What he said. The goal is just air circulation. That’s the important thing. Hanging keeps them out of reach of coyotes but that’s about it. Birds can get at quarters either way.This year i didnt have any trees with thick enough branches where the elk died to hang the meat in, it was all deadfall and young young pine, I Tossed down some larger logs from the deadfall to create some airflow underneath and then over that put a layer of cut fresh pine boughs. Placed the meat on top of that and then put a few more fresh pine boughs over the meat. Was good airflow around the meat and it Kept the flies off and kept everything cool while I did the packing trips.
My thoughts on bears are.... they're going for that huge pile of guts over there and arent concerned with my meat... for them the good stuff is in those gutsSo I've seen plenty of pics where people aren't hanging the meat very high. In CO, are bears not the main concern when it comes to meat scavengers? It seems they could easily reach based on the pics I've seen.
Also, I tried the method in this video the other day in my front yard. Tried pulling up my pack which still had the bag of concrete in it that weighed in at 70lbs. Was getting way too much stretch in the line to get it off the ground very far.
My thoughts on bears are.... they're going for that huge pile of guts over there and arent concerned with my meat... for them the good stuff is in those guts
Well that's probably the wisest... and if I were in Grizzly country I certainly would... but the black bears here in CO don't bother me and even in the area I hunted this year I saw multiple black bears but ... none got onto my kill site before I got all the meat out. I left the meat only 20 yards from the pile of guts/carcass and didn't have any problems (this could be shear dumb luck). I think that gut pile and carcass are just too big of a temptation to wild animals compared to the lean, non fatty, low nutrient meat that I like so well. The robber jays sure were quick onto that carcass though haha, those birds were feasting as soon as I left the carcass alone (again, they weren't interested in the quarters / backstraps / etc.).Good point. I guess you would just move the meat a couple hundred yards away at least so they don't get tempted once they're done with the carcass/ guts?
Actually you know what, maybe that's only half true.... haha I forgot a bit of story..... that night after we finished packing all the meat out to the trucks my brother had just put a tarp over the back of his truck and was sleeping in the back, a bear DID try to get into the bed of the truck with my brother in the night.... but there was no meat there, all of the meat was hanging in the trees in the woods away from the trail head.... so even then I don think the bear cared about the lean elk meat so much as he wanted whatever twinkies my brother had stashed under his pillow