Meat Care

[noharleyyet]

How about sharing ideas on transporting meat from the field for the hunters who have to drive long distances back to their home states.

 

[txhunter58]

I quarter and debone my elk chill it and try and get it to a cold storage facility for at least 24 hours to get it thouroughly chilled out. We then take it quartered in large "5 day ice" type coolers with dry ice (120 to 150 quart). I then have it processed after I get it home. Recently though, we made a 4x3x3 foot cooler with SIPS (structural insulated panels) used for building houses. It already comes with OSB on both sides of a styrofoam type product. Will hold up to 3 elk that have been quartered and deboned.

 

[T Bone]

NHY,
Good forward thinking on care of the meat for the travel time. What month do you plan on hunting?

I'd recommend 2 things.
1) have cooler(s) already full of ice upon arrival. ...It seems stupid simple but I've seen a lot of people throw warm meat inside a cooler with no ice.....and later wonder why the meat is stinky. I've found that one 150 quart cooler will hold one boned out elk no problem. Drain frequently.

2) Bone out the meat and get it cooled down as fast as possible.

Replenish ice as needed. I've kept meat for up to a week this way with no problems.

 

[Moosie]

OOPS, I was about to move this topic to the Adult section ..

One of the Key things (I think) is not to let the meat soak in the melted ice. It's OK to wash the meat but when you soak it I thnik it draws the blood out and jsut makes it tougher. For that reason Make sure it's not sitting on the bottom of the cooler. My dad used a plastic Toolcase that sits i nthe back of his truck and Drilled holes under it. Ice melts faster becasue its not insulated but the same theory can happen if you open the Valve on the Cooler to keep the water draining. While you're driving it's not that big of a deal becase water spreads out over the road by drippinbg but remember when you stop for gas to close it. Nothing to draw attension like blood on the ground

 

[Don Taylor]

Depending upon room in the truck,time of year etc. I have hunted elk in the bow season and daytime temps can be 80+ degrees. and even the second rifle season this past year was shorts weather. What works for my annual elk hunt is take a small 5ft freezer and 1500w generator. If you kill an animal more than likely It means returning to camp for pack frames and if you fire up the generator before you leave to get the animal it will be cooled down plenty by the time your ready to put boned out quarters in it. Of course this depends on wether you are packed in with horses or not but it works good even if your a days ride back in from the truck. Ive gone the cooler route with dry ice and this works too but the freezer will get the meet frozen and this works good for my group because we drive 26hrs from home. The freezer will also allow you to prepare meals at home and then just run the generator for 30min in the evening and it works great. I realize most of us dont like to listen to a generator when we are hunting but if you use your head and place the freezer in a shaded spot and run the generator just enough it isnt that bad, we even stack hay around the generator to insulate the noise just dont overheat the generator by placing the hay to close to it so it wont cool.

 

[Don Taylor]

Whoops forgot to mention nightime temps. Most meet packing is done in the higher elevatios. at these higher elevations nightime temps usually drop way down. A good way to speed the process of cooling meat is take a tarp and lay it in the back of the truck and scatter the boned out meat on it.most times in the morning ice crystals will be forming and then put it in the freezer or cooler. Again use your head and dont do this in big bear country etc. etc.

 

[Elkmtb]

serious?

Shit, Harley

You taking this year serious????

 

[danr55]

We use double walled muslin game bags. After the meat is skinned and washed and dried, we bag it and hang it in the shade for at least one night. That usually freezes it and it's then packed in coolers before transporting. If this a warm weather hunt, we coat the meat with black pepper. That keeps critters (walking, flying and crawling) away and allows the meat to glaze on the outside. We then transport as quickly as possible.

 

[Ten Bears]

I usually dress the critter and get it skinned and bagged as soon as possible, get it to the ATV, and then haul it to a walk in cooler. For those trips away from the home area; I get the critter dressed out, skinned, bagged in game bags, hauled to the ATV, and back to camp to hang in a cool location.

 

[AzSlim]

I use frozen water bottles for ice in my meat cooler. I buy a case and freeze them hard and also never open the cooler they are in until I have meat for them. I put down a layer of bottles, a layer of freezer paper, then stack my meat and shove other bottles where I can fit them with freezer paper between the bottle & meat. I have also taken freezer paper in the field and cut and wrapped everything at camp, just lump the grind packs into 5 - 6 lb packages. This works great if you are tight on space, cut & wrapped takes up much less room.

 

[noharleyyet]

Thanks for all the tips. Hopefully I'll utilize the info this year.

 

[Steiny]

Going to CO this October to do the same and imagine we'll have a few critters to transport home. We have a huge home built cooler which we'll just pack full of block ice, debone our meat and transport it home like that. Hauled 5 muleys and 5 antelope in it one year, so imagine a couple elk won't be a problem.