Such large animals are generally butchered on the ground. If the beast has antlers, first remote the head. Then turn the body on its back and prop it in position with a couple of three-foot stakes sharpened at both ends, a hole being dug for a moose's withers. Sometimes only the haunches, sirloins and tongue are saved, these being cut away without skinning or gutting the carcass.

If there is a horse, or several men with a rope, to elevate the body, the animal's lower legs are skinned, the shanks removed, the hide split from throat ' o tail, the sides skinned free, the windpipe and gullet raised, the pleura and diaphragm cut loose and the carcass then raised high enough so that the hide can be removed from the rump and back. The rectum, small intestines, and paunch are then loosened and allowed to roll out on the ground. The gullet is cut, the liver taken out, and the diaphragm, lungs and heart removed. Then the skinning is finished over the shoulders and fore legs.

It is best not to cut up the meat until it is quite cold and firm. Then split the carcass in halves along the backbone, and quarter it, leaving one rib on each hind quarter. The meat may then be put on a scaffold, and covered with the skin to protect it from moose-birds.

Two men can raise a very heavy animal clear of the ground with three stiff poles, say twelve feet long, which are sharpened at the butts and notched at the tips. Lay these on the ground with notched ends together over the animal's hind quarters and the sharpened ends radiating outward and equidistant from each other. Tie the notched ends rather loosely together with a short piece of rope, the other end of which is tied to a gambrel thrust through the hind legs under the hamstrings (or attach to antlers, nose, or through lower jaw). Lift the tripod until the rope is taut, shove one pole forward a few inches, then another, sticking the butts in the ground as you progress, until the hindquarters are raised, and so on until the beast swings free.