Judyboi

I regularly transport lots of deer meat 1700 miles when I go to Texas. All you do is stop every 400 miles or so and get more ice. As long as they are constantly on ice, you can go forever. Pack them in coolers and set around 2 bags of ice from a gas station per 40 lbs of meat or so.

Alsatian

I have field dressed, skinned, quartered meat and put the meat into garbage bags and then into ice where I have kept the meat for three days before processing it myself at my house.

I have also field dressed, skinned, quartered meat, put the meat into garbage bags for a day or for a few hours and then butchered it in my hotel room (cut into meal sized pieces, wrap twice in plastic wrap, tightly wrap in freezer paper, and label). After packaging the meat, I put it on dry ice where it kept sharp frozen for five days until I could get it to my freezer at home. My dry ice procedure:

Lay 1/2 of dry ice in bottom of cooler. Place 1/4" thickness of newspaper (the pages are laid flat, not crumpled up) on top of dry ice. Place all the meat (that fits in the cooler) on top of the newspaper. Place another 1/4" thickness of newspaper on top of the meat packages. Place the remaining 1/2 of the dry ice on top of the newspaper. Close the cooler and seal the lip of the lid with duct tape all the way around. I found that 20 LBS of dry ice sharp froze about 60 LBS of pronghorn meat (I'm guessing, two pronghorns) and lasted three days. After these three days, I opened the cooler and found that the dry ice had evaporated away down to very thin wafers. I replaced with more dry ice, sealed the cooler again, and this worked until I got home. This was wonderful. No water leaking out of the cooler. No meat bleeding into the ice water and spilling into my SUV. Don't put too much meat into a single cooler or you will have a hard time picking it up. I have read that the CO2 gas that leaks out of the cooler (not much, because of the duct tape seal) can cause the occupants of a closed vehicle to become drousy, maybe passout, maybe become asphixiated (because they are breathing CO2 and not oxygen). I don't know if this scenario is for real or just an old wives tale (an old hunter's tale, a red neck's tale?). I did roll my windows down for a few minutes when I got drowsey driving on the road, however, just to be safe.

I found dry ice cost about $1/lb in Gillette, Wyoming, in Durango, Colorado, and in McKinney, Texas where I live. I guess the price is pretty uniform. By the way. My pronghorn was pretty much cool before it was put on dry ice. If it was warmer the dry ice would not have lasted as long, I don't expect.

Jimmy S

Chuck..what part of Fla are ya from?

Chuck7

Jimmy S,
Polk County. About 30 miles from Tampa. Sorry for bothering you folks. I'm going to visit a friend who lives in Missouri. He said he would help me package and butcher any meat. Does it get any better than that?Thanks for all the replys. Your a great bunch of folks.
Chuck

Striper Phil

In Floridia Publix has dry ice machines, this is good for shipping in the mail, ice works in a cooler just fine. As to the rest all gave good advice, get it into a cooler with ice.A small deer minus its head and legs below the knee will fit into a 128 cooler. I do this even with bigger deer and stuff them into a standard size fridge, my extra beer fridge stands in for this use Ha Ha deer stuffed with beer. I hunt crop damage in Jul & Aug so I kill a lot of deer in warmer temps. I like to store until I have time to skin and butcher with the skin on. The above method works for me.

hsmith1127

If you are wanting dry ice most super krogers, wal-marts, meijer now sell dry ice. Also rubbermaid makes a cooler they say will hold ice for sevan days I have it and will say that most of the ice will last about 4 days if it does not sit in direct sun.

hsmith1127

you can get the dry ice at most krogers, wal-marts and meijers. Also rubbermaid makes a cooler that they claim will keep ice for sevan days..I have it...it will not keep for sevan days but will keep for about four if not in direct sunlight. I have also used the sleeping bag trick and have been successful with that also.

Good luck
Heather

JeffS

You don't need dry ice. Just quarter the deer and put it in a ice chest and pack it in ice. As the ice melts just add more ice and drain the water off. We soak ours for up to 5-6 days like that and let the blood all drain out of the meat. It really gives it a good flavor. We hunt year around here for hogs and even during the summer we do it the same way. The trick is to clean them immediately and get them in ice as soon as possible. The last two weeks we've shot 3 hogs and didn't have any problems with the heat. We have cut up and on ice within a hour of being shot.

Jhlee54

I will be traveling by vehicle from Texas back to California in November, how can I keep frozen venision from the processing house frozen for my 20 hour drive.

Oldtimr

All you have to do is to have your ice chest cold before you put your meat in it. Put a couple of inches of ice in your icechest before you hunt. If you kill a deer, quarter if and put it on top of the ice and cover the venison with new ice as much as you can get in. Close the lid and leave it closed till you get home. I hunt hogs in SC and I live in PA, When I get to the outfitter I put 3 inches of ice in the bottom of my 125 qt cooler and put the cooler in the walk in fridge. All hogs are skinned and halved and hung in the walkin. When I leave, the hogs are quartered and put on top of the ice in my cooler and the cooler is filled with ice and the lid closed. It is about an 11 hour drive from SC to PA and when I get home, there isn't much water in the bottom of the cooler. I only have a coleman cooler, not one of those 5 to 6 hundred dollar coolers. The key is to put meat in a cold cooler and once you close the lid with the meat in it, keep it closed.