Keeping meat cool.

Lot's of good info on how to cool down elk meat.

Now i'll tell you what I've seen as being reasonable distance for hauling elk out on your back...because 10 plus miles IN ELK COUNTRY is asking for trouble.

Anyone who has killed an elk over 5 miles from the trailhead will tell you it is going to take 5 guys to pack a boned out elk in one trip. Because if it was 5 guys hauling 300# of boned out elk and antlers, not only do you have to haul out 65# of meat but your camp as well. You are looking at 100# plus pack (see the deer hauling thread)

I can make a 10 mile meat run on horseback in 3.0 hours one way and I have turned and burned back in to camp with horse feed with about 10,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. It takes a recreational backpacker (40-50 # pack) 4.5 hours to make that one way trip. I've done it.

3 guys hauling a bull elk and camp out 10 miles without a pack animal assist is not a reasonable goal. I've got guys who finished 100 mile races under 24 hours, and they know to have a packer to get elk out more than 3 miles in. emember you are going to have been hiking in the mountains before you get that bull down. Your legs will most likely be shot.

10 mile pack out? Reasonable for 2 guys hunting Mule deer, where if one guy kills both haul meat and camp. But on Elk with 3 guys, better shrink your radius, or have Uncle Joe with the packstring on standby.
100% agree, I would add that sometimes absolute distance isn’t the only factor, if you kill the bull at the bottom of the hill or it’s downed timber or thick brush etc then that distance might be 2 miles or less.

Also it pays to be smart about your pack out and do the math. Example we killed a 5x5 ~5 miles in, boned out + skinned out head was around 250lb. Everyone had 40lbs of gear. We all packed out 2 miles (the steepest part) with 40 lbs of elk + our camps so ~90lbs. My two buddies hung their meat in a tree and dropped their camps and I went all the way to the truck. I dropped off my load walked back in three miles got the two camps and went back to the truck. My two buddies went back to the kill site with empty packs got the last ~100lbs of meat, the stopped at the tree, loaded up to ~100lb each and marched out.

Basically we just maximized our trips so we all did 1.5 trips instead of 2.
 
Definitely two coolers and I would hang the meat over night and let it breathe as much as possible. When it comes to packing it in the cooler, avoids moisture as much as possible. I’ve layered the bottom of the cooler with ice still in bags and then lay a layer of towels or game bags over the top of the ice as a layer to protect the meat from getting wet. Once the meat gets wet, if it warms up, that is when your meat risks spoiling/mold etc. The biggest thing would be getting it cooled off as quickly as possible and keeping it that way. Hanging the meat in bags works but just be careful because if you are piling boned out meat in bags it’s very easy to create a little warm kitchen between stacked meats if they aren’t fully cooled off. That is a ways to pack meat in hot temps so I would definitely stop and check it occasionally to make sure it’s staying cool. Good luck man it sounds like a good time coming!
 
The first cool down is key in my experience; it's asking A LOT of a cooler w/ ice to get all that heat energy dissipated. Once you've gotten it cool once, you can keep it nicely chilly with a (ballpark) 3:1 ratio of meat to ice, extremes notwithstanding. To get warm meat cooled down all inside a cooler, I'd want 50/50 ice:meat if not more ice.
This right here for all big game meat. That cooler is just a big thermos the better it hold in cold , the better it holds in heat. So its best to get the meat completely cooled down before putting it in the cooler.
 
3 coolers, one for frozen half gallon milk jugs and two for meat. we jsut packed a boned out elk into two 55qt coolers with frozen jugs. hang meat in the shade and cool it down before putting into coolers.
 
Caribou Gear

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