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Old 07-28-2006 | 06:27 AM
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Alsatian
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Default Meat in coolers

I have a question about coolers for hauling meat home after an out-of-state hunt.

I'm going elk hunting for the first time this October. My hunt is about 850 miles from my home. In the past (pronghorn hunt in Wyoming -- 1,300 miles from home) I butchered my meat and packaged it, put some dry ice in the bottom of my cooler, put about a 1/4" layer of newspaper on top of the dry ice, put the meat in, put another layer of 1/4" of newspaper on top of the meat, and put more dry ice on top. I closed the cooler lid and sealed as best I could with duct tape. This worked very effectively for pronghorn meat, freezing it rock solid and keeping it frozen. Now to my question.

How many coolers and what size cooler will I need for bringing home butchered, packaged elk meat? Assume 200 LBS of elk meat. I was looking at some 50 quart coolers last night and thinking maybe four coolers, but I wonder if I could get 50 LBS of meat into such a cooler ALONG WITH THE DRY ICE.

Can anyone provide guidance on this? Additionally, what brand cooler do you recommend? I looked at some Igloo coolers at Wal-Mart last night and they looked a little shabby and poorly constructed. One cooler on the shelf to be sold actually had metal screws attaching the plastic hinges to the plastic cooler and two screws had stripped out of their holes. This seemed a poor design.
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