Tips/tricks to prevent meat spoilage

[jr.fish]

This will be my first season bow hunting and I'm wondering what everyone on here does to prevent there meat from spoiling. I typically wait tell late October/November when it's cooler to hunt deer so I can hang them in the garage with out having to worry. Seeing how the temps are still in the +20's what should I do? I'm hopefully going to track down a elk so I got bags for 1/4's but I'm unsure if this is all I can do?

[Marko]

Retrieve animals ASAP. Field dress ASAP. Debone ASAP. Get to a butcher/freezer ASAP. I have found that the bones hold lots of heat! Good luck

Marko

[petew]

Restrict your hunting to the cool of the day, early morning and evenings and think about how long it takes to get the animal out from where you are before you shoot. If it's hot go fishing.
A couple pounds of fine black pepper helps deter flies.

[ruger300]

Wash all the blood off the quarters as soon as it is skinned. Blood left on the meat dries and taints the meat very quickly. Only use water as soon as the animal is skinned and quartered. After that it will produce mold on the outer part of the meat. Keep it shaded from the sun with tarps but don't let the tarps touch the meat. And as was said use good game bags to keep insects out.

ruger300

[gldenhwk]

I always have some pepper in my pack. Get the hide off ASAP and get it in the shade. Then sprinkle some pepper on the meet. It helps keeps the flies away. That or sage. Sage will do the same thing. You can usually find some in the grassy areas. But as others have said, get the hide off fast, get the bones out fast, and hang it up so the air can circulate around and keep it cool. If you don't get something early in the season and there's snow on the ground, still get the hide off. A family friend that used to be an outfitter in Northern BC had an entire moose go on him because the snow had covered it, even with the temp being -35.

[Red Bullets]

If you are near a creek, a good waterproof bag that you can submerge will help cool your meat too.
If you needed you could also dig a hole in the right terrain and the sub surface should be cooler.

I asked a professor of food sciences about meat spoilage and he told me that a person has roughly 6 hours at 20C to get the meat cooled.

If you are in a real fix and can't get it out... make camp, cut meat into to strips, smoke and dry the strips for two days, then pack it out. Drying reduces alot of the weight too.

[Bareboots]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

If you are near a creek, a good waterproof bag that you can submerge will help cool your meat too.
If you needed you could also dig a hole in the right terrain and the sub surface should be cooler.

Neat idea

[Lefty-Canuck]

You may even need to break down the larger pieces like the hips and sirloin tip areas to allow more surface area for cooling. Another tip is if you skin and quarter the animal when you place the quarters in the back of a truck do not lay them on top of each other if you have a long drive....also if you drive a diesel do not lay the game over top the area in the box where the exhaust pipes run, these areas heat up more.

Butchered a steer this summer for a farmer and we had some slight issues with one of the hinds....and from time of death to a cooler was less than 5 hours!!

LC

[Big Daddy Badger]

I keep a cooler with 3 or 4 bags of crushed ice in it...in the truck.

As soon as I get the animal loaded I stuff the cavity with ice. and soak the hide with water.
Its not perfect but it seems to help.
Once I'm home I know the coat off of it and get a fan goimg.
Thankfully...my shed stays pretty cool.
This year...I have a portable AC unit to put into play as well.

[Pikebreath]

Originally Posted by Marko

Retrieve animals ASAP. Field dress ASAP. Debone ASAP. Get to a butcher/freezer ASAP. I have found that the bones hold lots of heat! Good luck

Marko

That is so true,,,,, just do everything as soon as possible to get the meat cooled!!!

[Lady Bowhunter]

Love the portable ac idea! A++

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by Lady Bowhunter

Love the portable ac idea! A++

They are good for initial cooling but not good for aging meat IMHO.....if you cannot regulate a steady temperature down to 34-38 deg F then it is not adequate to age meat with.

I hear when coupled with a "coolbot" thing get to the right range.

LC

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

If you are near a creek, a good waterproof bag that you can submerge will help cool your meat too.
If you needed you could also dig a hole in the right terrain and the sub surface should be cooler.

I asked a professor of food sciences about meat spoilage and he told me that a person has roughly 6 hours at 20C to get the meat cooled.

If you are in a real fix and can't get it out... make camp, cut meat into to strips, smoke and dry the strips for two days, then pack it out. Drying reduces alot of the weight too.

We used to sink ours on te trapline .
If 'm not getting home right away ( or in the case of when i was on the trapline) We used to shoot , get the hide off, and cover the carcass with poplar leaves .
With some luck the animal would drop in a shady part!
getting the bone out as quick as possible helps as well.
BTW,I used to keep fruit for a pretty long time b double bagging it in a heavy palstic bags , putting it into a milk crate and cutting a hole in the ice .\
I'd lower the crate down on two ropes with sticks on them so could retrieve it when needed.
Cat

[Nait Hadya]

Drop it in the creek if available, don't wrap it in any plastic, at least until it has cooled. do remember to leave the tail attached to a deer with evidence of sex also attached, if boning it out at camp.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by Lady Bowhunter

Love the portable ac idea! A++

A couple of years ago an older man gave me a home made cooler.
He took the cooling unit off of a fridge and mounted it to a homemade isulated compartment with a good sealing door(just a light weight tin box sprayed with lots of insulation foam on the outside). The inside compartment 5 1/2 ft. high x 5 ft. wide x 7 ft. long.. He put a rail with rollers in the interior ceiling to hang quarters or halves from. It has a temperature control too.
He would haul it in the back of his truck and either used a small generator or an inverter to plug it in. It takes minutes to cool off when plugged in. This unit will hold up to 4 animals, depending on their size. Great if you are going into hunting camp for a week or two in the warmer part of the fall. Good to keep your perishables and beverages cool in camp too.

It also works great as a place to hang your meat to cure in a controlled temperature.

[Lady Bowhunter]

Thanks for all the info. I'm worried about harvesting during the warmer temps because of cooling. My spot has no water close and where I wish to process myself I was hesitant about hanging in my garage.

[ceedub]

Often, when I watch Wild TV I see the same scenario. "We'll let him bed overnight and recover him in the morning." Well I can tell you for sure, that even later in the fall with the cooler nights, nobody is going to eat an animal that's laid overnight without being dressed. Not sure how they do it on TV, cause they don't show you that part. Try it, you'll find the flanks and the hips spoiled within a couple of hours. I've seen whole bull elk in the back of pickup trucks at the Cypress Hills Elk hunt that are spoiled within a couple of hours of being harvested simply because they weren't propped open.

Get him recovered and get em dressed, asap.

-Craig

[fishtank]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

A couple of years ago an older man gave me a home made cooler.
He took the cooling unit off of a fridge and mounted it to a homemade isulated compartment with a good sealing door(just a light weight tin box sprayed with lots of insulation foam on the outside). The inside compartment 5 1/2 ft. high x 5 ft. wide x 7 ft. long.. He put a rail with rollers in the interior ceiling to hang quarters or halves from. It has a temperature control too.
He would haul it in the back of his truck and either used a small generator or an inverter to plug it in. It takes minutes to cool off when plugged in. This unit will hold up to 4 animals, depending on their size. Great if you are going into hunting camp for a week or two in the warmer part of the fall. Good to keep your perishables and beverages cool in camp too.

It also works great as a place to hang your meat to cure in a controlled temperature.

this give me a idea to build a collapsible cooler( snap lock into place , with a good sealed on the edges i just need a cooling unit , i have the generator

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by fishtank

this give me a idea to build a collapsible cooler( snap lock into place , with a good sealed on the edges i just need a cooling unit , i have the generator

I wish I had pictures of the one i had given to me. I parked it out in the country at a friends house.

The foam is about a foot thick, sprayed on the outside. Looks like a big loaf.
You can get a used fridge refridgeration unit at most dumps. It will just take a little ingenuity to make a bracket to hold the fridge unit motor on the back wall. The temp control can be put on the outside near the motor. Mount a thermometer on the inside and you can adjust temp accordingly. Snap fit is good but using wing nuts joints might be easier to design.

If you fabricated them good you could probably sell a million of them. I just want 10 % royalties for putting the idea in your head.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by fishtank

this give me a idea to build a collapsible cooler( snap lock into place , with a good sealed on the edges i just need a cooling unit , i have the generator

If you are seriously considering making a take down cooler, give me a PM and I will give you some really good info on where to get some insulating materials for free.

[xxclaro]

I've thought about this a fair bit too, thinking a small/medium size freezer with a generator might be the easiest way to go,rather than trying to put together something myself,which in the end would really be basically just a homemade freezer/fridge anyway.
Costco has small ones for $199 and a bit bigger for I think $269 or $299. Don't know if I can build it much cheaper.

[wildcat111]

i always bring a cooler full of ice until the snow falls, if its real hot i will skin the animal where it drops and pack the cavity full of bagged ice and get it home right away, deer are small enough the i have an old fridge that i converted into my hanging fridge, old fridges are cheap on kijiji., for the bigger game i always confirm ahead of time that my bucther that he has room available and well meet me after hrs if i get back after they close, but if your stuck with an elk for a night and no cooler , quarter it out and cover with bagged ice, i find this works well, if your camping it i have no advice never have done camps.

[moosesniper]

I picked up a chest freezer off kijiji for free, an older couple just wanted it gone. Gonna bring that with my generator on the September elk hunt this year. Hopefully I get to use it.