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Lets say I get an elk down early in the week. I have this scenario as I pack it out to a local butcher who can process everything, wrap it, and get it frozen. Then I pack it in a lot of coolers for the long drive home. Rest of week is dedicated to helping my buddy hunt and pack out. (fairly straight forward).

Lets say I get one down mid week. Slightly more tricky but I think the same process above can apply.

However, this is where I do not see it as so straight forward, Late week kill, say two days until I start my drive home. We still break the elk down in the same manner get it in game bags etc and then pack it back to the car. I assume I just load it in coolers at this point and drive it home where I can process it completely on my own. How long should the meat last in the coolers?

I would like to avoid the processor all together, but not sure how to do that with a kill say on Monday then drive home on Saturday.

I would think boning out the meat in all scenarios is the way to go?

Thanks for any help! Ben

with coolers and ice, how did you keep.the meat out of the water?

how many coolers? ive read 3 165qt coolers should work?

thanks

I know some people absolutely hate the packers, but having a good packer is a god send.

The packer we use can have have an animals cut and wrapped and 3/4 frozen in about 15 hours. Totally frozen in 18 hours if needed. But since I am local we let it hang and pick it up in a week or so...

If you have access to a good packer and can eliminate concerns and work then why not?

Then I'll just put them under dry ice and drive home, I prefer some aging before processing.

Best of Luck, Jeff

Honestly, the longer your meat is in conditions above 40 degrees your meat quality starts to drop every hour that passes. I know it's not easy because you just can't kill your bull then bail on your buddy - so you have decisions to make.

It sounds like if you do kill you will be able to get on ice - do that ASAP. I actually wouldn't get it butchered unless you really want to as I find traveling with butchered meat is actually harder - then again I love butchering.

You could easily keep boned meat on ice the entire trip if you wanted (unless you are gone for more than 2 weeks). Dry ice is nice BUT it will freeze it solid and you will have to add ice to defrost it when you get home which takes a day or so.

Age of animal also makes a big difference to me - anything over 3 years old you are fine with regular ice as most of that animal will be roasts and burgers. A younger animal then I start thinking dry ice to preserve all that premium meat that won't do as well sitting in regular ice.

I am a stickler on my meat and I serve all types to friends who have never known they are eating wild game (unless I tell them).

I don't think it's anything special I do outside of getting it cooled and butchering ASAP.

I'll give you another option. I save my 1/2 gallon and gallon juice and Gatorade jugs all year and then fill them a little over 3/4 full with water and freeze them solid.

I then pack a 150 quart cooler with as many frozen juice/Gatorade jugs as I can fit inside the cooler and dump ice cubes into the cooler to fill any voids between the frozen jugs. The extra ice cubes filling the voids helps keep everything cold. I then duct tape or strap the cooler shut with a nylon strap.

I have a second 120 quart cooler that I just store gear such as boots, tent, etc. inside of.

When I kill an elk, I divide the ice between the two coolers and put some of the boned out elk meat into each cooler.

You can dump the ice cubes and water out and the juice/Gatorade jugs keep the melting ice water from leaking into the cooler or onto the meat. Or you can put your game bags into contractor garbage bags to keep the meat dry.

I've kept ice this way for 2 weeks with no problems and you can add ice blocks on the drive home if necessary.

I've personally never used dry ice on an elk hunt.

I've been able to fit an average sized bull and ice into a 150 quart cooler and a 48 quart cooler but that might not be enough cooler space if you get a big bull or also want to put the cape into a cooler.

Having 2 elk on the ground is better than one

Once in the cooler, and chilled I like to cover the cooler with a spare blanket or sleeping bag during the day

I like to debone at kill site if possible, clean the meat up some at camp and cool. If the bags aren't too dirty I'll put meat back in the game bags to give a slight barrier between meat and plastic of contractor bags. Tie them up and keep top of bag out of ice. Cover cooler w/ whatever you have, every bit helps.

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine putting meat in plastic, but it works fine.

Can you do your method with 2 120 qt coolers?

Fresh ice on day of kill, and we went to town for more ice on day 8. Fresh ice on day 11 as we drove home, and then he cut up.

Worked well

I've done it on two separate animals. And that included neck meat, brisket, and heart.

I kept my last elk in a cooler for 10 days and the meat never thawed. Add dry ice every 2-3 days. 10 lbs if every other day, 20 lbs if you're going to go 3 days.

Keep it out of the sun and duct tape the lid.

Meat weighs nearly the same as water, which is 2 lbs/quart. Let's say your elk is really big and you're really skilled at removing meat. 250# of boned meat will take about 125 quarts of cooler space. Then you'll need room to add ice. This assumes that the meat was sufficiently cooled before going in the cooler, otherwise you'll need more room for ice.

thanks for all the help, i did not think it would keep that long unfrozen on ice...

very helpful!

thanks

2 coolers will easily take care of business and one for most bulls.

Most drain their coolers once a day and meat sitting in ice water isn't going to hurt as long as it's more ice than water.

Yes, as WapitiBob indicated, two 120qt. coolers work fine. My buddy Elkaddict also uses two 120qt coolers. I just happen to have a 150 so I pack it with ice and get a little more ice.

I sometimes freeze jugs/bottles of Gatorade or juice so I can use them as ice when they're frozen and drink them as they thaw.

I should mention that I also have a smaller cooler that I use for cold food and if you have food (meat)that you want to stay cold/frozen for a long time you can put it into your big ice cooler. You'll just have to break the seal to get it out if you haven't shot an elk yet.

ben

I don't worry about the meat getting wet. However, if you are concerned, you can put your ice in garbage bags or as has been said by several, use frozen water jugs.

thabks for all the help

For in state hunts, I just hang to case the meat over, then cut up when I get home. I like that setup best because I can separate the muscles then fillet the casing off when I slice steaks from the muscle. Basically like filleting a fish but I cut the steak thickness then turn the knife sideways.

Thanks guys

I had a last day kill of a cow elk on a Colorado Muzzy hunt. I got the meat back to camp the next morning with the help of a ranch hand and one mule. The meat went into coolers with loose ice with plugs removed from the coolers. (let them drip)I added Ice during the long hot ride to Austin,Tx. A local processor weighed it and charged me 1$ a pound to butcher and wrap (most was vacuum packed). Once frozen in his walk-in freezer, I added dry Ice and drove the 8hrs home to LA. Not the cheapest option, but it got the job done in warm weather and no time play around with. LaGriz

It's good for two days of driving...quarters are cold to the touch, or near-frozen when I get home.

The "crust" is very thin on that stuff...maybe 1/8 inch or so.

This bull's quarters hung for two full days in the shade, with daytime highs over 70 degrees.

Best of Luck, Jeff

That casing doesn't form when I have meat in an iced cooler. There is still a membrane layer on the outside and I use my havalon to peel that off. Any pine needle or dirt will go with that membrane.

hope i get a chance to experience this situation, and even more so, the dinner fare...

thanks ben

I haul a chest freezer when elk hunting and fill it completely with jugs of frozen water.

One thing that I would recommend would be to bring extra meat bags. Separate the meat from your full meat bags from the pack out so that you have less volume in each bag and have thinner layers of meat between your layers of ice.

As you break it down, hang what you can in the shade to cool before going in the meat bags too. Anything you can do to get the meat cooler, faster, will help protect the quality of your meat.

Avoid packing eighty pounds of warm meat into a big meat bag and then dropping it into your cooler after a pack out. It will take a very long time to cool the meat in the center of that bag. It would probably get funky.