A warm one. How do you cool down your...
09-17-2009, 11:53 AM
#11
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location:
Posts: 368
That's genius. And if you use your fish shack for a camping/hunting shack too it would make perfect sense to acquire a small one for those purposes. On a related note, maybe I could put it in the basement bathroom? The tile on the floor down there's cold with our air running right now. The dog would appreciate it too after he rammed the door down to get in there. I believe he'd be doing a dance like this.
09-17-2009, 09:12 PM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: ELK GROVE CA USA
Posts: 1,251
Funny...everyone out "east" worries about game....Here in CA..i have shot deer (key is to get them gutted quickly)...skin and hang....i have hung deer in 90 degree weather (during the day) and 55 or so at night for 2 days...then drive it home, 4 hour drive with the meat still on the bone out of the ice chest..cut it up at home and have NEVER had a problem.......but if you do that you need to make a pillow type game bag to keep the fly's off the meat.
09-19-2009, 10:24 AM
#15
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 304
doe or buck if you tag one in the 70s or 80s in September? Looks like it will be nice and warm here Saturday. I know that you should skin and quarter it and put it in a cooler ideally. But if you just have to keep it for a couple of hours before getting it to the processor, what do you do? I personally have put frozen milk jugs and ice bags inside the body cavity and draped over the hindquarters and that's seemed to work. Anyone do anything differently?
Never have really understood this one.
Exactly what meat are you trying to protect here - The loins ?
90 % of the edible meat is in the hams and shoulders - neither of which is helped by ice in the chest cavity.
Here in Florida we often kill deer when the temps are in the 90s !!!!
On a WMA it is often an hour or so before you can haul your deer out and get him checked in. -We can't gut one on a WMA till he is weighed and measured.
As soon as he is checked in we go to work on him.
Bar none the best way is to take 30 minutes to skin and quarter and put on ice.
I don't know what would be SO IMPORTANT that you couldn't do this.
That being said -
I have an old sleeping bag (Blankets also work).
Lay this in the bottom of your truck
Then spread a tarp over it
Put your gutted deer on the tarp
Put 4-5 bags of ice around the deer
Wrap him up with the rest of the tarp and blankets
Put another tarp over the whole deal.
Add additional ice every hour.
As others have said - The enemy is the hide/hair.
If you can't quarter him, at least skin him ASAP.
If not, the blankets and tarps work really well.
The 2nd tarp that you put over the whole thing probably adds 50% to the efficiency of this whole deal.
Good luck.
09-19-2009, 07:27 PM
#16
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Southern Illinois
Posts: 262
Im glad that we have a walk in cooler. We usually have it running most of the year because we also butcher cows and we get a few hogs a year. And we also let friends hang deer and other animals in it. Also keep beverages in it at the farm to.
09-20-2009, 04:45 AM
#18
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 6,867
My plan is a few bags of ice. I figure i will vacum seal some water throw it in a small cooler and toss it in my truck.If i drop one i will walk to the truck get the ice and start tracking. Figure the walk will be in place of sitting waiting for the deer to die. But someone elsemight have a better idea.
09-21-2009, 01:00 PM
#19
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location:
Posts: 368
"I don't know what would be SO IMPORTANT that you couldn't do this."
Actually, its because its SO IMPORTANT to my processor I not. They'd rather take care of the hide and do the cutting from the start. So its not a matter of laziness, but rather asking what others do who are in my situation, who have chosen not to cut it up themselves but rather want to take it to a processor. I suppose I could learn how but I choose not to at this point in my hunting. And I am happy with the job my processor does. Thanks for the replies guys.
Actually, its because its SO IMPORTANT to my processor I not. They'd rather take care of the hide and do the cutting from the start. So its not a matter of laziness, but rather asking what others do who are in my situation, who have chosen not to cut it up themselves but rather want to take it to a processor. I suppose I could learn how but I choose not to at this point in my hunting. And I am happy with the job my processor does. Thanks for the replies guys.
