Early a.m. harvest far from home, want to hunt all day. Spoilage?
 

Sorry, another question. If I harvest a deer in the morning, dress it right away, stuff a bag of ice in the chest cavity and hang it in the shade, how long will it be okay? It's going to be 37 in the early morning with a high of 65. I don't live anywhere near where I am hunting, so going home to quarter and refrigerate and then coming back out to hunt is not an option. And I would really, really like to hunt all day on opening day.

I can already tell this is a dumb question, but I am stubborn. :hit:

It should be good for atleast 24 hours. When we shoot deer in ky all we do is field dress them hang em in shade for a far then skin and there alwaysbok

Should be fine. If there are flies around sprinkle some black pepper on the outside where you field dressed the deer and some in the body cavity. This will keep the flies from laying eggs on the meat.

Black pepper, really?

Do those field dressing bag help? Not to dress them in (don't know why you'd need it), but just to hang a dressed deer in?

Been in hotter weather
 

Shot some deer in morning; gutted them within a half hour; dragged them out in the shade; got some ice into the cavity; got home and butchered the deer by nightfall; deer cuts were then put into the refrigerator and most in the freezer.

Long day but never had meat go bad. I think gutting the deer, right after you shoot it and getting some bag ice into the cavity, goes a long way on warm days.

Be sure to get it hanging soon. Lying on the ground will hold heat. one day packed with ice, in the shade I agree you are probablly all right, but even if the temps are in the 50s, my preference is to get it right to the butcher or quarter it onto ice ASAP. I know too many guys who have thought, well, I guess it will be ok overnight now...and lost the deer.

Simple...Take a cooler and 2 bags of ice, clean, put in cooler and go back hunting...

gut'em...skin'en.....quarter'em ....get'em on ice

Gut him right away, run him into town and buy a few bags of ice. Then fill the cavity with the ice, and go back into the woods to hunt some more.

Bring a tarp and some bungee's. I got one on opening of rifle one year when we had a warm spell in late Nov, got into the high 60's low 70's and did not get out of the 50's at night, dressed it, put in bed of truck then put a couple bags of ice inside, one on each side then wrapped in tarp left in bed of truck. That was on a monday, dropped off at butcher on thursday with barely any melt off. Butcher said all meat was still good and thanked us for doing that because he was getting a lot of bad meat from guys not icing down with how warm it was. If you have other options I would use them but with us, this was the only option because our hunting area is on public lands and 3.5 hrs away. Same process would work if you hung it neck closest to the ground.