Tell Me About Game Bags

[AlaskaHunter]

I've seen several hunters purchase cheap Walmart bags and have fly eggs on their meat in 24 hours....

After about 20 years of using/washing/using, some of my big cotton moose quarter bags have seen their last hunt.

I just ordered six 60 inch by 28 inch TAG bags for $85 which should last me a lifetime..about third the weight of my old cotton bags.

 

[npaden]

I just can't seem to justify buying 70 dollar game bag kit vs. the 10 dollar set of 4 Scheels sells. They have always worked well for me, maybe I am missing something I guess.

I used the gauze type bags for a while and they did work. They don't prevent flies though if they are stretched tightly at all. And if someone mishandles a bag and they hit the ground they don't keep dirt out very well either. It took a while for me to justify the $50 investment in better game bags but I've been very happy with them ever since.

 

[WyoDoug]

One thing that does work is pillow cases. I would have your wife install tie strings in the top to close them and tie them down. Use heavy string or light weight rope like you use on clothes lines. I have done that. If you go that route, use pillowcases without any holes at all. New ones if possible. Synthetic cloth is ideal because it draws the water away from the meat and dries much faster.

 

[520 Road Sow]

I used the gauze type bags for a while and they did work. They don't prevent flies though if they are stretched tightly at all. And if someone mishandles a bag and they hit the ground they don't keep dirt out very well either. It took a while for me to justify the $50 investment in better game bags but I've been very happy with them ever since.

Appreciate the feedback on this I'll check them out.

 

[brockel]

Watch campfire.com and grab some caribou game bags or the blackovis ones are good too.

 

[WyoDoug]

I used the gauze type bags for a while and they did work. They don't prevent flies though if they are stretched tightly at all. And if someone mishandles a bag and they hit the ground they don't keep dirt out very well either. It took a while for me to justify the $50 investment in better game bags but I've been very happy with them ever since.

I wished I coulda got mine for $50 but I don't regret it because I have reused mine for about 10 years now. I bought a set of 4 quartering bags way back when I first started hunting as a resident in Wyoming. Four years later I bought two more sets of 4 and paid close to $70 a set, but they have yet to rip and while a few are stained, they did wash up good.

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

My ignorance is showing, but what happens if you get fly eggs on the meat? Do they die when frozen/cooked, or is it pretty much a death sentwnce foe the meat?

 

[WyoDoug]

My ignorance is showing, but what happens if you get fly eggs on the meat? Do they die when frozen/cooked, or is it pretty much a death sentwnce foe the meat?

I am assuming you are talking about a freshy killed carcass. If the eggs have not hatched and the meat has not rotted, scrape them off along with the layer of meat they were on. Once hatched the meat is toast. This is a problem you might see with shooting previously wounded game. If you see an infected wound for example in the right front leg, and find maggots on that wound, I would cut that portion off from the joint above it down and leave it with the viscera. The rest of the carcass is likely fine. For a gut shot animal that I did not wound, if I ran into that and it appeared to be infected, I would do the boneless method and take just the quarters and backstrap and that meat would become hamburger. A stressed and previously wounded animal is likely to have a strong gamey taste to it.

 

[WyoDoug]

Also, freezing and extended refrigeration will kill fly eggs. It however does not solve the problem with toxic waste maggots leave behind as they eat and advance through stages to adulthood and carry harmful bacteria not good to ingest. If you have maggots in meat, personally, I would dispose of that meat and not use it for food.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

If your in for 10-14 days, maggots and lots of tasty meat ruined.

 

[1100RemingtonMan]

I like Caribou bags, used them up on the North Slope of Alaska Caribou hunting. Have them all washed up and hope to put a Colorado Elk in them next. If not there a Whitetail from Iowa.

 

[tzone]

Thank you all for the info. It's helpful. It looks like I'll be able to get by with 2 bags, but 4 for sure. Depending on the situation, the meat will probably be boned on the spot. Hopefully, anyway.

 

[2rocky]

The Synthetic Premium bags are less bulky than the Cotton Muslin ones on the shelf in SW, Wal Mart or Cabelas/BassPro. A 4 or 5 bag set will pack into an 18 oz stuff sack that will take up less space in your pack than one of the cotton. I have both TAG and Caribou. I like to have the meat cool so the surface is dry before I bag it if possible, but if flies are buzzing you gotta bag it ASAP.

I avoid the cheesecloth type at all costs.

 

[WyoDoug]

Avoid cheese cloth type game bags. Flies can lay eggs on the cheese cloth and the maggots will penetrate the cheese cloth if they hatch. Not only that, contact with flies introduces harmful bacterial that will seep through the meat. As 2rocky suggests, avoid cheese cloth bags at all costs. The cheese cloth ones are very easy to tear just through handling too.

 

[Pucky Freak]

I killed a calm antelope buck 4 miles from the road in hot weather. Within minutes of handling the carcass there were easily 100 flies buzzing around. I realized that although all the meat would easily fit in the one Caribou carnivore3 elk-sized game bag I brought, all the meat balled up together would not cool fast enough. I should have brought 4 of my bags with me to spread the meat out.

I opted to surrender to the flies by quartering the carcass, and set the quarters and backstraps in the little shade provided by sagebrush, to allow some evaporation and cooling to begin.

When I was ready to leave I put all the meat in the one bag and hoofed it 1.5 miles to a pinion in a breezy place on the shaded and slightly cooler side of a bluff (NE since it was early afternoon).

I took the meat out of the bag and draped it on the branches to continue cooling, for about 4 hours. Flies again showed up immediately. At this point the meat was sufficiently cool, so it got loaded into my pack again and an hour pack out to the road. I put the bag in the middle of my cooler surrounded by ice.

I knew there were fly eggs on the meat, they hatch in 24 hours, but not unless the meat is at least 60 degrees. I had basically made them dormant.

If eggs do hatch, the maggots will move slowly, but still start munching away in the meat at any temp above freezing, and the meat is ruined.

40 hours later (today) I began butchering. All the fly eggs were within 2 inches of the ball joints on the rear hams. Flies instinctually lay their eggs in the place that will stay the warmest for the longest as meat cools, which in my case was the ball joints. I trimmed an extra inch around the eggs and discarded that meat (basically 2 disc-shaped pieces of meat 1” thick and 4” wide).

Just to be safe, I meticulously inspected all the other meat and not one fly egg was found elsewhere. The meat tastes great, as I ate the tenderloins for supper. The only remaining consideration here is that the surface of the meat has bacteria from all those flies walking on it for 4-5 hours. Kind of gross, but nothing that a thoroughly cooked steak won’t remedy.

Re: which brand to buy - make sure not to get disposable bags such as coolabuck, unless you really do plan to discard them after 1 use. Caribou bags cost x2 as much for a set, but you can reuse them many times - I have and they work great.

 

[bonniecutthroat]

I have used the same set of Allen synthetic game bags for 5+ years and have also successfully reuses the alaska game bags for multiple years. For both, just need to be vigilant about soaking and washing ASAP.

 

[AggieHunter]

I have had great success with caribou game bags. I have used the same set of mule meat on the bones for a bighorn sheep, deer, and two antelope. Easy to clean after use and throw back into the bag for the next hunt.

 

[tzone]

I did pick up some Caribou Game bags. That should work just fine. Thank you for the advise to all of you.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Camofire has them on discount a lot! There the blackovis brand. I have had 3 sets of the deer sized bags for 8 years. The same ones! There lightweight and very washable. Put a boned out 5x5 this year, a WY deer, an Idaho deer and there still going!
Matt

 

[SFC B]

Another vote for the Caribous!!! A great, family owned CO company with a great product. The Wapiti set EASILY handles an elk and packs down to the size of about a large vegtable can in their own stuff bag. I have used mine 4-5 times now and am very satisfied. Bonus is the easy cleanup and sewn in hanging points. This is the 3 of us packing out my cow last week