How many coolers for an elk?

TauPhi111

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I'm wondering how many coolers of what size are required to fit an entire elk in. I've fit a small whitetail buck, quartered with bone in, in a Coleman 70 quart cooler, with regular ice.

What kind of volume would it take to fit a whole elk. Let's assume an average sized bull. Boned out quarters or bone in, whatever you have experience with.

Also, it seems a lot of people use frozen milk jugs as ice blocks, but doesn't that take up a ton of valuable cooler space? Seems keeping blocks in there would reduce your space by about half. How many jugs per cooler do you use?
 

armyjoe

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So I've been using a Coleman Xtreme 120qt and can fit a medium size bull (deboned) in it. Not a lot of room at all for ice though. This year I bought a 85 qt and a 100qt and I like this setup better. I'm able to get more ice on the top and bottom of the meat to cool it more effectively.

I also use a frozen milk jugs but I use them to pre-cool the cooler. Once in use, I use regular ice and dry ice to keep everything cold. The space you loose with a few milk jugs is about the size of a full back of elk back straps. To much space if you ask me.
 
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I just had a CO 5x5 in my 150 and there wasn't much room for ice. This was in game bags boned out.
 

EasilyExcited

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i had my fairly small bull 4pt in a 65 yeti and a 105. and was very little room for ice. 2 105s would probably be perfect and leave some room for ice. i froze 16oz water bottles instead of gallons and seemed to work decent
 

Cinch

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Can fit a whole bone in elk in a Yeti 210... plenty of room for enough ice... used frozen water bottles as they pack better then gallons just don't last as long of course...
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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Unless you are lacking vehicle space hard to go wrong with two 120s, put half and elk in each (bone in if desired) with lots of room for ice so you can go a week if needed.
 

Trial153

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Last one I carted home was in a 105 and a 110, that was all boned out and I had plenty of room for block ice. If your leaving quarters bone in your going to be tighter but it's doable.. I bone out the shoulders minus the blade. The two shoulders and one chuck go in the 105. The hinds get boned out and they going in the 110 with the other chuck, straps, lions and miscellaneous ( shanks and heart)
 

Trial153

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For ice I have gotten away from milk jugs. I went and bought rectangular plastic covered containers that fit into he bottom profile of the cooler. I fill them up and freeze them so I have block ice that is flat and I can easily lay meat on. Cost a little up front to buy the containers however it's makes for much easier packing. Additional frozen milk jugs are added to the coolers when they are empty to fill all the dead air space. I discard the extra when I pack the meat. I have had them filled like this and with them unopened in the truck I still have 80-90 of the ice 10 days later.
 

5MilesBack

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It totally depends on the size of the elk. Here's one rear ham from my daughter's bull. You couldn't even close the lid on a Coleman 120 with it in it by itself. Glad I had my 200qt as well on her trip.
 

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TauPhi111

TauPhi111

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Thanks everyone for the info. Looks like I will need to secure some more coolers for my trip. If I'm coming home in November from CO to OH, should cooled quarters in game bags be OK on the drive home if they're just in my truck bed?
 

shadow

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I took an average bull elk to the locker and had processed. The processed and packaged meat was all frozen, and fit into a Coleman 120, and a YETI 65. 100% fill, no ice, just frozen meat.
 

5MilesBack

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holy shiit that's huge

Ya, tell me about it.

Funny thing was........the day before she shot it, my daughter told me that she wanted me to let her break the bull down when she got one. So after we took pics I handed her a Havalon and said "have at it". I wish I had a picture of the look on her face. Her exact comment was "Perhaps I'm a small game hunter from here on out".:D

This was the first elk I have broken down past sunset in quite some time. It was a chore. We deboned the first side and then for time sake we took the whole rear ham off on the other side. The backstraps were impressive as well, but don't have a real good pic of those.
 
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