Innovative ideas to keep deer cold during transport?
 

I usually clean/butcher my own animals but this year I think I'm gonna take one to the processor. She can do a lot of things to the animal that I can't due to lack of equipment. I.E., aging, grinding, snack sticks, summer sausage, etc... My only concern is that she is about an hours drive from where I hunt. It's still in the 80's right now and I wouldn't want the meat to go bad before I get there. When winter comes, I won't worry about it.

So what do you guys that transport your deer do to keep it cold? I've heard some people stuff the whole animal into a large ice chest and I've also heard of guys that stuff the body cavity with frozen bottles of water. I've also seen this... Trophy Bag Cooler ... but it's way, way too expensive.

An hours drive is fine for the deer.

Clean them on the land...I live in NC and bow hunt, plus I have no real good area to clean at home...I just found 2 trees about 4-5 feet apart, screwed in 2 eye bolts about 7 feet high... Attach a ratchet pulley to each eye bolt and run the deer up...Clean and throw into cooler, ice down on the way out...

Yeah, I normally do that. I was asking because I'm going to take one to the processor.

When does your deer season open?Here in alabama,oct.15 is openin day of bow season.

Last year w/adirondack buck, after finally getting it out of the woods, I filled chest cavity with bags of ice, several blocks of ice on and under hind quarters, and wrapped in space blanket. I had 48 hrs before chance to butcher, hence the preps. When I got home, very little of ice had melted. Can't say enough for those blankets.

I just keep an ice chest with a couple 20lb bags of ice in it in my truck or boat. I field dress the animal, put the bags in the cavity. Within 3-4 hours I have it home, dressed and in the freezer. Never had a problem.

I killed a button buck last season,processed him myself.Hunted the next evening,killed a 13 point,took him to the processing plant'cause he weighed over 300 lbs.That was the first 2 days of rifle season in Nov.

Just quarter the deer up so it will fit into an ice chest. I skin and quarter my deer immediately. I don't let them hang, unless I get one late and don't have time to skin it then, that is if it's cold outside. I usually process my own also. I normally keep it in an ice chest two or three days. I will take one or two occasionally to the processor, but I already have it cut up. The backstraps and inner loins never make it to a processor. All I will take is the two front and hind quarters. I will usually do one like this for them to make sausage. Even in warm weather I think if you ice the cavity down, you will be okay if you are driving only an hour.

don't have a problem with hot weather up here [deer season] but moose starts around the 9 oct and sometimes during the day it gets warm [60 f ] it's the flies that scare me the most they will lay eggs and spoil the meat ..we cut up the moose and cover it with cheese cloth ,hang it on the meat pole ,let the wind form a good crust on the meat . we stay up at the camp for a week with no problem ...bull i shot 3 yrs ago