it myself, cut all the trim off, processed the back straps and front quarters myself. and then took the hind quarters to a butcher. Otherwise waaaay too much to process and keep cool in the process. I also wanted the butcher to cut out the best steaks and roasts…

 

[bucksnbears]

Cut off the backstraps and grind the rest into burger. Just get the meat off the bone and cut the chunks up anyway you can as long as they fit into the grinder.

 

[Allen]

I tend to agree with the above recommendations of getting it professionally processed. I've probably done 60-80 deer, antelope, and an elk over the years. Without a walk-in freezer to hang it, a moose would be tough early on in your processing career.

I shot my moose in 2024, fortunately I was on private land and just winched the moose up onto my utility trailer. Drove straight to Meyer's Meats by Parshall and they winched it off the trailer and had me on the road home in just a few minutes.

It would have been a long, miserable day if'n I had to get home and start processing a near 1200 lb critter.

 

[SupressYourself]

I'm with most of the others here. A moose is not the place to start. It's closer to butchering a cow than a deer. The dang backstraps are about as long as you are tall.
Treat this like the 'once in a lifetime' tag that it is, which should include spending the extra $$ to get it processed by a pro.

 

[KDM]

Done enough elk in the mountains that getting a big animal pot sized doesn't bother me much. However, if all you've dealt with is deer sized critters, I approve the "get it done professionally" option. Good Luck and post pics when you get'em so at least this greybeard can be green with jealousy and call you bad names.

 

[rodcontrol]

I would HIGHLY recommend aging the meat of the moose. I have had ND moose both ways and aged product is far superior. Age it like you would a beef.

 

[tikkalover]

Moose is for steaks, roasts and burger. No sausage.

Deer is for sausage.

Daughter in- laws moose from the meat processor

 

[SurvivalAmazon88]

Ayyy congrats on the tag!
And like a broken record, definitely leave that big of a job to a professional butcher if you care about cuts. That will be a huge job if you're not fully prepared.

 

[Iwhackwheat]

One scouting trip is enough. Save some gas money to pay for processing. A trip anytime in the fall to mark corn or sunflower fields and get some permissions if needed. I've helped with quite a few in M10 and most farmers appreciate them being thinned out.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

All the good ideas above it does bring up the question of up in that area where should a person look or check with for meat lockers willing to take a moose? This might be good for the successful tag holders to know as well.
I guess I didn't get it in my original post but getting the meat cooled is also very important so depending on time of year and temps just remember the clock can tick fast.

 

[Duckslayer100]

All the good ideas above it does bring up the question of up in that area where should a person look or check with for meat lockers willing to take a moose? This might be good for the successful tag holders to know as well.
I guess I didn't get it in my original post but getting the meat cooled is also very important so depending on time of year and temps just remember the clock can tick fast.

What he said. Time of year and temp is everything. If it's warm, best throw a couple bags of ice in the cavity and cart it straight to the butcher.

But if you can keep it cool, well, why not at least hack of the good Bullwinkle bits? I'd think even a novice could wrangle the inner loins and backstraps, and possibly even quarter it. The problem is even the quarters are extremely large, so getting them into and out of a vehicle would be laborious.

No matter which way you slice it (pun intended), good luck this fall! Looking forward to future grip-and-grins

 

[JMF]

A buddy and I shot 2 moose in Cananda last year. We got home from a 21 hour drive on a Sunday at 9:00pm. I started cutting mine up Monday morning at 6am, he hauled his to the butcher shop. I finished wrapping the last of mine at around 11pm. Next time I will pay the butcher shop $800 to cut and wrap it. I have cut and wrapped 8 elk over the years and they are way easier, mainly because I grind most of it, but saved lots of steaks and roasts from the moose.

 

[gillraker]

Cut off the backstraps and grind the rest into burger. Just get the meat off the bone and cut the chunks up anyway you can as long as they fit into the grinder.

Do not do as stated above, you are in my opinion doing a disservice to the finest eating North American big game animal by using it for just burger and minimal steaks only from backstraps. If processed properly by an expert the steaks and roasts from ND moose are top shelf table fare! You will also get plenty enough burger as well...

 

[Retired-Guy]

With the help of Iwackwheat and his end loader, two buddies and I gutted, skinned, and quartered mine in a corn field and then took it home, deboned it, cut it up, wrapped it, and froze it. Weather was thankfully on the cool side. Delicious meat. Wish I could get another.