Yesterday we helped butcher a moose.
Well, Andy and his dad did anyway, the rest of us stood around and watched.
Let me tell it from the beginning.
Andy’s parents and younger sister, Elaine, are here for a visit and so we were working on some projects around the house yesterday when Andy got a call from our church friend Matt Snader.
“I shot a moose that was walking through my backyard,” he said. “But the bad news is that I don’t think it’s a legal bull.”
In Alaska a bull moose has to have an antler spread of 50 inches or more in order to be legal to shoot. It’s kind of hard to tell exactly how big a moose’s antlers are when they are walking around and you are preparing to shoot them, so Matt had made the somewhat common mistake of shooting one that was too small.
When this happens you still have to butcher the animal and then take all the meat, antlers and hide in to the local State Trooper office.
“Want to come help me butcher a moose?” Matt asked. “I don’t have much experience cutting up big game animals.”
Andy was excited to help and the rest of us piled in the van and went along. It’s not every day you get to see an almost legal bull moose lying on the ground.
The moose had a 47 inch rack. Just three inches short of legal. The guys skinned and quartered it and took off the back straps and a few other chunks of meat.
Seeing it up close made me realize how big a moose is! It has a bigger body than a cow and much longer legs. The head alone is huge!
After taking the meat and antlers to the State Troopers, Matt had to pay a $300 fine for shooting an illegal moose and he also has to go to court about it. What an anti-climatic ending to an exciting event!
Matt with his moose
You can see Matt’s house in the far distance across the muskeg in the photo above.
Elaine and I watching Andy take charge of the butchering. He knows what he’s doing when it comes to cutting up a big animal.
Andy and his dad
Andy holding up one of the backstraps. It was heavy!
Matt and Andy holding up the moose head.