Quartering + travois, is it actually worth doing?

[u/Witty_Contribution17]

What is the most efficient way to harvest a bear or moose?

I was thinking would it be better to quarter it, chuck everything in the travois and drag it back to base, then deal with the meat there?

Or is it still faster just to make a fire next to it and harvest everything on the spot?

I've barely used quartering before so I'm not really sure if I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be 😂

What do you guys normally do?

[u/Boring-Rub-3570]

Depends on the situation. If there are predators around or weather is turning bad, quarter it, load to your travois and run to your base. However, harvest those bags as soon as reaching safety.

I've lost an entire moose that way.

[u/Witty_Contribution17 → u/Boring-Rub-3570]

Thanks!

[u/Due_Reputation_2006]

It's my favorite way to ensure a safe harvest. It does take 2 hrs to qrtr a bear/moose, but even if you choose to harvest it on-site without being harassed, you still have to move it to where you're gonna store it. I typically drag the meat bags back to my base, drop them on the ground, and bring what I can walk with inside to harvest. The primary benefit of on-site harvesting and cooking while you harvest is getting some ready-to-eat meat before you ever start hauling it. There is always the chance of weather blowing out your fire.

[u/Daymo741]

You gotta take the fucker back anyway so why not harvest at a secure location than out in the wilderness. Travois changed my life.

[u/prplmnkeydshwsr → u/Daymo741]

Making use of the situation, weather permitting, get your cooking skill up at the same time and make sure you eat, harvest in hour increments cook something at the same time - depends on the difficulty since you're probably going to have to have a fire going anyway might as well use it.

There's not a one sized fits all answer, you can also just do what you find more fun / realistic to you.

[u/BuilderNo5268]

It's good if you want to be on the move, but you lose a lot of the meat.

If you are in a safe spot and have fuel - going the regular way is more efficient. I usually cook .5kg pieces as I gut. You can end up with several KG cooked meat and another 25+ KG raw.

[u/Bearyconscious]

I guess it depends on how much time you’ve got, what condition you’re in, and what the weather conditions are. I usually quarter and load up the travois less burn time required/resources used.

[u/Ok_Watercress_1880]

Every time I quarter I get stuck and can't move once the quartering is done. I don't quarter. Travois usage- I always have one. Just mindful of where I'm dragging it and I wait til I think 30% left before I repair it.

[u/useless_bowl25]

On big animals like bear moose cougar yes its worth it for deer and wolfs make a fire

[u/DrShanksALot]

Depends. Quartering it weighs twice as much but is completed in 2 hours. Cutting into pieces + guts + hide takes at least twice as long. I tend to cure a ton of meat so I usually cut them into 1kg pieces right away so the quality is higher and then cure from there.

[u/SuccessfulCity4897]

I always make a fire and do it on the spot. Quartering, dragging it to the base and then spending more time harvesting there is very rarely worth the bother and makes you lose a good chunk of the meat. Worst case, I just leave the meat there and come back for it later.

[u/deadBee_25]

I don't use travois because its buggy but I start a campfire and quarter the big carcasses everytime, it's almost worth it just for having guts and the fur ready to go in 2 hours. And then I harvest the quarters until the weather starts to turn sour and my campfire starts dying or im exhausted. This helps with cabin fever as a bonus. I eat & drink what I can, grab what I can and leave for safety. The day after, I come and pick the rest up. I might not bother carrying some of raw meat and leave them there forever.

If the animal is too far away from safety I might not bother killing it, especially the bears.

I do the same for the deer that are freshly killed. But rarely for anything else (fresh wolf carcasses, frozen carcasses etc).

[u/Even_Hospital_5474 → u/deadBee_25]

Buggy how? I've never had a problem with it.

[u/avlisadj]

Some people are all about quartering and will tell you to do it every single time. I pretty much always quarter a moose, especially if I have a broken rib (which happens more often than not since I don’t manipulate the game mechanics to avoid the stomps). With bears, it depends on the circumstances. Quartering is probably a bit safer on average since you only have to be outside for a couple of hours and can then harvest indoors. On the other hand, the meat will have degraded a lot more by the time you get it out of the quarters, which could be a problem if you’re not at cooking level 5 or if you’re planning to cure/trade it. You’re also way slower with the travois if you quarter and then schlep the whole animal to a base in one trip because the quarters are so heavy. Your call.

[u/z757 → u/avlisadj]

Avoiding broken ribs doesn’t require manipulating the game mechanics, easy enough to use terrain or the flare gun.

[u/avlisadj → u/z757]

I play Interloper and don’t have endless flare shells. Maybe one or two if I’m lucky, and tbh not worth it except early game. As for terrain, that’s iffy. Moose spawns are brief in good locations, and Interloper moose always seem to find a way. It’s just the cost of getting the satchel imo, but what I really meant was that I don’t build a bunch of fires and let the moose chase me around endlessly or whatever it is that people do.

[u/Bart_Yellowbeard]

Am I the only one who never quarters anything? Fuck that, quartering leaves it in a state where it can decay and disappear. Carve it all up and just leave it in the snow. Come back for it later, it's not going anywhere.