Should be no problem for 5 to 7 days.
When you get your elk, get the hide off it and start breaking it down. I did the gutless method. Worked pretty good. You can hold a hot chunk of meat in your hand and actually feel it cooling off.
Get it in game bags and hanging in the shade. Start humping. When you get it to your coolers, put in a layer of ice, layer of meat. Try to keep meat off bottom of cooler so it isn't sitting in water.
If the meat is still warm, Dont close the cooler lid until it cools off.
Make sure you are draining off the water and adding ice as needed. Worked good for me for 5 days.
I know guys who have had it processed and frozen.
Nothing I tried slowed the flies and bees down. Wyoming flies must be attracted to pepper and chili powder.
Place a canvas tarp on the pallet, add 8-12 blocks of ice, then lay your elk quarters (in game bags) on the ice.
Put another canvas tarp over the quarters, then wrap all of it with two old sleeping bags.
If you have a shell on your truck, crack open the side windows and the back window just enough to vent the shell.
Turn the quarters every 6 or so hours and add more blocks of ice as needed. You will be AMAZED how cold this keeps your meat!
I learned this from a guy who owned a family meat market in the southern end of the SF Peninsula and swear by the results!
I used this method to haul a HUGE bull across the Mojave desert and up the CA central valley with temperatures in the mid-'90's, yet when I got to the butcher, the quarters were still ice cold!
And I don't give a damn if it sits in water or not. As long as it's ice cold water, it doesn't hurt a thing. I've kept game meat like this for a couple of weeks until I had time to get to it.
Believe it or not, ice can actually act as an insulator.
If possible get the bags hanging in a low spot, gulch, drainage, etc. cooler air sinks to these low spots, normally much better shade as well. Watch the shade.... it moves as the sun moves. Those bottoms many times have a creek or a spring, if you can get some water on the outside of the bags evaporation helps cool them even more.
Surprising really how long you can hang meat in warmer temps if it's cooled fast and well hun.... hang it well.... should be fine till it's packed out and on ice ASAP. On ice you're home free.
No way am I using my WM Badger bag on a bloody ol elk! =D
I opt for the "no cooler" method: I transport for two days with the whole thing wrapped in an old heavy double sleeping bag, with dry ice on top. It all fits nicely with my other gear under my tonneau cover.
Best of Luck, Jeff
The most important thing is to get the meat hanging high in a tree, especially if there are carnivores around, and in a cool spot as fast as you can without the hide on and cover with some game bags to keep the bugs away. As long as there is good circulation around the quarters, they will cool off pretty quickly by morning.
Lou, do you sleep with one of the hind quarters at night to keep you warm? I may have to try that.
Mike
Mike
We have used frozen water bottles and ice bought from the store. Whatever you have frozen works great. Just keep enough ice in the chest to keep things cold and you are great.
If we kill in the morning and its really hot, we will go ahead and break it down more and get it on ice immediately. If we have good shade and its below 75 or so, we will still let it air chill as we have found just allowing the body heat to dissipate first saves lots of ice.
We always do the gutless method and that in itself does a lot for cooling down the meat.
I'm not saying don't do it right. However, I am saying, don't stress about it. It isn't near as hard as many people make it out to be.
If the tenderloin hits the fire the first night, it won't darken either. :)
We always get the tenderloins last. They are a little bit of trouble but well worth it. Once the quarters are off the carcass is easy to move around so opening it up behind the last rib and then sliding a boning knife between the tenderloin and the spine isn't bad.
Sometimes if we want to see what kind of damage the broadhead did or do an autopsy of sorts we will go ahead and gut it after having everything except the Tloins out. Then they are easy to get. However, usually by that point we just want to get back to camp so its pretty rare for us to do an autopsy anymore. I've seen enough scrambled lung from old style snuffers in my day. I know what it looks like. :)
Darrell, I do the same.
Have a blast, --Bill
