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Moose in a cooler?

For those who have driven to Newfoundland and were successful on a bull moose, how did you get it back? Specifically, I am curious how many coolers, say 150qt size, does it take to load a butchered Moose?

For those groups that were really successful, were you able to get more than one butchered moose in a half ton pickup?

My daughter and I are gong in 2018 and want to have a handle on getting the meat home if the moose Gods smile on us. We have some options as far as coolers go, but wanted to see what is recommended.

Thanks, Rob

Never been to Newfoundland, but I brought my Shiras bull moose back from Wyoming (boneless) packed in two coolers.... 150qt and 120qt...with a bit of room to spare.

I have been 3 times and had the moose butchered and vacuumed sealed. This only took 3 big coolers like Yeti 75,

yeup, same as Katahdin, we shot two up in Newfoundland and buddy made nice cooler that worked great. when I transferred to my truck all I needed was two giant igloo coolers. I think four of the big coolers and you would be ok if you happened to tag two 600 pounders.

Depends on if your meat is a big boned mass or itty bitty frozen packages. Once frozen, the meat almost needs twice as much volume to pack.

I've put 1.5 moose and a bunch or gear in one of the aluminum 4 wheeler trailers with a clamp on lid.

I would thinks you would need 3 big coolers per moose? So six yeti's, ouch! Just get cheap colemans or igloo's, get six for the price of a yeti

I will be on my 7th trip to NL along with my hunting buddy and we have had our meat cut and vacuum packed. Unless the animals are exceptionally large, two 150 coolers will do nicely. No need for the expense of something like the Yeti. On all of my trips the meat has come back perfect all the way to central Oklahoma. A half ton should handle things nicely. No cover on truck bed...plywood and a few hours; some clamps and cover the bed. Keeps things dry and secure...saves $$$ as the ferry will charge for a trailer. Never had US customs open a cooler so that helped things stay solid. On this trip we will have another hunter but we have a 3/4 ton so weight is not an issue. On the way over, pack as much of your gear as you can in the coolers...saves space. On the return, use soft duffels covered with heavy plastic stuffed around coolers. I do use a small Yeti for goodies when stopping for lunches, etc. We do take an extra large Igloo as a big cow is possible and more space might be needed.

Rob, 3, 150 Qt coolers fit my VT bull moose. It was broken down but not cut up. If you boned it out, you could probably make do with 2. That didn't include the head and cape btw. In the spring, Walmart always has the Coleman extreme 150 Qts on sale for about $70-$75.

I have a friend that is going to lend me his Bonar Ice Chest. It's the equivalent of a 679 qt cooler. Should do the trick. My daughter also has a bear tag so incase we get extremely lucky we will be prepared.

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't sure how much room a processed moose really takes.

Thanks again . . . Rob

I've gotten two NF moose. They pretty much filled two 150 qt. coolers.

we quartered it in the field, hung the quarters two days in the meat shed (+/- 40F daytime temps, < 28 F night) packed in coolers with ice under, around, and over, added a pound of salt to each cooler on top of the top ice, drained the coolers 1X/day and added ice on top (no more salt) killed on Friday left camp in NF Sunday morning, arrived home in VA Weds, removed the meat from the coolers Thursday afternoon and Friday morning to finish butchering. I also transported five cardboard boxes of meat for another fella who'd had his professionally cut and wrapped and frozen at a butcher shop in NF, I just covered the boxes with a blanket. All the meat was fine. Night time temps were at or below freezing and daytime temps as high as 60's on the way back (early Nov 2016)

If you get one last second - pending where you live - there's the shipping company that trucks meat to various cities around the US. I did that for mine which was awesome.

We bring 200-300 pounds of cod home at the end of every summer from Newfy. I freeze it and pack it in two grizzly coolers and it stays frozen. The caribou we can and it needs no refrigeration along with our salted cod in 5 gallon buckets. We take our time driving back and take two days as I like to fish a little in the Allagash. I can venison too. Done properly it will last for years.

We killed two moose this year in NL, we brought back boned out quarters and chucks. took every bit of four coolers, A Yeti 105, yeti 110 and two 120qt igloo marine coolers. Probably could have used another one...

Ever thought of taking a chest freezer and a generator with you?

I've been 3 times, heading back in Oct. 2018. We take two trucks (6 of us), a trailer with 3 freezers and a generator. Last time up, we brought back 6 moose. One was a calf. Kept in quarters, they all fit in the freezers with ratchet straps. Stayed cold enough to get home to CT and into the cooler to process over the next week.

Sounds like a job for the "Redneck Yeti"...4 ftx4 ft x3 ft..3 inches of insulation...It held a 2000 lb. Bison, it should work for a moose!

Thats what you need right there. Cut a pallet to fit in the bottom of it to keep the meet out of the juice and put a drain plug in it.

Stack the top with ice and let all of the blood run out of the meat on the way home.

I have a friend that is going to lend me his Bonar Ice Chest. It's the equivalent of a 679 qt cooler. Should do the trick. My daughter also has a bear tag so incase we get extremely lucky we will be prepared.

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't sure how much room a processed moose really takes.

Thanks again . . . Rob

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