Any suggestions on keeping a deer cool after field dressing during bow season? This may be a dumb question but it will be my first year bow hunting in Minnesota and say I luck out and get a deer in late Sept./early Oct. and it is still fairly warm outside.

How much time maximum should lapse between when I field dress the deer and when I get it to the processor? How should I keep it cool if I can not get it to the processor before closing time? Would packing bags of ice inside the body cavity work?

Unless it is real hot you should be OK if you just throw a couple of bags of ice in the empty chest cavity. But if it's real hot I would get it to the processor as fast as possible. I process my own so I don't ever get there after clossing time.

Yeah, bags of ice should work for short time. When we camp out, we take large ice chest and cut deer up & pack in ice in the coolers.

But this is not long time storage.

pack the chest with ice, get hte hide off immediately or get them to the processer. if you do your own, get the hid off, quarter it outa and put it on ice ina big cooler

slayer

In Texas it can be hot at any time during Deer season. Mind you the Deer where I hunt in Hill country are real lucky to get over 175Lbs. I use a 130qt cooler, cape the deer keep the tag on, cut off the quarters, take the backstrap and tenderloin out. Hose him off, bag it up and get on ice. On some of the smaller Deer the whole thing, less the head and cut below the knees, will stuff in an ice chest with some convincing.

So far so good.

They must have GROWN. When I lived in Hill Country a BIG deer was 150 max.[&:]

As far as the original question. We skin them, bone them and get them in a fridge pretty quick when it's hot. Usually within a couple hours.

I have a water well and the water is really cool in the summer and early fall so I will hose him down for a good long while then Ill pack it in ice or go directly to cutting it up.

2 years ago we had to bring a moose and a bear back home with us ,the weather was very warm and we packed bags of ice in the cavity and also packed ice around the outside[frozen bottles] and covered it with a tarp,we repeated packing ice a couple times and kept a close watch all the way home since we had a 12hr drive .Thing's were fine when we got it to the meat shop the next day .

nubo

I agree with the ice in the chest cavity. With our game if the weather is warm then we take the hide off right away and let the heat off the meat. If you can, find a cold storage in the area and hang it there for the length of your hunt. I always make an effort to hang ALL my big game for at least two weeks.

This topic makes me think about shooting a deer and not looking/ finding it until the next day. If it were warm at night, wouldn't the deer be fine upon recovery?