A warm one. How do you cool down your...
 

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?

What you are doing is about all you can do if you have to transport any distance. We always try to get them caped ASAP too, because that hide/hair is your enemy in cooling them down. Will your processor accept them with the hide off?

About 4-5 years ago one of my younger cousins had the bright idea to go hunting when the temp was 78 degree's outside granted it was his 1st year hunting and he was itching to get out. I get a call on my cell phone about 9:30Am and he said he shot a doe from his stand which was about a mile walk intot he woods so I head on over to there place,,,,,,I have never been so miserable in my life as I was that day helping him gut and drag that deer out of the woods race over to get it registered race back home and get it skinned and quartered and then packed in the freezer.....from that day forward I will never shoot a deer when it's warmer than 65 outside...I'll probably go sit on Saturday morning and Sunday evening just because it'e the opener but the only thing I would even concider shooting will be a big 12 I have pics on my trail cam of everything is safe until the temps drop next week.


P.S - Southern hunters please don't jump on my back about this situation I realize it's probably warmer than it was that day where you hunt and I would assume you are used to warmer temps and prepared for it....it's just not for me.

Every year I shoot a doe or two during the summer under an agricultural damage permit. The farm I hunt is about 1 1/2 hours away. After registration, I buy 3 bags of ice. I put two inside the body cavity end to end and lay one across the shoulders in the back of my capped pickup on the way home.
When I get home, the deer goes onto the garage floor with the ice that's left and a couple of ice jugs from the freezer. She gets covered by a tarp and a couple of old blankets overnight.
She gets cut up right away the next morning. Typical temperatures in July/August are in the 80's during the day. I've treated the deer in this manner for several years and have not had one go bad yet.

yes i am worried about the same thing, last year I was hunting in 70 degree weather, and i was so confused about what i would do with the deer if i killed one. The processor closed at like 6 so it makes it almost impossible to get the deer to him after an evening hunt.

Someone told me they put salt in their cooler with ice and the melted water to get their beer colder faster. Has anyone heard of this and would it be a benefit to a quartered deer in hot weather? Just wondering....

Salt will make the ice melt faster, hence why we put it on the roads in winter. The water from the melted ice is only a couple of degrees above freezing. This will cool the beer quicker because it has more direct contact with the surface of the cans. This works in the short run but as more ice becomes water due to the chemical reaction with the salt you will lose ice faster and the cooler will not stay as cold if you were to have no salt with the ice.

I wouldn't recomend putting salt on the deer. Pack it with ice, wrap it with a tarp and keep it out of the sun and wind.

Our southern game laws allow for us to phone in our kills. The doe I shot Monday night was shot when the temp was over 80 (I'm sure). I let her lay for about 3 hours (due to the hit); recovered her in about 5 minutes....and had her qtr'd and on ice in less than 1 hour from recovery.

80deg? You're in a race.......but it's not as bad as many think.

I do the same but I also have some old sleeping bags and tarps I'll wrap the deer up into.

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For those of us in the northland that have either portable or permanent fishouses and need to keep a deer cooled down for awhile, putting a small air conditioner in it works great and will keep the deer fine for a day or 2 if need be. Taz