Cooler Question

[Neano]

Long time lurker here getting ready to go on my first elk hunt. Looking for some advice to make sure I'm on the right track. I don't have any massive coolers that would fit an elk, but my neighbor does have two of these guys. After reading that some of y'all just stick the meat in sleeping bags with dry ice I figure these could work fine with sleeping bags/moving blankets around them. Ice and/or frozen jugs in the boxes with the meat. Am I off base or should this work?

 

[rayporter]

i have done something similar and hauled meat clear to ohio and had it frozen solid when i arrived. if you are in a truck just wrap it all up good in a tarp.

another option is to go buy a few cheap coolers if you are successful. they are usually stacked to the ceiling in wally world and frequently on sale.

 

[elkguide]

I've brought both elk and deer from the west to the east in coolers successfully. I have the meat processed and frozen and then put it in the coolers with a couple frozen milk jugs and I buy some dry ice to put in the cooler. Then I duct tape the lid seam and wrap the cooler in blankets/sleeping bags and take my frozen meat out when I get home 3 or 4 days later. Good luck.

 

[SunShine]

What I'm about to chime in on isn't elk but it is caring for fresh killed critters.

I'm in South Florida the majority of the year. We bow hunt wild boar year round. We skin them out, 1/4 them up and put in a cooler, nothing fancy either, meaning no Yeti or Engle coolers.

We ice the meat to the top of the cooler and eliminate as much air space as possible.

Here's the wild part. We keep the meat in the cooler for 3 days. We drain it every morning and replenish the ice. On the third day, the water drain is clear and loses the blood stain. We do this to rid the meat of that wild boar rank taste and it works.

So my point is, if you keep your kill iced plentiful, you'll have no problem as long as you drain that melted ice out and replace. It gets so cold in there that you can't even place your hands inside to turn the meat around and over. Always feel for warm spots. Those are your enemies. Ice and more ice.


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[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Two 120qt colemans from Walmart and some bags of ice (I prefer the 10lb blocks) keeps meat cold just fine.

 

[JFK]

You can make large coolers out of the 1.5” foam insulation board sold at Home Depot. I have one that I made few years ago that’s probably 300qts. Use (lots of) duct tape to join seams. I hinged the top with duct tape and then run two length of webbing around the whole thing with plastic buckles that can be cinched to keep the lid tight. I use mine for summer hunts on the central coast for wild pigs and have got two whole field dressed pigs in mine with plenty of ice. In temps that were in the 90’s it’s always worked great. Best thing is costs about $40 total, weighs nothing and I store it in my rafters when not using it. Only downside is that it lacks structural stability, so once you load it with ice and game you can’t move it. Put a drain plug in it and leave the plug open so any melted ice doesn’t pool in the bottom. Butcher I use comments every time I bring game in what a good idea it is and how well it works. Many hunts later and it’s still going strong. When it finally craps out I’ll build another one.

 

[JustinSmith1754]

I have a 25 hour straight through drive from my elk camp to home. I use dry ice (separated from the meat in the cooler with cardboard). Also, I've learned that it has taken me two (2) 120-quart coolers per elk. The last hunt, my group killed four bulls, and we needed eight (8) 120 quart coolers.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

The Xtremes from Walmart are great coolers! I load two 150qt with all my hunting gear in em. Makes it easy when i stop at a motel to sleep, I just drag em into the room.
https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=xtreme coolers&cat_id=0

 

[goodorbit]

Thrift shops / Goodwill stores are a great source for coolers cheap. When I brought my elk back we got 2 coleman coolers for $4 (50% off day), one was brand new.

 

[NHRedleg]

For my elk hunt this last September in CO I had two 120qt Igloo Polar coolers (one I’ve had for years one I picked on Amazon for $70). I wasn’t sure how long they were going to keep ice so filled them both. I made “cooler cozies” out of reflectix wrap. The cozies were basically two covers I made with the reflectix and aluminum tape; one the cooler sat in that went up to the lid and then another that went over the lid and secured to the bottom piece with velco. I had also added two layers of reflectix in the recessed lids of the coolers as well. I had been looking for block ice but no one seemed to have any so had to buy cube; 100lbs perfectly fills one 120qt cooler so cost me $40 to fill both. These coolers then resided in the back of my truck, shaded the entire time once at trailhead, and never opened. At the end of the hunt-8 ½ days later, there was about 80+% of the ice left in each. In hind sight next time I will only fill one with ice and once I get an animal I could split the ice between the two with meat in them as well. The reflectix only cost me $25 for the roll, plus aluminum tape and velco, so even if I had to purchase both coolers my total cost for that (excluding ice) would have only been about $175 verses what they want for the high end coolers there is no comparison. Temps during my time there were 50-70s in the day and 30-40s at night.

 

[Scoony]

We brought a elk back from Idaho. The processor had froze the meat and packed it in cardboard boxes. They instructed us to place dry ice on top of the meat and seal the tops with tape. We packed jackets around them for the drive home and after a 30 hour drive, the meat was still frozen solid. Important thing with dry ice is to keep the container sealed.

As for using a cooler with ice, I place meat in old pillow covers/protectors and keep them above the ice and out of any water.