Where I hunt, we get plenty of warm days during the early bow season. Because of the heat, I have found myself passing on some easy doe shots on a Saturday merely because I was worried about keeping the carcass cool until leaving for home on Sunday.

Knowing that I cannot afford to buy and install a real walk-in cooler. I want to try an build a homemade cooler to keep the deer at a safe temperature.

Has anyone on here ever made one?

(I'm thinking of making a small wooden shed, insulate the walls and use a used AC wall/window unit to drop the temp down. I figure if I can get the temp down to 50 degrees that would keep the meat safe for 48-72 hours.)

If there was a way to get it down to the 40's that would be perfect!

Dampland,

Look at storeitcold.com. They have a device that hooks to your AC that allows the AC to cool down below 40 degrees i believe. I am thinking about getting one myself and building a cooler.

my cousin has that same thing. It hooks up to his AC, and its basically a big walk in cooler like you would see in a restaurant kitchen. Keeps things at 41 degrees max, usually colder... around 37-38 degrees

BUILD A SHED AND USE THAT FOAM INSULATION THEY USE AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF FOUNDATIONS OF HOMES ITS ABOUT 2 INCES THICK WE ARE PLANNING ON MAKIN ONE OURSELVES ALSO

Here's what a friend of mine does. Buy an old refrigerator that works. You can buy them for $50 or maybe get one free. Take all the racks out and make some racks you can hang from. You have to quarter the deer, though, but that's not a problem.

The fridge idea makes sense to me. If you remove the head and lower legs, you may not need to quarter an average size doe.

I made a room out of 2" rigid big enough for a good deer x2 and hook upthe AC unit blowing in and the room is perfect for a 2-3 day storage for sure even at 70 degree outside temps

Thanks for the replies thus far. I took a look at that storeitcold.com website, and it looks pretty interesting.

at my old camp, we always had several fridges going...indoors... one or two were reserved for meat only, we just left the normal racks in and put the quarters in.....turned the temp control way down, and place some sort of catch pan in the bottom for the blood that may drain......i guess an old towel would be efective as well. good luck with your planning.

A friend of mine used an old soda machine with all the racks removed. With the head and feet removed I have seen as many as 4 deer in the thing. He fashioned some king of rack to hang them from, can't remember how. I saw another guy just make a 6x6 temporary room in his garage, enclosed with heavy insulation like mentioned aboveand used and old air conditioner to keep the meat cool, not sure if he used thecontracptions mentioned before.

Jim