game bags - for preserving hanging deer

doughboysigep · 12-19-2005, 09:05 AM

Have a question about processing deer:

My buddies cut up their own meat and have found that skinning it quickly makes for much easier hide removal. They used a couple garbage bags to protect the meat until we had a chance to cut it up (couple days). Is there a product that would substitute for the garbage bags that would be easier to work with. I found "game bags" in Bass Pro. They were a stretchy mess material (like cheese clothe). Do these work well??? I thought the idea was to keep the air off the meat (dries it out?)? Are there other options?? Just looking for some insight/suggestions.

RiverOtter · 12-21-2005, 08:23 AM

Those cheesecloth type bags are just meant to keep insects off the meat I believe...I've never used them. Because I'm in a hunt club where we split all the meat, we never hang them...at the most for maybe a couple hours, then they get parted out (takes 10-15 minutes at the most). I don't always have time to finish my butchering the same day, so I usually just leave the pieces in a grocery store bag (or similar) so that air doesn't get to it, and keep it in the refridgerator until I have time to finish it off. Never had a problem doing this. I've heard that if you're going to hang a deer for a couple days, it's best to leave the hide on (even though it makes it much more difficult to skin later)...but I've no experience with this so I can't vouch for it.