Warm Weather Meat Preservation

12gauge · Dec 23, 2014

Hey Guys,

I'm considering the switch from rifle to bow. Was wondering what you guys do in the early warmer elk season (Sept 1) when the animal is down and the "real" work begins. I butcher/process my own meat. I travel 3 hrs away from home to hunt. I'm in NM and hunt around 8,000-10,000 ft elevation.

Questions:
Do you bone out the meat?

Pack dry ice or block ice for a 5-7 day stay?

What type of coolers do you take to keep ice cold? (Yeti or inexpensive Coleman/Igloo)

Do you carry citric acid or similar meatsaver product to preserve meat?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Adrian

Sherlock · Dec 23, 2014

Question 1:
No, I just quarter (includes straps, etc.), bag, and hang in shade until I can get it packed out as quickly as possible. If not hauling it out immediately (sometimes have to wait for horses to arrive), then I sometimes have to move meat as day progresses and shade moves.

Question 2 & 3:
Two large Coleman-like coolers packed with 2-liter bottles (from soda bottles) of ice. Would love to have a Yeti, but holy $#!%, they are expensive. The coolers filled with these bottles keep cold and iced for a good week if I leave them in the shade at the trail head where the truck is parked. Nice thing about using bottles, the coolers don't fill up with water as the ice melts. Also, I overpack with more bottles of ice than will fit with the meat...in order to help keep them cold for longer. When putting in the meat, I just have to remove some of the extra bottles.

Question 4:
Nope. Never had a serious problem with meat going bad doing the above.

Sherlock · Dec 23, 2014

Question 1:
No, I just quarter (includes straps, etc.), bag, and hang in shade until I can get it packed out as quickly as possible. If not hauling it out immediately (sometimes have to wait for horses to arrive), then I sometimes have to move meat as day progresses and shade moves.

Question 2 & 3:
Two large Coleman-like coolers packed with 2-liter bottles (from soda bottles) of ice. Would love to have a Yeti, but holy $#!%, they are expensive. The coolers filled with these bottles keep cold and iced for a good week if I leave them in the shade at the trail head where the truck is parked. Nice thing about using bottles, the coolers don't fill up with water as the ice melts. Also, I overpack with more bottles of ice than will fit with the meat...in order to help keep them cold for longer. When putting in the meat, I just have to remove some of the extra bottles.

Question 4:
Nope. Never had a serious problem with meat going bad doing the above.

trophyhunter · Dec 23, 2014

Ok if you can't hit for the expensive ice chests this will work with any modern Colman or really any chest. If you are in hot weather first you need to keep your meat chests filled with as much ice as you need then keep the chests out of the sun covered with those old style oil soaked style tarps. They are about 20'x20' so you can fold them in half to double layer etc. ice will hold for the days you mentioned if you don't open the chests much or better not at all. Add a block of dry ice in each chest you can extend your ice to 10-12 days.....

We found that those plastic quart or gallon milk jugs frozen with water work great, as they thaw you can use the water etc. we put some of those in food ice chests.
Then as you use them up you can pull them out making some room to pull some frozen ones out of your meat chests. We use our meat chests to store ice, both jugs as well as party ice for camp use. Fill them up dry ice them an your good to go for 10-12 day hunts in 100F.

We bone our meat out if we are a long way from camp and throw it in Alaska Game Bags. Cool your downed game as much as possible, we do gutless method.. Get it in the shade, or hang in trees. We each carry 500ft. Of para cord. If we're not to far in then we quarter it because we don't have horses.

Remember to keep those ice chests cover wrapped in route to your hunt. Lots of heat comes up through the bottom bed of your pickup. One year we went through Nevada in September I-80. Got to Idaho ice was gone.....you won't be driving as far but you get the message right?

Anyway, your gonna love it and have a blast. Get some light weight camo, that Cabela's" Zonz's Made in the shade" is awesome stuff and not that pricy. You can get great deals on after season garments when they are reducing stock getting ready for the new stuff. Dec. Jan. is a great time for deals. Zonz's Woodlands is the camo pattern we like and in your country. It would work great.

Good Luck,
))))------->

3blade · Dec 23, 2014

Lots of good info above and Coleman Marine coolers will keep ice as long as a yeti, according to the tests I've read. Not bear proof, but they're affordable.

Sherlock · Dec 23, 2014

BTW...

Since you process your own meat, yeah, I'd bone it out in the field to help it cool a little better. I don't usually bone mine out since I usually take the quarters to a processer and he charges more due to extra cleaning of the meat that he has to do when boned out.

12gauge · Dec 24, 2014

Wanted to thank you guys for the guidance. I've always hunted mid to late November, not as big of a concern compared to September.

I'm a meat hunter and feel more comfortable knowing there are methods to use that time of year.

I was even thinking about using an old sleeping bag to keep cooler wrapped in for extra insulation.

Thanks again!

stumpjumper · Dec 28, 2014

My brother and I both use the Coleman 5day Extreme and I have a 75qt. also plus an Igloo cube for refreshments. He uses old sleeping bags for extra insulation. I bought some double sided aluminum bubble wrap from Home Depot that they use between trusses and lined the coolers and made slip covers to go over them for transporting. Then shade them and cover with a reflective tarp. Also use the Alaskan Game Bags and do the gutless and boneout. Our last hunt in 2013 for archery cow, which occurs in August, in eastern Nv. with temps in the high 70's and low 80's for seven days and we both went home with ice.

COLOelkman · Mar 30, 2015

LAST EDITED ON Mar-30-15 AT 08:18AM (MST)[p]I also use the inexpensive coolers and cover them with old sleeping bags, blankets, etc while in the back of my Suburban and keep the windows open a bit to let heat build up escape. For ice, the bigger the better so if you can find the largest containers that will fit your cooler. So you may have to remove some bone to fit in the coolers if you cannot get it all back to the vehicle in a "reasonable" amount of time. I have a couple 2 1/2 gallon jugs but mostly use gallon plastic milk jugs. For the meat I usually don't debone unless it's a log pack out as I'd rather spend my time getting it back to the truck. There's other meat cooling tips on other threads so it'd be worth searching for that here. I will start using the Citric powder this year as I had tons of flies last year on my elk and it was super gross and took lots of time to clean it off but I didn't loose any meat. I also butcher my own meat for the most part so I really focus on meat care.