Early season meat care

[surso]

I'll be hunting early season archery elk in NM this year with some buddies. If one of us shoots something early in the hunt, what would you do with the meat once you get back to the camp and/or truck? We're planning on about a 7 day trip and the drive back home is probably 16 hours or so.

Option 1: Hang the meat in the shade with some good anti-fly game bags and hope the temps at night drop down to the 30s or 40s. Day time temps are probably in the 80s, so that's a bit of concern to me.

Option 2: Place in coolers with ice or dry ice.

Option 3: Take to nearest town for processing or storage?

Option 4: ???

Do bears in the area play a factor?

 

[Brooks]

Early archery elk season in NM the temps can be anywhere from 70’s to 80‘s in the afternoon depending on where you’re at but Im sure it will be warm. I wouldn’t just leave it hanging . I’d quarter it up and start humping it out then either find a cooler in town to store it or find somewhere to process it. I’ve never had a Bear get on any meat and I’ve left quite a few quarters hanging in trees overnight waiting to get packed out.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

I personally wouldn't employ option 1 any longer than necessary during archery season, but I'll admit that I err on the cautious side after losing elk meat to spoilage a few years ago. I'd lean toward option 3, but option 2 would be fine as long as you can replenish the cooling medium as needed and don't allow the meat to sit in the melt water (pull the cooler plug and let the water drain as it melts, obviously not necessary if you're using dry ice). A potential option 4 would be to bring a chest freezer and a small generator. You could probably get away with just running the freezer a few hours each day.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Your Option 1 isn’t an option

Here would be the 2 options I’d consider.

Option 1. Freezer with a generator

option 2. Call ahead and find a meat locker that will store it or, maybe better yet, cut it and freeze it for the ride home.

option 2 would be my choice. Make sure you bring ice chests for the ride home.

 

[johnw]

Ucsdryder is right, finding a butcher/meat locker is the best bet to hang it while you finish your hunt.

In the event you cant, dry ice works - you may need to replenish it depending on your cooler.

 

[surso]

Thanks. I have a small quiet inverter generator, so finding a cheap freezer on craigslists or FB and hauling on the trailer may be feasible. I'm not too keen on making ice runs into town every couple of days, and I can't imagine frozen water jugs would last through the week.

 

[keller]

Did this last year.freezer generator made it very easy didn't have to worry about it.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Best ice luck I’ve had is making “super ice” (3 cups salt to 3 liters of water, hard frozen in the sturdiest, most stackable gallon containers (Arizona Ice Tea jugs do well). Hard freeze and keep in their own quality cooler in the shade and they’ve lasted 5 days (AZ October hunt-80’s daytime) plus drive home with meat on them and still more than half frozen.

 

[surso]

Best ice luck I’ve had is making “super ice” (3 cups salt to 3 liters of water, hard frozen in the sturdiest, most stackable gallon containers (Arizona Ice Tea jugs do well). Hard freeze and keep in their own quality cooler in the shade and they’ve lasted 5 days (AZ October hunt-80’s daytime) plus drive home with meat on them and still more than half frozen.

How many “super ice” containers would you have in the cooler? Enough to basically cover the bottom?


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[Laramie]

I always have several large coolers ready during early season elk hunts. I freeze 20 oz bottles prior to my trip and fill one entire big cooler with them. After harvesting, I spread the meat out to several coolers with these bottles arranged throughout. I use about half of the bottles in the first day to get the meat cooled down, I then pack it back in to 2 coolers with the remaining bottles. I have kept meat for 3-4 days like this in very warm weather.

 

[wytx]

If you freeze several ice jugs, good sized ones, and pack them tight into a cooler they will stay cold and partially frozen for a week. Dry ice will freeze everything hard and can lead to freezer burn on your meat. You could pack the ice jugs and dry ice into a cooler and be good till you need the jugs.
You might get away with bringing empty jugs, fill them when you get there buy the dry ice locally to freeze your jugs in the cooler.
The small freezer works well it seems as lots of NR travel them up this way for hunting in their trucks.

 

[fmyth]

We take a 7 cf freezer and a Honda Eu2000 generator. I pack the freezer with all of my food and water and freeze it before I leave home. I also take a large Coleman. When I get my elk I quarter it and pack it back to the truck. Remove everything from the freezer and put the elk in. Can get an entire cow or spike in the 7 cf freezer. Remaining food and elk go in the cooler with my frozen water bottles. Only have to run the generator for a couple hours a day, also use it to run boot dryer charge batteries etc at the same time.

 

[87TT]

I just bring elk or deer quarters home, put them in a clean plastic trash bag and put them in the 7 cf freezer until I'm ready to process them. Have thought of putting it in the truck with the 2000w gen if I was farther from home

 

[Sobrbiker]

How many “super ice” containers would you have in the cooler? Enough to basically cover the bottom?


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For meat, yes I line the bottom and put game bags on top.
I’d have however many I’d think I need in their own cooler. You can always split them into another cooler as needed. If you put frozen salt water blocks in with your food/drink cooler they can freeze the contents (had half a 12pack of soda explode and the other half slush after a 4hr drive up the mountain last year).
I usually also take some frozen gallons of fresh water too-I put red party straws in the salt water ones so I can tell which is which.

 

[haydukelives]

Last year on a buddy's early season cow we used a citric acid solution to make a quick rind on the meat to keep flies at bay. It definitely helped. A small spray bottle and some citric acid from the hardware store is all we packed. https://pristineventures.com/why-use-citric-acid-on-game-meat/

 

[peddar01]

Where we hunt in Colorado we have sunk meat in a creek and hauled home 20 hours in coolers with ice. Have never even had to buy more ice on the way home. One hunt sinking it was not an option so we packed it back to the truck ran to town got ice and were back in the backcountry that night. It spent 5 days in the cooler before we got back to it. Freshened up the ice for the ride home. We never lost any meat to spoilage.

 

[wytx]

Just make sure you cool that meat off before you put it in anything, cooler or freezer. Hang it in the shade so a breeze can blow across it until it's cool to the touch, might need to split hams down to the bone along a muscle to dissipate some heat.
You could build a little bridge across a small creek and lay your meat on it instead of submerging it if the creek is small enough.

 

[butcherboy]

The best advice I can give as a commercial processor has already been given. I will agree that the best thing to do is to freeze water in jugs before you go and bring them with you in coolers. The other is to always hang and cool the meat before putting it into your coolers. I like to make “sticks” out of 2” and 3” PVC. Cut them to fit your cooler, glue a cap on one end, add water or water/salt combo leaving a little room on the top for expansion, glue a cap on top. You can store them in your freezer at home or just on a shelf and then refreeze before your next trip. Or you can freeze 1/2 gallon milk jugs or something similar.

If you take your meat to a processor to just store be prepared to pay storage fees per day. If they process it in a few days, don’t be surprised to pay a rush fee.

 

[Marble]

Use your head and use all the options. First night it sold be able to hang dry in a bag. After that, I would try to get them into an ice chest. If needed, I'l pay to put it somewhere to hang until I leave.

Freeze gallon jugs of water ahead of time. Lasts twice as long and costs nothing.

 

[Jardo]

70-80 degree temps will spoil the meat and you’ll be fighting flies.

Bone I out and get it on ice ASAP. I bring 2 80 quart Yetis on my hunts filled with ice. Meat goes in the cooler as soon as possible. It’s important to take good care of the meat and get it cooled quickly. Elk meat is too delicious to chance hanging in August or September.


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