Short of purchasing and installing a walk-in game cooler, how do you keep field dressed deer overnight - so you don't have to make a midnight run to the local processor?

Obviously when it is cold enough you can let them hang, but all too often not is just too hot for the carcass to be out overnight.

Ideas, suggestions, contraptions - I am a sucker for a good contraption!


***Obviously I realize they could be quartered...NOT trying to start a process your game at home thread. Yes, I own many sharp knives and have a barn full of adequate coolers - I just prefer to use a processor. Very sorry if that preference offends you!

Buy one of these and learn to sharpen a knife. What kind of question is this?

https://rticoutdoors.com/65-QT-Hard-Sided-Cooler?size=65&color=Grey

Process and cut up ,leave evidence of sex and as above put in Igloo cooler with ice.

I took in a free large side by side freezer/icebox and set it up on the porch at our hunting camp and removed all the shelves. We use it mostly for stuffing bagged deer quarters and turkeys into it, but one average size field dressed doe will fit in it if we cut off the four legs at the joints. I'm sure a buck could too if the head was removed first. A lease I was on long ago, we had a big chest freezer out front with the temp turned as high as it would go so it did not freeze everything. I think we had as many as 3 field dressed deer stuffed into it at the same time.

Thanks Sniper John, I had briefly thought of a chest freezer.

I've seen people utilize old coke bottle and and can vending machines as cold storage. Pretty simple to strip out the inside and then have a convenient cold storage facility.

Know a few folks that have old ice freezers like you see in front of gas stations etc. called a merchandiser I think.

I never would but have a 225 quart ice chest a whole deer will fit in handily.

Chest freezer filled with 10 or more gallons jugs of frozen water. Fill dress and wash deer. Place in cooler and turn freezer off. Won't freeze your deer,
and gives you time till you're ready to either quarter it or take it to a processor. I do this mainly during bow season when I take a deer late evening.

couple more ideas ...

find an old used Ready Ice (like convenience stores have out front) machine ...



When we go to west Texas, we are a long ways from any cold storage or processor, so we fill several ice chests with small bags of ice (left in bag). Then if we kill something, field dress and stuff one bag up into the chest cavity and one bag in the gut/hind quarter area and wrap in a tarp (can wrap several in one tarp). Then replace bags of ice as they melt.

Coolbot.com

Build your own storage with a "Cool Bot". I'm on the hunt for a self enclosed trailer or just box to insulated and install a window a/c and the Cool Bot. Plug power into generator. I don't need a full walk in size for just a couple day hunt. Just want something easy enough to drag/throw deer in and stay cool in case I decide not to quarter and ice chest it and too hot to let hang overnight

I saw a free chest freezer on craigslist. It doesn't work but I guess with a few bags of ice I could keep a field dressed deer in it. I use it as a dry box most of the time.

Skin it and let it hang.

IMO people worry way too much about getting an animal on ice in normal hunting weather. Put it in the shade, and let it air cool. Unless it’s 95 degrees outside it isn’t gonna spoil in that amount of time.

Go see the way they handle game over in Africa and it will certainly change your opinion on what’s necessary or not.


Very few scenarios where making a “midnight run to the processor” is warranted

On the cheap end, a tarp or two, and a ton of ice. Shove full bags in the body cavity, and keep it in the shade. Doesn't get any cheaper/simpler than this.
One step up is to find a 'free/broken' refrigerator or upright freezer, strip the insides, lay it down door up, and use it as a free 'monster ice chest'.

Either way, since you're leaving the hide on, be SURE to give the setup a way to let the melted icewater drain off, so the dirty hide doesn't spoil the meat any more than necessary;
Personally I'd always skin it if you don't have dry/cold storage - but you eat your meat any way you want to

We have an old refrigerator at the lease we use to put quartered deer in. The top is used for frozen milk jugs, if not cold we put thhead in a sack and place a gallon jug of ice in the bag. Works ok for us.

The gutted refrigerator . . . forgot about that one! When I go fishing in Mexico, the talapia fishermen have them all along the shoreline to store their fish. NEVER eat "fresh" talapia in Mexico!!!

Honestly, when I was a kid we’d hang them no matter the weather and not process them until we got home on Sunday. Cut the legs off and put a fly bag on them, put some pepper in the nose and don’t worry about it. They tasted fine, and we’d kill at least 5 a weekend. Now I quarter them up and put in a cooler. I think a week on ice makes them more tender, but doesn’t change the taste that much.

Very interesting to me to hear what different people did, do, think about doing! So many different customs and approaches.

Dad used to be fond of saying, 'there is more than one way to skin a cat'. To this day, I still don't understand the origins of that saying!!!

Repels flies. The nose is one of the first places they will start laying eggs. My lease if it is much above 50 degrees, it is a battle to keep the flies from laying eggs on them before they get cut up or stuffed in the ice box. I always keep a big shaker of pepper at the lease. It helps.

Interesting, @SniperJohn, is the lease at a cattle operation?

I quarter the deer/hog were it fell, and into the cooler it goes. When I used to hang a deer overnight in camp, as long as the temp got down to 50 degrees F, or cooler, I did not worry about it.

Small chest freezer. I dont put ice directly on meat.

A couple of good coolers and a couple bags of ice will keepa deer for a couple of days. Problem solved

X2 on the pepper.

I hang them in the shade and let it ride. Debate is hide on or off but I’ve done both. If it’s not dusty I’ll skin them. That meat gets a good glaze on it it’s pretty protected. Pepper the carcass and your good to go.