Meat Transportation

[gabowhuntnfool]

Dry ice

 

[swiftni]

I will be using dry ice in my yeti on our antelope hunts in early August, I have always used regular ice but hate wet meat, especially dirty wet meat from bloody, dirt-covered game bags.
I will kill the antelope, and quarter into game bags doing my best to be meticulous about keeping the meat clean, I will toss the meat onto my roof rack even if it's sunny and drive back to camp or drive for a while allowing the wind blowing over the meat to cool it down before putting it on ice.

Even in hot weather the wind will be the fastest way to cool down the meat and it will waste much less ice, after the meat is as cool as it will get that way I will toss it in the cooler, cover it with a sheet of cardboard and then stack dry ice on top. I will check periodically and once it is nice and cold I will remove it all and toss the dry ice all in the bottom of the cooler, cover with cardboard and put the meat on top. It will stay this way until I get home.

I have a small yeti I will fill with dry ice and keep everything else in my larger coolers until I actually need to use the dry ice, the less you open the cooler the longer it will last.

The skull and hide will get the same treatment only I will get it into the cooler sooner to start freezing the head since it will hold heat much longer.

When using dry ice it;

-Put anything you want to be frozen below the ice, the coldness will sink down to the bottom of the cooler and freeze anything it passes on the way down.

-Put anything you want to refrigerate above the dry ice, it will typically only freeze items under it but does a good job of keeping things above it cool.

-Do not let dry ice sit on the meat or anything you care about, it will frostbite a person and the freezer burn meat, cardboard or folded-up paper bags make a great insulator.

-Keep your dry ice in a small air tight cooler with very few gaps to prolong its life and use it when you need it.

-You can also use it to refreeze water bottles in other coolers and rotate them out of the smaller cooler wiht dry ice in it.

I like this idea. Could pack meat in ziplocks in the bottom, layer cardboard and then add dry ice.

 

[EdP]

My experience is that In 2 days of travel dry ice will freeze the meat solid. Then it has to be thawed to be processed. I will never do that again. Quarters go in game bags, then in plastic bags and in a cooler with ice. The cooler has a home made rack to let melt water accumulate below the meat and to let me drain the water off, which I do a couple of times a day. I don't like to get the meat wet. Once cold, it doesn't take much ice to keep it cold. Dry ice is expensive and unnecessary.

As others said, states you travel thru will have regs attempting to mitigate the spread of CWD. You should look at the regs for each state and decide what you want to do.

 

[KnuckleChild]

To keep crawfish alive overnight we’ve cut a piece of plywood roughly to fit inside the ice chest and put it on top the ice, crawfish on top the plywood and leave the plug open to drain. Haven’t done it with meat (mostly out of laziness) but I’d think it would work the same.

 

[Tod osier]

If you are going back East from being out West, it is nearly guaranteed you will have to debone and clean skulls or skull plate of soft tissue for deer and elk, pronghorn doesn't matter.

Carcass Transportation Regulations in the United States and Canada

Download the full Chronic Wasting Disease and Cervidae Regulations in North America. [PDF] Download a quick reference map of Rules Governing Interstate Transport of High-risk White-tailed Deer Carcass Parts [PDF]. The number one objective in the management of CWD is to prevent its spread into new ar

cwd-info.org

As far as getting it back, there isn't any need to use dry ice if you don't want it frozen when you arrive. I've done it several ways, but deboned meat in a waterproof bag with an absorbent rag (we have a bunch of bar rags we reuse and launder) buried in ice works well if you want to process once home without thawing. If the meat was processed and you want it frozen in transit, laying dry ice on top is great.

 

[EdP]

Pronghorns are not cervids so I don't think you will find any CWD rules applicable to them. Same for mtn goat and sheep. Whitetails, mulies, and the other deer species, plus elk, and moose will all be included.

 

[Indian Summer]

Been doing it with elk for over 35 years. I don’t debone. There is no Nazi CWD checkpoint! I want my meat intact until it gets processed. I just don’t strap racks in plain view advertising that I have wild game.

120 quart coolers with whole quarters and 15 lbs of dry ice. Fill the extra space at the top with a sleeping bag or towels or a garbage bag with dirty laundry etc. Duct tape the seam where the lid meets the cooler. Not a worry in the world. Guaranteed.

 

[Marble]

I put cooled meat in heavy game bags on top of old sleeping bags, egg crates and a tarp and then the same over the top. Kind of like a big taco. It goes on the trailer. It gets done around breakfast time in CO and we drive to CA delivering to the butcher in the afternoon the next day.

No ice.

But it is late October early November.

Been doing this method for 40 years in our group and never had meat spoil. Most people would be surprised how much cold can be retained in that meat and how long it will stay like that.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Asutcliffe]

I have traveled a lot with game in a cooler. I use unscented trash bags to help keep meet out of the water but surrounded by ice. Double up bags when necessary due to weight.

 

[Lytro]

Don't overthink it.

Debone the meat, pack it into gallon or 2 gallon ziplocs, pack in a cooler full of ice. The meat will keep well over a week, and likely much longer, like that. I do this on any hunt I have multiple tags and continue to hunt after.

 

[hutty]

Depending on how you are driving out and how much room you have our group bought a chest freezer from home depot and and run a generator on the way home. Usually about 30 hours ride from Maryland and Wyoming. Some of us butcher ourselves and some drop off at processor but its always comes home cold LOL.