Truck bed cooler?
07-14-2010 | 03:11 PM
#11
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,271
Likes: 0
From: Crescent Valley, NV
don't worry about making it so complicated.
get a 100 quart cooler. quarter your game immediately, without gutting it (there are directions on here, or search gutless field dressing).
Get a couple blocks of ice, place in bottom of cooler.
place a small piece of plywood on top of ice.
place a piece of plastic (visquine) on plywood.
Place the quarters and loose meat of a deer (or all the boned out meat) on top of the plastic. for the first night, place a stick between the lid and edge to allow heat to escape.
no need for dry ice, freezers, etc. as long as you can get block ice every couple days, and you rotate the meat, you are gtg for quite a while.
did this with my elk last year, with 60 lbs of boneless meat, no problem. I shot the elk at 430 in the afternoon, when it was pushing 60 degrees. boned out the loose meat and put it in a cooler. hung the quarters in camp, got up the next morning, hunted for the morning with another person, took the quarters to town. by the time I got the quarters to a locker, it was over 80 degrees. went back to camp, stayed the night (meat still in cooler), and came home the next day.
that was in September in NV, and it was plenty hot, and it never froze at night. Halloween, its going to freeze at night. leave the cooler open at night, close it during the day, and put it in the darkest spot possible, drain excess water, move the meat around, and change the ice and you will be fine.
later,
Marcial
get a 100 quart cooler. quarter your game immediately, without gutting it (there are directions on here, or search gutless field dressing).
Get a couple blocks of ice, place in bottom of cooler.
place a small piece of plywood on top of ice.
place a piece of plastic (visquine) on plywood.
Place the quarters and loose meat of a deer (or all the boned out meat) on top of the plastic. for the first night, place a stick between the lid and edge to allow heat to escape.
no need for dry ice, freezers, etc. as long as you can get block ice every couple days, and you rotate the meat, you are gtg for quite a while.
did this with my elk last year, with 60 lbs of boneless meat, no problem. I shot the elk at 430 in the afternoon, when it was pushing 60 degrees. boned out the loose meat and put it in a cooler. hung the quarters in camp, got up the next morning, hunted for the morning with another person, took the quarters to town. by the time I got the quarters to a locker, it was over 80 degrees. went back to camp, stayed the night (meat still in cooler), and came home the next day.
that was in September in NV, and it was plenty hot, and it never froze at night. Halloween, its going to freeze at night. leave the cooler open at night, close it during the day, and put it in the darkest spot possible, drain excess water, move the meat around, and change the ice and you will be fine.
later,
Marcial
07-15-2010 | 07:23 AM
#12
Thread Starter
Fork Horn
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 338
Likes: 0
From: stafford virginia
The big cooler and ice sound like it is the easiest way to go for the camping trips,but i still have a problem with a place in NoVa that I really need a way to keep a full body deer cool for 10 hrs. The spot is on my way to work and if I were to get a deer I don't have the time to quarter it out let alone a place to do that. The most I could is field dress it. That's all the land owner will let me do.
07-15-2010 | 09:53 AM
#13
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 6,574
Likes: 0
From: IL
you could build one with plywood and that 2" foam sheets probably...
thought about this dilemma a lot for a buffalo hunt...ended up borrowing a few big coolers, had about 5 100-150qt coolers.
a chest freezer may work better...lots of guys do that, hook them up to their car...then take it out and plug it in at home...
thought about this dilemma a lot for a buffalo hunt...ended up borrowing a few big coolers, had about 5 100-150qt coolers.
a chest freezer may work better...lots of guys do that, hook them up to their car...then take it out and plug it in at home...
Last edited by salukipv1; 07-15-2010 at 09:59 AM.
