RE: Early Season Meat Tactics?
I've got a litte experience with this......(temps)
What I do is......get the deer field dressed, quickly. If I'm going ot have ANY time between field dressing and butchering.....I'll pack the cavity with ice. Still.....I only do this for short stints. When the season rolls around....my chest freezer has been depleted of almost all venison. That makes room in there for several bags of ice. I keep 4-6 bags on hand all the time.
Once butchered.....I rinse the quartered pieces off and put them in coolers. Actually....I can get an adult doe in one cooler, here (due to the size of our does). I Place the meat in first....and the ice on top......draining the melted water from the cooler 2X/day. I'll let the quartered deer stay on ice from 4-7 days....according to when I can get to the processor's place.
This has worked fine, for me, so far. Having the ice on hand, readily, hepls. The key is to ge the meat cooled down ASAP.
Good luck.