Coolers for elk?

[Luked]

What size coolers do you all use for transporting your elk.
Years ago my dad went on his first elk hunt in CO and they fashioned up a pretty large cooler box that went on a trailer. Thing was pretty big but there were like 6 of them that went out. They used dry ice to put in the cooler they made.

With this coming season being my first time going I need to figure out coolers also. Buying something Luke a huge yeti is just not in thr budget so I'm looking at just getting coolers from wal mart but unsure of what size to get. I would assume I would probably ly have to get 2 but also what would be the best way to keep them cool while the truck is parked at the trail head.

Would I be better to buy block ice to put in the cooler on the drive out? Small thing of dry ice in each cooler then if I were to kill an animal just buy ice as needed?
This is something I really know nothing about.
Any advise would help.

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[bsnedeker]

I have two 120 quart colemans. They are plenty big for a boned out elk. I'm going to add a third this year because they weren't big enough for me to hold my bull with the quarters bone-in.

For ice what I do is I buy a couple of cases of water (the cheap ones with the crinkly plastic bottles) and I freeze those and fill up one of my coolers with those. If I'm staying for a week it's just about perfect...ice is mostly melted by the end of the week but still plenty cold enough to get me off the mountain until I can buy some ice.

If I was going to stay for over a week I might buy some dry ice to throw on the top of the ice to give me a 2-3 extra days.

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[cusecat04]

I have 2x Coleman extreme 120s, large for anything but the truck bed.
big enough for boned out.

 

[realunlucky]

I like the functionality of two coolers over one larger single. Two of big igloo coolers work very well. I'd use frozen jugs of water (i like the square ones) and fit as many possible in there, throw in frozen Gatorade and water bottles. They fill the gaps and are nice backups for after the pack out. After that cover them with old blankets or sleeping bag and a tarp to keep the sun off and don't open them unless absolutely necessary and you'll be golden.

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[GunsAreFun]

I have a 150qt Coleman extreme and a 120 qt forgot the brand. In the 150, I put one layer of frozen gallon water jugs. Then I put a 25-30 frozen water bottles in the space between the jugs. If I have any cubed ice in the house, I’ll dump that in. Then I put a moving blanket on top of everything and stuff it in all the crevices. This still had ice after 12-13 days when I finally had to stop the experiment because I need to get the cooler out of the way. I would also pull two frozen water bottles per day out and put them in a small cooler that had food that needed to stay cool.

The 120 cooler is what I kept some spare items in but was mostly empty.

 

[sahunter06]

My bull took 2 150qt Coleman extreme coolers and were loaded to the top. Did a good job holding the dry ice for my 20 hr trip home

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Pelican Elite 250.

 

[Ron.C]

I use 2 of the big coleman marine coolers. I make 10L blocks of ice and fill one to the lid. Then keep this cooler closed, out of the sun with a sleeping bag over it. Ice lasts quite a while like this.

When I get an animal, ice gets split between the 2 coolers and put in contractor bags to keep tge meat dry.

Can easily fit a boned out bull in 2 coolers with pleanty of ice.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Coleman 150-Quart Xtreme 6-Day Marine Hard Ice Chest Cooler​

It's the only low profile cooler that fits under my tonneau cover. $140 at Walmart.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I used my homemade 400 qt cooler a couple years ago and it fit a quartered spike in with a lot of ice no problem.

 

[Marbles]

Not for elk, but a Grizzly 165 quart will fit two caribou, or 46 salmon.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Not for elk, but a Grizzly 165 quart will fit two caribou, or 46 salmon.

I like how you know that.

A couple 120's should get by with almost any sized elk, boned out.

 

[WRO]

Look at kill bags, I used one this year and probably won’t go back to coolers. Much less space taken up.


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[Bcoonce117]

I have a 150qt Coleman that I put a refrigerator seal and nice hold down latches. Then I put reflectix (foil bubble wrap insulation) on the inside of cooler. Have kept ice for 2 weeks that way. I usually freeze gallon jugs of water for block ice. But I have kept meat frozen in there for at least a week that way too. Works great.

 

[geterdone]

Smak fish tote or fish boxes work great. If it is cold out I use kill bags as they store very well.

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