To those who don't process there own ???

I have hunted in areas in the past where a local processor wasn't close or near by. I learned from a young age how to process my own game and pack it so I can fit it all in my cooler.
I have never thought about it but what do you folks do who hunt real far out and take your deer to a processor
How do you keep it cold in early season hunts?

Quarter the deer and throw it on ice in the Yeti....Gives me at least 4 days and usually more. I usually don't take my deer into the processor until the following weekend and only have to add a bag of ice or two to the cooler once I get home.

I do process my own, but still have to get it home. Big ice chests. I freeze gallon milk jugs and 3 liter bottles in the garage chest freezer and fill the ice chest before we leave. When you get something a hatchet and a few minutes and you have crushed ice.

Quarter it immediately and put it on ice

Interesting so even the folks who use processors at least know how to quarter a deer.
I always wondered how y'all/they cooled there kill during transport.

Careful throwing meat into a Yeti. It gets freezer burned really quick.

If we don't quarter it, we'll throw bags of ice into the chest cavity and cover with a tarp to keep cool. Done this a couple of times in a pinch while not having a big enough cooler.

I have seen people pull into the processor with deer that hasn't been gutted. I don't care if the processor is less than an hour away, that's disgusting

I like to wrap the meat in towels to keep it dry and from making contact with the ice

if it's not gutted how do they cool it?

Exactly

Yikes

We keep several boxes of them Hefty 2 1/2 gallon zip lock bags from Walmart. They are big enough to hold a whole large whitetail ham or both shoulders (they will hold two hams from a smaller deer). Put the backstaps and tenderloins in another bag if they wont fit with in other meat. That is 3-4 bags max.
Then throw on ice in the cooler and top off with ice.
In cooler weather we will leave a deer hang and cool naturally for a bit (saves ice). We have let them hang all night or even all day if weather is <40 degrees.

i pud a baby gorrilla in one once, for three years & ended up with a little yeti ..

is it bad to let the meat sit in the ice and water slush? Ive always heard to drain the bloody water as it accumulates and to keep adding ice. Is it better to zip lock the meat and keep it from getting soaked?

This is about to start a debate but no it doesn't hurt it. I've been doing this for my entire life basically and there are no negative impacts. Some say it is a waste of time and that it does nothing but it definitely doesn't hurt it.

I prefer to dry age the meat while I wait to take it to the processor or if we're processing it ourselves. I like to keep the meat dry and cold.

If I don't do that, I absolutely drain the water as often as possible and keep fresh ice on it. I have heard rumors that this process can make the meat taste "cleaner" but I'm not sure if this is true.

All I know is I never never ever want meat of any sort footing around in water, bloody or not, regardless of the temperature

If you put the meat in plastic bags and then on ice it is not dry aging. the meat will be wet.

If im going to leave meat on ice I prefer to stick a brick under the opposite end of the ice chest from the drain and leave the drain open so it will continually drain.

We quarter it, put it on ice in the cooler, drain water every few hours and replace ice if necessary. We use frozen jugs, like someone said above, but we don't crush that ice we just leave it in the jug. Usually with the frozen jugs we only have to add one 10 lb. bag of ice to the cooler. We then take the deer to the processor within 4 or 5 days tops.

I may try putting the meat in a large ziploc like was said above. Do y'all think having the meat in direct contact with ice is bad for the meat even if you regularly drain the water?

My dad has with help taken a whole cow elk gutted and thrown down a tarp then a sleeping bag and another tarp then put about 10 gallon milk jugs frozen and about the same bags of ice to keep her cool for a couple days. Wrap up tight. Worked like a champ!

I like the meat to be able to "breathe" too... I don't know that I'd want to put it in bags. We wrap it in towels and keep it on top of a bunch of ice with a small amount covering it

I have 2 deer in my Yeti sitting on my back porch right now. I shot both Sat morning. I drain the water daily and have added a little bit of ice. I may start tonight at boning the meat out and work on it today and tomorrow evenings. I am just going to bone it out, cut it in chunks and freeze it to get ready for sausage making. I will go ahead and prep/freeze my jerky meat, stew meat and backstraps/tenderloins.

Usually the meat is put in first and then the ice on top of it. The melting ice drains through the meat, flushing the blood out of the meat.

Yeah, experts say meat should never get wet, but people have been doing this for decades with no problems.

And leaving an animal ungutted for an hour won't hurt anything. Letting it sit on the ground overnight, unrecovered, doesn't hurt anything, why should one hour ungutted hurt?

A few years ago, unless I was saving the hide to make rugs, I used to skin/quarter every deer and put it in my big igloo chest. I'd then take it to the processor the following day. Since my processor is less than 20 minutes way and only charges $10 to skin the deer, I now gut them, spray them out with a hose, toss them in cooler in the back of the truck with some ice and take them straight to his shop. Saves me a bunch of time and I find I get more meat for sausage or ground deer when I let his guys butcher it up. For $10, it's a no brainier for me.

I was thinking the same thing. People shoot deer, find them the next day and still keep the meat. A 1 hour drive to the processor won't hurt anything.

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