Bringing Deer Home

[FiveFeezy]

So I am going on my first deer hunt next week. I have watched all of the youtube videos about how to field dress the deer. What I am wondering is what to do with the deer after I get back to camp and how do I get it home or to the butcher?

We will be camped out for three days, about four hours away from home. What if I get a deer on the first day? Will I have to skin it and put it on ice until its time to go home? Should I chop it up so it will fit in coolers? If I get one on the last day would I be able to throw him in the back of the truck just field dressed or should he be in the coolers for this too?

I bought a game bag which is like a big cheese cloth. At what stage is this important?

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Gunplummer]

We always hang them up by the back legs in camp and cut them up when away from home. Leave the deer hanging after skinning and start at the bottom and just cut meat off the bones and work your way up. No need to be fancy about it , you can trim it the way you want at home. Put the meat in 2 gallon zip-lock bags and pack in ice in coolers. Keep an eye on the ice level if it is really hot where you are. When you get home and cut and trim, it will be easier because the meat is chilled. We have not put bone in the freezer in years.

 

[LaserSpot]

What temperatures do you expect? If it's warm, you could find a local processor and ask them to hang it in the cooler for a couple days without processing; pick it up on the way home. Another option is to skin and quarter it in camp, then pack quarters in a large marine-type cooler with lots of ice.

Deer hide is a good insulator so some like to hang the deer and skin it as soon as possible to let it cool down faster; the game bag is to keep flies off. I hunt in Michigan winter so cooling isn't a problem, or flies. Skinning before it's too frozen to skin is more likely to be the issue.

Good luck.

 

[FiveFeezy]

Thanks for the relies. We'll be hunting in California, the Trinity National Forest. Temperatures could be in the 70's to 80's during the day, low 40's during the night.

 

[Rifleman1776]

In your case with high daytime temps, I suggest you have a processor picked out and drive your deer back to him. Even if this means a long trip away from camp it must be done unless you like eating maggots. Bringing along several very large ice chests and a lot of ice, maybe even dry ice, butchering and keeping meat cool is another, very 'iffy' option.

 

[rickyjames]

i would take your pictures, hang it, skin it and cut it up and put it on ice in freezer chests before i popped the top on my first beer. it should be fine on ice for a couple days till you can get home and finish the job. it's easier to find more ice than it is to find a processor around deer camp.

 

[Toney]

The faster you get the deer gutted and chilled off the better the meat.

Mine gets quartered and put on racks in a icebox right now!!!

 

[LaserSpot]

it's easier to find more ice than it is to find a processor around deer camp.

I'm pretty sure that a little looking (before the trip) could find half a dozen that are aren't too far from deer camp. They wouldn't charge much to just hang a deer in the cooler for a day to get it chilled. I've done this when we have a warm spell and I'm planning to stay for another day, then have an 8 hour drive home.

http://www.google.com/#q=california+deer+processing

 

[mete]

Bring a cooler with a 25# bag of ice .When you get your deer immediately dress it out and put the ice bag into the body cavity.The quickly home or to processor.

 

[GroovyMike]

I'd say if you bag a deer and the temps hit 70 or 80 - you better get him in a freezer within 24 hours MAX!

 

[jimbob86]

70's to 80's during the day,

The idea is to keep the meat below 40 degrees F. ...... above that, bacteria grow quickly. Also, if there hasn't been a hard freeze, insects, mainly flies, would be a problem.

 

[longranger]

Dry Ice, H20 ice degrades the quality of the meat if allowed to contact the meat.More than a few hours in zip lock bags water will get in.Nothing gets the meat cooler faster without water than dry ice.
Get the hide off as soon as possible, you will have objectional meat if saws are used to cut through bones,deer marrow is strong and saw baldes smear it on the meat during pass through,bone it out.
The idea is to get the carcass cooled and dry not wet.Skinned animals in cool dry air will get a thin dry layer on the outside,this is a good thing,just think cool/cold and dry.
Hanging deer by the head/neck allows for better body drainage,cut the legs off just below the joints it makes handling alot easier.
It has been suggested that you locate a processor close by to let your deer cool,this is an excellant option and I use it regular.I don't let them cut my animals up!,no saws !

 

[BIGR]

I deer hunt 240 miles away from home and sometimes I stay at deer camp for weeks. There are no commercial coolers anywhere near there for deer. I take several good coolers that will hold ice for days. After I kill a deer I skin it at camp and cut the meat off the bone. I put the meat in zip lock bags and on ice. I once kept some deer meat on ice in the cooler for about a week before I got back home and butchered the meat. I try to time it just right to where I will be able to get the meat home in a reasonable amount of time. Normally I don't shoot the first deer I see on the first day of muzzleloader season unless its a good buck.
Years ago I hunted in an area that had coolers. We then gutted the deer and hung them in the coolers. When we got ready to go home we packed a couple of bags of ice in the deer cavity and it worked just fine.

 

[FrankenMauser]

The faster you get the deer gutted and chilled off the better the meat.

Chilled, yes.

you better get him in a freezer within 24 hours MAX!

No!

When you get your deer immediately dress it out and put the ice bag into the body cavity.

No!

i would take your pictures, hang it, skin it and cut it up and put it on ice in freezer chests before i popped the top on my first beer.

No!

Haven't you guys ever heard of "cold shortening"? Icing meat (or taking it to a temperature below freezing) before it has begun to come out of rigor mortis causes cold shortening. This is a temperature-induced contraction of the muscle (meat). It forces liquid (and flavor) out of the meat. {This is the reason commercially slaughtered cattle are electrocuted after being dealt a fatal blow. Depleting the ATP supply in the muscles actually prevents cold shortening, so they can cool and butcher the carcasses immediately after the AC current is applied, without the negative effects.}

Longranger has the right idea:

The idea is to get the carcass cooled and dry not wet.Skinned animals in cool dry air will get a thin dry layer on the outside,this is a good thing,just think cool/cold and dry.

You want to cool the carcass to 36-44 degrees F, but avoid letting it hard-freeze within 24 hours. And do not let the muscle come into contact with ice, dry ice, or other frozen objects, if at all possible (that includes being in plastic bags in a cooler).

Cool the carcass! Don't ice it, or start cutting on it, unless you absolutely have to. Cutting into muscle tissue before rigor has passed is just as bad as cold shortening. It causes the chemical reactions to happen at a different rate, and affects the taste, moisture content, and texture of the meat.


If you take your deer on the first day, get it skinned, hang it in the shade, and get the dry skin on it (the dried layer of muscle on the outside). The dry layer prevents maggots from being able to get to the meat. Keep your eye on the carcass. As soon as rigor starts to pass noticeably, bone it out, and get the meat into a 40-ish degree cooler (again, avoid contact with ice for at least 12 more hours). Label bags, as you bone the carcass -- so you, or your processor, can label the packages appropriately after trimming. It would be a shame to see your backstrap and tenderloins end up as hamburger or "rump roast" (likewise, it would suck to open some "backstrap", to find out it's stringy butt meat).


I suffer through the same conditions you have described, every year. Only, I call it the "antelope hunt", rather than "deer hunt"...

One last thing....
Make sure it is legal to bone out an animal in the field, where you're hunting. Some areas don't allow carcasses to be boned out, due to local conditions (such as CWD areas); and some areas don't allow carcasses to be boned out, because the animal has to be inspected by a game warden before it is butchered. Know your regulations, or it might turn into one hellacious ticket.

 

[sc928porsche]

Trinity area usually has a good breeze blowing. Find a well shaded area to hang the deer from. After dressing and skinning, apply a very light coat of salt and pepper mix (mostly pepper) to the meat and put in cheese cloth style game bag (I use 2) and then a heavier game bag the will fit loosly over the deer. Be sure to hang upside down and hoist high into the tree. It must be sealed at both top and bottom.

The spices will acomplish 2 things. 1. It will help preserve the meat. 2. It helps keep the insects (dad burned meat bees ie: Yellow Jackets) off of your game. Keep a close eye on your game and have more pepper available in case the bees start to chew a hole in the outside game bag. Throw the pepper on any blood spots or where the game touches the bag.

Good hunting to you!

 

[oneounceload]

put the ice bag into the body cavity

Absolutely not - if you want to eat it.

Camp by a stream with shade - skin the animal, put it in the cheesecloth bag and hang in the cool shade by the stream - thew water will keep it cooler by ten degrees in that area. I have left deer hanging for a week before butchering - always came out tatsty

 

[banditt007]

Would you guys take a steak out, and hang it in a tree for a week with cheese cloth over it, and then throw it on the grill? I know i wouldn't. But to each his own..

This is my thoughts, and it has worked well for me. I like to get the meat cold asap but not frozen. What i have done, and has produced meat that even people that don't 'eat venison' enjoy is the following...

Shoot it, gut it asap, i take a tarp lay it in my cargo hitch rack, and line the bottom with ice bags, fill the inner cavity with ice bags, and then on the outside of the deer, and one bag between the legs to get that as cool as possible, surround the neck ect ect. Then i fold the tarp over and ratchet strap it to the rack and off i go. I make sure that the bottom drains off so the carcass does not sit in water. Also take note, RETIGHTEN your ratchet straps often! ice melts quick and slacks up the straps.

When i get home I then hang it upside down, skin it, and take off the front legs whole(cutting off/throwing out below the 'knee'), those go into a cooler with ice cubes, next i cut off the back strap/tenderloins, neck roast, rear legs i cut off in one huge chunk of meat, then the rib meat ect ect. I make sure to layer with plenty of ice. DO NOT PUT IT IN PLASTIC BAGS this will trap the warmth in and act like an insulator. Any trimmings/rib meat i put in a zip lock plastic bag but make sure it isn't in a pile, that it stays a thin layer of meat in the bag and lays flat on the ice... say fill the bag only 30% of what i could hold..for fast cooling. This is OK vs the other pieces of meat since there is no bone and it lays only 1" thick or so compared to several.

At this point i'm shot, and then fully process the deer the following day. I do not let the meat sit in cold water, i make sure the drain plug is open and the cooler is tipped towards that side. I also put a ratchet strap around it so no racoons get into it (no worries of bears where i live). If you let the meat sit in cold water it starts turning white like when you put a bandaid on your finger too tight and for too long. It doesn't look good and i think would remove the blood/flavor and replace it w/ water and not taste so hot.

In your case since you'll be out for several days i would bring some bags of ice, but block ice in the cooler will last much much longer and keep the cubes from melting. Obviously always keep the coolers in the coolest/shadiest area and if you can 'prechill' the coolers with ice before adding your final load of ice do so. I'd drain them once or twice a day and do not check on their status, you are just going to let out the cold.

Bacterial likes heat and moisture, I'll take cooling my meat down to below 40F as fast as i can, vs having the deer 'dry' but hot. If you try to use ice to cool it down w/o the deer contacting it, you are most likely going to be using plastic bags which insulate. Not good. If you use dry ice not only is that expensive but i'd say you got a good chance of the meat getting frost bite/freezer burn and tasting like poop. Unless one has a walk in cooler, where you can bring the deer in and let it hang w/ the hide off to aid in rapid cooling(this is ideal IMO), i think my method or something similar is your best bet.

 

[Deerhunter]

My buddy and I have taken deer back and hung them (in the winter, below 30) and butchered them up withing hours of shooting them. We cut the back straps out and cut all the other meat off. When we get home we rinse and dry the back straps and vacuum seal them. Then off to the fridge they go. The rest sits in trash bags in the truck over night until we take it to the butcher for processing. I am sure that the meat freezes.

If we aren't butchering them out ourselves I drop them off and they go into the cooler until my butcher skins them.

I haven't had a problem with bad meat yet.

 

[FrankenMauser]

There are different degrees of "bad meat", and different degrees of "good meat".

Preventing cold shortening, and allowing rigor to pass its peak are two very important aspects of staying on top of the "good meat" scale.



I suspect the majority of hunters eat Deer and Elk meat that is much drier than it should be. (Cold shortening, cutting while in rigor, cutting prior to rigor, etc...)

However, it's easy to understand that compromises must be made. The circumstances surrounding any one person's hunt will never exactly match another's. Sometimes you have to make a move, even if it's not optimal for meat quality.

 

[bamaranger]

interesting

The variety of replies has been quite interesting. The 70-80 degrees is similar to our early bow season temps. Here is what I have done for a long time, and never really had a bad deer.

Tracking and getting the deer out and home, may take a couple of hours. I try to avoid gutting deer on the spot, finding it easier and cleaner not to drag w/ the cavity open and exposed. But a bad shot, or really hot weather, and I will gut the animal afield. Otherwise, as soon as possible, I hang the deer on a gimble stick, head down, and skin and disembowel.

I may break briefly at this point, to change or eat, but will then go on and quarter the animal, two shoulders, two hams, and the innerloins and back straps will all go into a big cooler packed in ice. Ribs and the rest of the carcass get discarded. The cooler is arranged so that it can drain. I will usually sprinkle in a bit of table salt. I add ice as necessary, and after 2 days or so, begin butchering, working the muscles off the bones. Backstraps get cut into large "filets". Big ham muscles get cut cross grain
into "steaks". Shoulders muscles get cut into stew cubes.

This is a pretty common practice around here. I have read about not getting the meat wet, but have never had a problem chilling directly on ice as I've described. I have let the meat on ice, in the cooler, for as much as 4-5 days in cold weather.

Working alone, I can get a deer quartered and in the cooler in about 2 hrs.
This includes rounding up ice, tubs, knives, hatchet and such, which never seem to be in the right places, especially early in the season. Couple of the guys in my acquaintance can do this in less than an hour.

Boning trimming, cutting into cooking size pieces takes the better part of an evening, 2-3 hrs or more, depending on the help available from bamaboy and bamawife.