I'm becoming a damn yankee. Last week we were deer hunting during that nor'easter that went through VA. We shot several deer. Each time one of us had to load it in a truck and run it to a butcher shop about twenty-five miles away. I'm used to hanging them in the barn for a week or longer and doing it all myself. At seventy degrees they'll get a little skunky pretty quick. So how do you warm weather folks handle your deer.
Thanks
Bfly

Ice and shade followed by quick trips to the meat locker.

Black Fly

I've killed deer when it was 90+ in the Texas hill country in December. I usually have the deer hung up and skinned, quartered and in a 200 qt. Ice chest within 1-1/2 hours of the time I kill it. Same goes for hogs. Once I have it on ice I "wet age" it for six days or so before I put it up.
GWB

I get it from the field to the meat locker as fast as possible. They can go bad quickly.

Our rifle season is STUPID early (August and September). The average high during our deer season is probably mid to high ninties and I've guided hunts when it was over 115.

No lockers very close to where we hunt and most of the clients are from out of the area so we live and die by the big 80 to 150 ice chests.

Its amazing how well those ice chests work. Even in crazy heat, once the meat is cold regular water ice will last at least a couple days.

Hope that helps,
Kyler

This last september, when I was at my lease, I recorded a temperature of 104 degrees F in the shade at 5:30 PM one Saturday evening. No power or water there. No walk in cooler(I wish). Sometimes I will be there for four to five days. I usually freeze gallon jugs of water and put three in a chest then fill with ice. The frozen water jugs thaw slower than the ice cubes due to bulk. I usually take three chests. Two in the 150 to 200 qt range and one about 120 qt. I also keep a empty chest there in case I kill on my first day there.I keep my drinks and cold food in the smaller chest. As I'm in and out of this chest all day and nite getting drinks and food, the ice melts faster.
Once I kill a deer or hog I take the extra chest, put about two inches of ice in the bottom. I usually take the backstraps and tenders out of the animal and put them in the corner. I then quarter the animal and if I'm going to keep the ribs I saw them along the backbone with a sawzall. I then cover with Ice. I have put as much as two deer and a hog in one chest. I keep adding ice as it melts from the other chests.
GWB

Question to you super south hunters. I have heard that dry ice is a no-no. It freezes the outside but doesn't cool thru? Is that true? Do you have to use wet ice?

Where I'm from deer season is usually between 50-90 degrees give or take a few. During warm weather 80-90's I'll leave the deer hanging for a day and sometimes not as long. I hang em in the garage so I don't have to worry about coolers but it sure does get hot in there. Thats where the fridges come in. When its to hot I just 1/4 the deer up and toss em in the fridge.

Growing up in Tx, you learn the benefits of plenty of ice. I've been fortunate to kill lots of hogs and nilgai---even in August---when nowhere in Tx is anything other than hot. I've also done several elk hunts out of state. This is my mo.
I get cheap 5 gal buckets, fill them and then freeze them solid in my chest freezer. A 90qt igloo will hold 2 laying down and a 162 igloo will hold 4 standing up. Then fill the space w/ crushed ice. If you are going to need the cooler for an extended trip--elk by truck travel--tape the cooler seams w/ duct tape and don't open it til you fill it w/ meat. ALWAYS store the cooler in the shade when possible and use a different cooler for drinks, food etc. If you don't have alot of help loading---make sure you put the coolers in the truck b/4 you load them w/ the ice. Ice is heavy!
Dry ice. Used it on an elk hunt w/ the above ice method. No problems. I was instructed to "keep it dry". When I put the elk meat in the cooler, I just tossed the dry ice and used the frozen bucket ice for the meat..

Thanks guys. Guess the temps in the sixties is kind of sissy warm compared to what you deal with. One big old cooler and a bunch of block ice and some real big plastic bags will be on the truck.
Thanks
Bfly

If the temp is above 40/45 degrees I get the meat on ice as soon as possible.
I skin and butcher the animal and put the meat in big garbage bags in a cooler with ice.

DONOT close up the garbage bags until the meat is totally cooled off. [I do not like the meat "floating in ice and water", so I use the plastic bags.

If you keep the meat iced down it stays good for at least 2 weeks.

Also if you pack your meat in suckdown vacume freezer bags using one of those machines it will kee in your freezer for a LOOONG time.

I ate a squirrel and a duck lover that was killed and packaged in Dec of 2006.

I could not tell it from one froze for only a week.

Hey Black Fly, A lot of the trick to getting the meat cooled properly is about 50% preparation ahead of time and 50% attitude.

You have to be prepared to cool the meat as quickly as possible by getting the guts out and hide off. If you can get it done in 15min after the shot, that is absolutely excellent. Just gutting the Game helps, but that hollow-hair hide really insulates the meat and holds the heat in. So it needs to be removed as quickly as possible.

Then it is either into a cooler with ice water, or into a refrigerated cooler if the meat is not going to be immediately processed. All of my favorite Processors "Age" the meat a bit, but that is due as much to the quantity of Game they receive as anything else. They simply could not process everything they receive in a single day.

If a person wants to taste Gamey meat, he can Kill a chicken or a hog and ride it around in the back of his truck for a few hours without proper care. Same-E-Same with Deer.

Preparation and Attitude to Get`er Done is what you need.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills + quickly handling the meat.

+1 on what Hot Core said.
I did not emphasize that in my original post. I try to have the deer/hog quartered and in the cooler within 1.5 hours after I shoot it. I "wet age the meat in the cooler for six days before I put it up, continually adding ice and letting the melt drain out.
Quite often I have people that taste my jerky or the venison I prepare say something to the effect that "this cant' be venison, I don't like the taste venison" or "this is too tender to be venison" or "this doesn't taste gamey at all".
GWB

Immediate cooling of the carcass is the most important.One way is to take a 25 lb bag of ice in a cooler . When you dress out your deer but the bag into the cavity.
Aging isn't necessary as freezing is the equivalent of 5 days aging as far as tenderizing.Proper aging is done at 36 F so you need a proper cooler.

I got my pronghorn on August 22 this year.Temps in the mid 90's. As soon as he was field dressed we threw 2 1 gallon jugs in him and hauled him back to camp and skinned him out and in the icechest. Total of about 3 hours. Secret: Ice in the cavity as soon as they are field dressed and the hide off as soon as posibble and in a cooler of some kind.

Tony

quote:

Originally posted by Kyler Hamann:
Our rifle season is STUPID early (August and September). The average high during our deer season is probably mid to high ninties and I've guided hunts when it was over 115.

No lockers very close to where we hunt and most of the clients are from out of the area so we live and die by the big 80 to 150 ice chests.

Its amazing how well those ice chests work. Even in crazy heat, once the meat is cold regular water ice will last at least a couple days.

Hope that helps,
Kyler

+1 on the coolers, work A-OK in the heat. Once you get the deer home, you can split it and age it, but getting it cool too quickly is better than not getting it cool.

John