A few questions about keeping an elk on ice.

I live in Georgia so we all keep our deer in coolers for 5-7 days on ice to age and bleed out the meat. Is it the same for elk. This is my first elk trip we will be there from Aug 28th to sep,12th. We all bought meat bags and I was wondering if we should hang them for a couple days before we put them on ice or not. We also have a chest freezer that we will have available if need be for someone who shoots an elk in the first couple of days. Any help would be appreciated.

If I'm sticking around after packing one out, I've been known to hang the bags at night and then drop them back in the cooler during the day. I guess it depends where your camp is and what the temps are. I use frozen milk jugs filled with water as my ice.

I am spoiled as we now have a commercial walk-in freezer back at the cabin, but before that we would hand it in the shade for 24 hours before processing. I've heard that you can get the gaminess out of deer by hanging them longer, but not really necessary with elk. The only issue is with deboned meat is getting it all cool and rotating it in the bag. The problem is that we hunt at 8500 feet and it gets into the 80s sometimes during the day and in those cases we have to hurry and get it processed and in the coolers (not the case now that we have the walk-in). So, I guess the answer is to hang 24-36 hours (weather permitting) after it hit the ground. If temps are above 50 or so or you can't keep it in the shade you will be forced to either throw it in the cooler or a stream during the day.

dealing with triple digit temps all the time and across five states going home will have you thinking all the time.
you will be fine.

Hang the bags at night(As mentioned be sure to rotate the meat to make sure it all cools if you debone). If it to hot to hang in the shade during the day, I toss them in contractor bags, put them in the cooler and cover with ice. Drain daily and top with ice as needed. I've had much better results since I quit soaking meat in ice water.

Does anyone else use dry ice? We've found that to be a great solution for keeping game cooled in cooler for long journeys home - like the 25 hour drive home from Arizona lately with a quartered up elk split between a few coolers. Wrap the dry ice well and keep it as far away from any meat as possible (or that part of the meat will freeze solid) and you're good to go. Way better than messing with regular ice melting the whole way.

blackdog said:

Does anyone else use dry ice?

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When I was stationed in CA and returning back from CO with quarters and meat I tried dry ice once because I was spending the night in Vegas so 24+ hours. I separated the meat from the dry ice with cardboard sheets and the meat and quarters were still frozen solid when I got there. Had to mostly thaw them out just to process them. Won't do that again.