Don't forget what you watch on tv and where most of us hunt here in texas. If you shot a deer opening day of bow season and didn't find it till the next morning it was spoiled!

True, but for a majority of rifle season it will apply.

Contrary to popular opinion these days meat can still be good when outside of the refrigerator for more than an hour and can last much longer with proper care even in hot conditions. How do you think our ancestors survived. I don't think they had convenience stores with ice and yetis. Especially righter after its killed meat can be kept without refrigeration. Once its been frozen and defrosted you need to cook it pretty quick. The animal caracas is not a refrigerator keeping it cool inside or something until it gets shot. All these hypochondriac wieners are taking over the world.

They recover the next day and eat many animals in Africa, and it isn't cold there.

If you can hang your deer for two weeks in a walk-in cooler, you would be amazed how good it is. Even old bucks are yummy. We do this when we are the ranch more often and can keep an eye on it. I had ants get in the cooler relay and shut it down one year. Man was I POed.
But just leaving the meat bagged (wet aging) in a refrigerator for a week helps too.

This^

Their stomachs are capable of eating a lot of things that would make us sick and squirty.

Not in October I wouldn't

Our family has always iced and drained the bloody water an reice for three days. Pulls the blood and any strong game flavor out. Least thats what my pappy tells me, an his pappy 'fore him. Always worked for me. An I process my own

C'mon now. Surely you have been doing this for awhile. If you can field dress a deer you can break it down even if you are going to a processor. It's not rocket science. Some of the older gentleman I have hunted with have processed more deer/hogs than they can remember. If they haul that dressed buck to the processor well they earned the right I say. But make no mistake these O'l Boys can still make quick work of carcass.

I must be missing something about cooling a deer. Deer doesn't know if it's going to my kitchen or my processor. They both cool exactly the same. You are spot on about distance/time to get a kill taken care of. A 3 day hunt on a buddies south Texas ranch no walk in cooler. If you tag on the first day you are going to the processor or spend the weekend hauling ice.

I would be surprised if there are many processors that will process a deer that has not been gutted

I started out with a simple ice chest and lots of ice however now I stepped my game up a little.
I own a tundra 75 ( yeti ) my neighbor works for a company called techni-ice
( dryicepacks.com) he gives me dry ice and I don't open the cooler after its shut but 1 time and that's to put meat in.
I basically make my kill fit and I'm done.


I asked this question because we were talking at work Sunday a friend took a picture of a truck pulling a trailer with a razr tied down with a buck laying on the back with ice bags laid on the deer wrapped in what looked to be a tarp haha
New one to me ( ice bags laying on a deer they was shot and dropped on a trailer )
I was curious if that's normal or odd.


Me I was taught to process my own

If I'm going to go to the grocery store like a man I'm bring it home as well.

I put venison in cooler on ice for over 20 years. Tried the bags, tried the open drain method and all. Life was good. Then we bought a walk in cooler and started ageing hanging deer. There is not just a noticeable difference, it's night and day. Then I read an article written by John Barsness explaining the chemistry. That's all it takes to understand the rest. I'll bet he explains it in his book on cooking wild game too. It's very much worth understanding.

It just depends where I'm hunting and what's around. Heck I've been known, more than once, when hunting at our place in Coleman to kill something and throw it directly in the truck and go to the processor. Now I only do that when it's colder than a dickens and I don't feel like jacking with it... And I can be at Halls in less than 15 minutes.

We get those game bags and put the meat in a cooler with ice if it's a long drive back(New Mexico back to Texas) if it's local we just put it in the cooler with ice have been for years.

I bought a big old chest freezer and carry a generator if no other electricity is available. chill it down to 35 and keep it closed. It will hold 3 or 4 large whole deer and more if quartered (most of the time we quarter). If I take my brothers and father, it is a must because we never all shoot a deer on the same day and we may be there 4 or 5 days. We process it ourselves once we get it back to the house.

I was just thinking about that as I was reading this thread. You can get a decent chest at a good price at Lowe's or Home Depot or even used.

I have been quartering it and getting it on ice ASAP, putting ice all throughout the meat and covering it. I let it drain until I get it to the processor, depending on where I hunt, it can take up to a week, usually no more than 4 days though. I have been doing this way for over 30 years. The meat is always fresh and my butcher wraps everything tight in white butcher paper. We just had burgers from last deer season and the meat was perfect. My wife commented on how pink an great the meat looked. I don't get hair on my meat and certainly no dirt. If hair does get on it, I burn it off with a small propane torch. Right wrong or indifferent, this has worked for me and all the hunters I hunt with. My .02