Most standard (35-40 qt.) sized ice chests will hold 4 deer quarters, straps/loins, and other meat with enough ice to get them to final destination if not going too awful far. Bigger deer may require cutting leg bones off to place where meat begins. For really big deer/mule deer they may not fit. (Guys that hunt big-bodied deer would know better than me.) Smaller chests are kind of a pain if you are not going to the final destination right away because you have to add ice regularly.

Having a little larger ice chest (50+ qt.) is much easier.

Theoretically (could have really happened just last weekend), hunter left big cooler at home (always forgeting something, dagnabit), no big box stores in podunk local town, located and purchased only cooler within 100s of miles, cooler too small for bones/meat/ice to fit. So instead of deboning the deer to accommodate the small cooler and stay legal, hunter resorts to the old days way when we just chunked the gutted deer over the hood and drove straight to the processor. Problem solved!

I can put a quartered up deer in a 50qt ice chest no problem with plenty of ice.

iv fit two in a 57...

cut down both shoulders and hams at the highest knuckle and it wont be much bigger than a deboned ham

I wonder if the warden would consider that waste of game if you don't cut it down to the shank? Seems like a fair amount of interpretation in the law.

IDK about yall but I've gotten past the need to save every little tough, sinew filled scrap of meat. I keep hams, shoulders(maybe), straps and tenders. Maybe the choice neck meat. I never knew all of this before now. Glad I usually hunt where I live.

I generally take our Igloo coolers, a 100 qrt. and a 50 qrt.. Never said I pack an "entire" deer, just bring home the quarters (there are 4 hince the name quarters), backstraps, tenderloins and some of the neck meat. 2 deer plus ice fit nicely in the big cooler. If I need more, make a run into town and buy what is needed.
Maybe you should pack something bigger than your lunch box....


I apologize to the OP for getting off track from your info on the ticket.

Keep the legs in a bag and it can be dog food when you get home

If you have a weekend home at the ranch is a deep freeze considered a "cold storage facility"?

It could be considered its final destination

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdo...g-and-taxidermy

"Cold Storage or Processing Facilities
A cold storage or processing facility may be established anywhere, including on property where hunting is conducted. It must be a stationary facility designed and constructed for the purpose of processing and/or storing game animals and game birds. A vehicle, trailer, or other type of mobile storage or processing arrangement IS NOT a stationary facility".

I'm not sure your deep freeze would meet the legal definition of a cold storage facility.

If your house or wherever you are is its final destination all the "cold storage facility" stuff is irrelevant.

Its in place to prevent folks from shooting multiple deer, processing them in camp and just using one tag from their license, been in place a long time, read your outdoor annual.

Edit: rib cage is not required.

Yes except you aren't required to keep the ribs or neck. The TPWD website clearly states that only the quarters and backstraps (that's right, not the tenderloins) need to be kept. I'd be pulling out my phone and bringing up the app if a warden tried to ticket me for leaving the ribs, it is very clear what you have to keep.




https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/hunting/general-regulations/after-killing-a-deer

Yep. That's it. That's all. If anyone get a ticket for waste beyond that and pays it - well that's just two people that don't know the law.

Well carp, guess I need to read the manual. Doesn't really matter though, I only kill 1 deer every 2 years.



Is this a new law? I could swear I've read the book in the past and I don't recall it saying what the link above says.

Nope, at least not that I know of.

The law has been in existence for as long as I can remember.

We always bone out our deer, hard to fit 5 or 6 in our coolers. Guess no way to prove the boned out neck meat didn't come from some phantom deer quarters if the GW wanted to say so.....

I have been lucky i have not had to deal wit them in Texas or New York they could not come one privet land there with out seeing a violations or being tipped off about one. but they would fallow you and pull you over to check you out. My neighbor was telling me that about 2-3 yrs ago he got a ticket for shooting a dear that was less then 1/8 of an inch from 13in spread. i think he said the ticket was like 2500 or something like that insane. My cousins are troopers and have friends who are wardens if they want to get you the will fined something he seen a game warden write a ticket because the guys urge vest did not fasten in the front the tie was broke off. his reason the was give was has the hunter walked it cold open and someone wold not see hime clearly

No, its not. They do this to keep guys from shooting 3 yearlings, deboning it all, getting rid of the carcasses and saying it was one big fat doe. This is a good law, it just is a little annoying to have to follow sometimes.

Stupid law, it's not going to stop anybody that shoots 3 small does and saying it's one big fat one......"read the annual hunting regulations".......fish cops go to fish cop school to learn all the laws, then evidently apply their own interpretation of them, not sure where I study that......

It is an ignorant outdated law. Once I kill a deer legally it shouldn't be the states business what I do with legally procured meat.

The idea that it magically becomes copacetic as soon as it reaches a final destination makes sense only to people who need the comfort/security of a rigid set of rules that everyone must follow. Regardless of how ignorant those rules are.