Care of meat after back in camp.

[williaada]

I am looking for advice on taking care of meat once it is back at camp. In particular, do people use coolers to keep deboned elk quarters in until the trip home, or use something else?

 

[weaver]

Wrapped in a garbage bag and dropped in a creek, hung in the shade, in a cooler with ice or freezer with a generator.
Have done all the above. All depends on the temperature and what I have with me.

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[cnelk]

Here’s all four quarters and loose meat with frozen milk jugs of last years bull. Bone in.

Killed him on a Friday and brought the meat to the processor on Tuesday

 

[rayporter]

i take it your camp is at a truck where you have access to coolers. if yes, you may as well use them. usually you can hang meat and wait till the trip home to put it in a cooler. i prefer dry ice, but it really is not necessary. if you can have a freezer that is great. a chunk of dry ice will freeze the meat and you dont have to worry about getting relieved of your genny.

i carry a few pieces of foam insulation and build a cooler in the front of my trailer by laying foam on the floor and sides then laying meat on it with dry ice tucked in. i cover with what ever gear i have and in 15 hours most of the meat will be nearly frozen. plain old closed cell pads will work [ and are what i have used recently] if you dont want to buy Styrofoam at the hardware store. block ice works fine too if that is what you have.

also i keep a sheet at camp to wrap around meat in the day time to help keep flies at bay.

 

[Indian Summer]

I’m with Cnelk... bone in with 120 quart coolers on ice. A whole quarter stays cooler longer once it’s cooled down and less exposed surfaces on the meat until final processing is better.


Before that I lay them out on the tailgate and clean them up really well. When the go into the cooler there’s not one hair, piece of grass, dirt, or bloodshot meat.

 

[ChrisAU]

Let it cool as much as possible before bagging it. We deboned my bull and laid the meat on a tarp in the shade while we worked on caping him out then we bagged it up. It was in the 40's while we did this and was well below freezing that night so we were fortunate in that regard that once it was cool it stayed plenty cool. Also, if you happen to cape one out make sure you stretch the cape out and let it cool. We laid mine on a downed tree in the shade and it stayed there for hours before we bagged it up for the final pack out. Taxidermist said that was a great thing to have done and appreciated it. Once it was all to the truck it went into coolers that got ice in them ASAP for the ride home.

 

[Ratspit]

Wipe down the quarters with a 50/50 vinegar and water solution. Keep changing out the towels. Gets all the hair, dirt, and other contaminants off the meat. Then hang the quarters if cool enough or on ice in a cooler as others have suggested. I carry food grade plastic bags if I need to throw the quarters in the creek to cool. The chemicals used to make trash bags can be absorbed into the meat plus some trash bags are treated with insecticides.

 

[cgasner1]

Don’t leave home without my chest freezer froze meat doesn’t spoil


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[One-shot]

Yup. The largest coolers we have - 2-3 of them, with jugs of ice like in the photos that one of the other responders here posted. I'd say though that those photos don't have enough ice, as the meat is overstuffed in the game bags coolers. We try to layer meat, ice, meat, ice if at all possible draining any accidentally leaked water daily so that meat isn't in water at all. They drier, cleaner, colder the better.

 

[5MilesBack]

I use a 200qt marine cooler filled with frozen milk and juice jugs. I also have a 120qt cooler for overflow and/or to transfer all my food to when I fill up the big one with meat.

The meat will stay cold for days in that big cooler. It's so cold it hurts my hands when I'm processing it at home days later.

 

[timberland]

Hanging in bags until the morning, then cut and wrapped and into the freezer. A partner and I cut and wrapped two elk while others were hunting, a full day affair, but sure was nice not having to deal with it when I got home