I will be hunting opening day next weekend in what is predicted to be 75 degree weather. I've never taken a deer in temps over 50 degrees. My question is how long do I have to get the meat processed from time of recovery? I hunt 2 hours from my home where I will butcher the deer myself. I will put an ice bag in the chest cavity for the ride home, but if the recovery and drag out take an hour or two, the ride home is two hours, plus an hour or two to butcher it, am I going to have problems with spoiled meat? Thanks for any advice.
I think you will be fine I killed one last year and it was about 55-60 degrees at time of harvest at 5:30 or so. Got him gutted like 6pm. Got everything back to truck and leaving site at about 8pm. Skinned and cut him into quarters around 9-10pm. Packed the quarters on ice in coolers until I could cut him up 2 days later. Stayed perfect So I was like 4 hours from from shot to on ice and was fine at 60 degrees. Hope that helps you a bit.
You should be fine, but I would put a bag of ice between the hams too. I have always wondered about exact time frames myself, so I just go as fast as I can.
Gut it as soon as you can and use ice bags in the chest and between the hind quarters and you should be OK. Good luck.
It you available use an old tarp and place your deer in it then dump ice over the deer and wrap it up in tarp. The tarp will keep the cool temp inside. It might not be necessary but it sometimes easier to be safe. But if your like me, when you prepare for this you won't even see a deer. I have my best luck when I don't have a means of getting the deer out to begin with. lol good luck
I shoot deer every year in MD and most times like this year we had 95 degree temps during the first couple weeks of the season. I just quarter the deer up right away, even sometimes when I gut it. Then put it in a small cooler, smaller the cooler the better. Then dump ice on top and make sure to keep ice in the cooler til ready to cut up. I have left deer in the cooler for 5-6 days some times and never had a single problem. Another plus side to this is as the ice melts it washes down the meat to get blood and hair off.
I believe you want to avoid water contact with your meat unless it is to rinse urine or poo off of it. When the meat gets wet it promotes bacteria growth fast. I've learned from this forum to put ice at the bottom of the cooler and keep the meat away from it. With a small cooler you may have to wrap the meat in bags. Anyone know if this is a good idea? I've got a large chest freezer in my garage I use as a cooler to keep quartered up deer in cool temps for a couple days until I can get to them if it's hot out. I put ice on the bottom than wire racks to hold up the meat off the ice. I have never done it in a small cooler for transport though and would think it'd be impossible to keep meat off the ice unless garbage bags were used. Up until a year or so ago I used to always rinse the chest cavity of my deer out after gutting it. I've learned that's a no-no.
Do some more research because I don't think your info is necessarily correct. You don't want to rinse it adding moisture and then let it hang a long time. The chest cavity is already loaded with bacteria, rinsing it out can spread it but if the meat is processed right away and cleaned and frozen it'll be fine. Though there really isn't any point in rinsing the chest cavity I can see. Bacteria otherwise isn't promoted by being submerged in ice water so meat in ice water in a cooler is about as safe a place as any outside of a refrigerator or freezer. The water should never be allowed to get over 40F though for any length of time. There are many people that age their venison in ice water and let the blood soak out over a couple days and it never hurts anything.
Is there no way to hang and quarter your deer at your land? To me that would be better if at all possible. Kill, gut, get out, hang, quarter, into cooler, load with ice....then drive home. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Thanks for the advice! I did shoot a doe their last year that I did quarter out on the ground. I got to much dirt and hair on the meat for my liking. I actually enjoy butchering my deer and like to take my time in a clean environment doing it. I should invest in one of those hoist/gambrel systems that attaches to the hitch of a truck, but bought a new bow this year so I've pretty much used all of my hunting funds for a few years according to my wife.
I got a deer on Sept 1st. It was quite warm. Somewhere around 80 if I remember right. I skinned and quartered it immediately. Didn't even gut it. Put the quarters in a cooler with ice on top, left the drain plug open on the bottom and added a new bag of ice when needed (about one per day). After three days in the cooler, I deboned, packaged, and froze. Youtube has some good how-to videos. Just search "field quarter deer". The one I liked the best was actually done on an antelope that was going to be packed out.
