It's 80 degrees in Indiana for opener today. Deciding if it's worth going back out tonight, main issue I face is what do you do with a carcass in these temps? I hate for meat to go to waste, I would assume on a quick, clean kill, I would field dress and then quarter it and head for the cooler or pack cavity with ice. I prefer to butcher my own deer but usually only do that when temps are in the 40s or cooler. There is no letting the deer hang for 3-5 days like I would normally like to and local butcher won't open until tomorrow. What do y'all do when it's hot like this?
I will usually not go anymore when it’s hot, mainly because it complicates things more and I don’t want to deal with it. In the past I’ve skinned and packed with ice and it works well when packed correctly. Or just process it right away when I get home. It’s not a huge deal, but I just prefer not to do all the “extra “ stuff anymore.
when its to hot for deer, I go steelhead/salmon fishing ... I'm not that hard up to kill a deer in the heat .. I did my last walk thru Fri. checking my last 12 stand trees, waaay later than I like to do the walk thrus, but work was in the way .... maybe next fri or sat I'll get out, suppose to be much cooler ..
Everyone knows that I hunt when it’s hot. When I kill one in the afternoon I do rush, but you have more time than you think. I have shot a lot of deer when the temps were in the low 90’s. I try to get them skinned and on ice as quickly as possible but since I’m colorblind and sometimes have to wait for help it has taken me up to four - five hours to get them on ice and I’ve never had a problem with spoilage. I usually have deer on ice within two hours after the shot on hot days. I’ve heard a few hunters say that they will never put their quartered deer in ice and water. They seem to believe it will ruin it. If I think I’m running out of time I’ll put the quarters/meat in a cooler with ice and fill it up with water even if I have a fridge to use. Adding the water cools the meat down more quickly than just ice and getting the temperature down quickly is the most important thing. It takes a long time for the quarters to cool down in a refrigerator. Once they are good and cold I’ll move them to a refrigerator if I have one handy. If I’m in a primitive camp I’ll just drain the water when they’re cool, add more ice and keep the water drained. I should add that the back straps, tenderloins and any other meat I trim off go in an ZipLoc bag before I put them in the cooler to protect them from the water. Once the deer is in the fridge I let it sit for a few days and then process.
It's 85 degrees here in Central MN. This is likely our final beach day for the year. The deer will wait. Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk
It's hot here too but according to the weather guessers it's supposed to cool down next week. On hot days I've stopped hunting in late evening so I don't have to try to track one down in the dark. I don't think a deer would hold overnight when it's hot and humid like it has been so far this season. Assuming the dang coyotes don't find it first anyway. I have iced them in the past like LC described when I was hunting in the national forest and had a long drive out on logging trails to get to the highway and then an hour drive home and it worked fine. It can be darn handy having a couple of solid ice blocks in a cooler in times like that.
One other thing that can speed up the process for me is a hitch hoist. In certain places where I don’t have quick, easy access to a hoist/gambrel I carry this in the truck along with the everything else I need. I can hoist it up, skin it, quarter it, throw the meat in a cooler and then fly to the nearest store for ice.
I usually quarter deer and throw it in a cooler with ice. I fill several plastic gallon milk jugs with water and freeze it to make ice blocks instead of using bagged ice. There are currently 7 jugs in my freezer ready for the next deer I kill. I usually put 3-4 in the cooler at a time and have more ready for when those thaw. It gets the meat cooled without dealing with water when ice melts.
keep in the shade like a shed or something. it will keep longer than you think. Say you kill in the morning, skin it out soon after and wrap it up and set in the shade if you can't get it on ice or freezer.
I hunt. There is nothing saying the buck I want to kill won't get up and walk by me right before dark when its hot. They still have to eat. yes, its "fun" dealing with a deer in warm temps, but as others have stated, you have more time than you think. Think about it. Chances are, you're going to shoot that deer close to dark. At least here in PA, its hot during the day but the temp drops off dramatically when the sun sets. Many times into the 60's by dark. The body temperature of a whitetail is 101 degrees on average. So... as long as the temperature is below that, the animal is going to cool down. Not as fast as would if its colder, but its still going to cool. Just don't mess around and get the hide off the deer as soon as you can and get the meat in the fridge or cooler of ice. No big deal.
