Simple is good we process our own meat and have for years, the family has kind of an assembly line when we get the animals back home, we have mostly went to the gutless method especially on Elk because of the size / weight we have to pack out , so boning out the animal is almost a must for us. We bone it out with hide off and cut and roll the meat on each side all the way up including the neck muscle groups, bone out the front & rear qtrs , pull the filets you reach in and cut them out, back straps we cut out. we will do one side and them roll the elk over, if you are going to skin for a shoulder mount then you peel the hide far enough back to the breast bone up to the head and cut it off with that section of the front uncut hide intact. The gutless method is easier / faster unless you are plucking every bit of meat off the ribs and such, and it depends on how bad it's shot. I remember the way Dad taught us trying off the pucker hole and all that stuff, in a perfect world and perfect shot with enough time it works and for some people it's all you need and that's a good thing. Deer and similar size animals are just easier all the way around, you get into Bison/Buffalo what ever you prefer to call them might want to get some help. I usually take a little more time and care if we are not near the house hunting or when we have Mutiple people with tags so we will clean them up as best we can and keep them cool until every one is done. there are times where it has been so hot we had to get them back home and in the freezer that day or we would lose them, hence I started taking a chest freezer with us mounted in front of the side by side trailer and just run a generator. one of our friends brings a vacuum sealer in camp we haven't gone that far yet we have a couple at home we use. I generally keep 30 to 50 lbs of beef and pork fat frozen at home when we need to grind and sleeve / tube the burger. one of my friends buy's pork shoulders on sale and uses that to mix 50/50 in with the Elk to make his grind. I do that when making Italian meat balls not so dry.