Cooler

[john.grim.5]

He's a question for all of u successful elk hunters out there. Once you've made the kill and packed out what style did u have waiting at the truck and what size was it? I'm in the market for a new cooler but want to be able to fit an elk into it.


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[TheCougar]

Best bang for the buck is one of those big 5-day extreme Coleman coolers. You can get a 120+ qt for about $60. It will fit two or more quarters, depending on the size of the animal. For the price, it does the job pretty well. I also have K2 90 quart rotomolded cooler.

 

[rayporter]

on our first trip we killed 2 and did not have a cooler, so we went to town and bought some 2 in foam and cut it into 2 ft x4 ft lengths and built a cooler in the trailer. it has evolved into just 2 pieces and some dry ice with gear thrown on top. 25 lb of dry ice will freeze the meat by the time we get to arkansas.

you will see a lot of rigs made to haul meat when you get out there. personally i would skip the generator and use dry ice as it is easy to get and wont be stolen. besides for the cost of fuel you can buy the ice.
luck-ray

ps; the same foam is still used from the 1984 trip

 

[5MilesBack]

I fill a 200qt IRP Marine cooler with about 20 frozen milk jugs filled with water. I also have a 120qt Coleman Extreme 6 cooler as well if needed. I fit 268lbs of just meat in the 200qt with some of the jugs this year. Any overflow goes in the 120qt. The frozen milk jugs will last a lot longer than a week.

 

[FreeRange]

This year we fit 200 lbs of boned out elk in a 120qt coleman marine cooler plus an ~80 qt with 1 frozen gallon jug of water this year. It was so cold the meat went in frozen and we didn't need any ice at all probably to last the week before heading home. If not using dry ice I really prefer to use frozen gallon jugs as a backup source of water. I keep a number of them in my chest freezer (as space allows). As the freezer fills up throughout the season the need for ice diminishes as it gets colder.

I used a borrowed yeti tundra 105 for a couple deer hunts the past couple years and sure they do hold ice a bit longer but my goodness it would take a lot of ice to see any ROI. That one barely held the meat of two really big boned out whitetail bucks. Not to mention that thing filled up with meat was almost impossible for me to load into the truck by myself. It was nice to load ice once and keep my deer cold for a week while I vacationed with the family this September but I'll buy ice every few days and save myself the $400.

 

[tlowell02]

For my cow I shot last fall I used a 150 quart Igloo Max Cold and still had to put one meat bag in my 65 quart food cooler. The meat was boned out as well except for the shanks.

 

[Laelkhunter]

I use three 100 qt Colemans to pack a Bull Elk. They are a "load" when full, but I am able to move them around in the back of the truck. Takes two of us to unload them from the truck.

 

[elkguide]

120 quart Coleman Extreme & a 120 quart igloo. Get my meat cut up and frozen at a local butcher shop and then 10 pounds of dry ice in each and from Idaho to Vermont, driving, still completely frozen meat.

 

[TheCougar]

I fill a 200qt IRP Marine cooler with about 20 frozen milk jugs filled with water. I also have a 120qt Coleman Extreme 6 cooler as well if needed. I fit 268lbs of just meat in the 200qt with some of the jugs this year. Any overflow goes in the 120qt. The frozen milk jugs will last a lot longer than a week.

+1^^. The frozen milk jug is spot on. I do this as well. Works waaay better than bags of ice. It stays frozen longer, is reusable, the water can be used when it thaws, and less bloody watery mess in the cooler.

 

[LostArra]

+1^^. The frozen milk jug is spot on. I do this as well. Works waaay better than bags of ice. It stays frozen longer, is reusable, the water can be used when it thaws, and less bloody watery mess in the cooler.

I have no scientific research to back this up but I have started using salt water in my frozen jugs. My independent "testing" seems to show they stay frozen longer than tap water. YMMV

Just be sure to mark the jugs and a downside is you can't use them for drinking water.

 

[5MilesBack]

I have no scientific research to back this up but I have started using salt water in my frozen jugs. My independent "testing" seems to show they stay frozen longer than tap water. YMMV

I've never really given it a second thought as regular water in them stays at least 50% frozen even after 10 days.

 

[DEHusker]

I use a 160qt Cabelas Grizzly cooler which fits 2 big bone-in hindquarters or 4 boned-out quarters. I have a 60qt for overflow and I also have a Coleman Xtreme that, for the money, cannot be beat and I've hauled at least 2-3 boned-out quarters in that as well. Keep in mind that Ice jugs take up a lot of space but you need it in there. I try to pre-chill my coolers and it keeps ice a lot longer.

I used to use 1 gallon jugs and freeze them but they weren't very durable. I now use 2L coke bottles with the screw on lids. The coke bottles are more durable, still stay frozen a week or more, and pack around meat easier. I've used the same ones for about 4 years in a row and haven't even opened them or changed the water inside. A week before the season starts I throw them in the deep freezer and by the time my trip starts I throw them in the cooler. In the off season they go in the machine shed. I won't go back to any other system. Remember to only fill them about 4/5 full. I only made that mistake once!

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

A pair of 120qt coleman coolers sit in my truck, I load all the ice into one of them until meat starts showing up and then I'll split it up (no sense cooling two empty coolers). I'll usually grab something like 80-100lb worth of BLOCK ice which seems to always last over a week in Oct temps.

 

[Huntingfanatic]

We use a non working chest freezer. I added extra layer of insulation to inside. When we get to colorado we buy a bunch of block ice and put it in cooler. (It's also vented in case we use dry ice). We usually spend 12-14 days in the backcountry and always have plenty of ice left when we come back down. If we kill we can pack meat out and go back. When we are done we just throw couple more bags on top for 15 hour drive home. Ice has never come close to being gone

 

[bwlacy]

In 2015 we brought 2 Igloo 120 qt coolers. One was filled with frozen milk jugs and the other one was empty. When we went up the mountain we put both coolers in the backseat of my extended cab. We put the one with the ice on the bottom and covered with a sleeping bag. Unfortunately we didn't kill an elk. But after 2 weeks when I got home I still had ice in those jugs, about 1/4 or 1/3 frozen. I was pretty happy with that for coolers that are under $100. That hunt was the first two weeks of archery in Colorado so the weather wasn't that cold. After that trip I don't know if I could ever justify and of the expensive coolers like a Yeti.

 

[Superkodiak38]

I have never used dry ice before so my question is, how do you keep it seperated from the meat ? Will it "burn" the meat if it is up against it ?I normally hunt whitetails and using a cooler I will lay a bag of ice or two in the bottom, then lay a trashbag on top and lay in the meat. I try to keep the meat dry although I have friends that throw theirs in and dump ice on top and drain off the melt for a couple of days until it runs clear. I would do that with hogs, especially a rank one, but not normally with whitetails.

Thanks !

 

[Don K]

I have two large 120 qt Coleman's in the truck, and they have lasted many years.

 

[rayporter]

dry ice is wrapped in a couple paper bags and just put under and around the meat. it will freeze the meat but i never noticed any discoloration.

in the south it is quite common to just use ice and drain the water from deer every now and then. i have done it and seen no problems with the meat. i ask why not? what could it hurt? if it is 105 deg [ or more] you need to be pretty careful and quick to save meat.

seriously, has any one ever covered meat with ice and lost the meat?

 

[Beendare]

Best bang for the buck is one of those big 5-day extreme Coleman coolers. ...

Agreed...they hold ice for 5 days easy especially if you aren't opening it all the time. I bought 4-5 of the avg size in the off season for $22 each...happens every year bro, they give those coolers away in nov-dec at Walmart.

 

[blackdawg]

I agree with the use the coleman extremes sometimes and a cheap chest freezer other times. The 2 liter bottles with water are great, I just returned from a 7 day trip, it was warm and I kept my food in them. I opened the cooler constantly and the bottles stayed frozen for 5 days with the coleman extreme. One trick I have learned is too get the cooler cold before loading the frozen 2 liter bottles that you plan on taking along. I actually think the cheap chest freezer actually does a better job if we need more volume. We load it up with 2 liter bottles also. Anytime I pull near an outlet, filling up for gas,etc,,,I whip the plug out for a few minutes. A small Honda or Yamaha generator is on my radar for the future instead of the big clanker we carried along in the past.