proper antelope meat care

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Optional step 1: gut it
Step 1: toss carcass in the back of truck in full sun 90F weather and drive around hunt'n some more, bonus if its really dusty too.
Step 2: Half a day or so later drop off at the butcher
Step 3: Bitch about how "gamey" pronghorn are.



FWIW in dozens of pronghorn: I skin and quarter, load into game bag and pack it to a cooler on ice. I agree that condensation forms in coolers with hot meat in those conditions so if you can air it out some (hang the game bags out a bit if the night is cool). Still waiting to get a "gamey" one.

 

[bnsafe]

richm, i would find a diff partner, quick

 

[Rock63]

Sample of one that was skinned, quartered and iced within 1.5 hours of being killed; best eating wild game in NA except for a moose for me. NM August mid morning temps.

 

[bnsafe]

I spoke to a guy years ago who had pronghorn pics all over his house. They loved hunting pronghorn. He said the key was no matter how many tags they had, hunters in the group, etc as soon as a goat hit the ground they stopped hunting and cooled the meat no matter what they had to do. The hunt didnt resume til that goat was being cooled. I think that is the key

 

[TREE ‘EM]

I handle all game meat the same way. As soon as that animal is down, located, and whatever obligatory pictures are taken, I start boning the meat out.
If the full hide isn’t being saved, I start by stretching the animal out on one side and making a dorsal cut from the top of the tail to the shoulders.
I skin back far enough to cut out the backstrap on one side, then start skinning down the hindquarter and boning out as I go. next, I skin the shoulder and bone out that portion as I go. Then I make a small incision behind the ribs to remove the tenderloin on that side. Once that is complete, I roll the animal over and repeat the process on the other side. done this way, it’s extremely quick, efficient and provides hairless meat. There’s no wasted effort gutting an animal either. I don’t eat the bones and don’t find any value in packing them out, only to be disposed of later.
I prefer breathable cotton bags for the meat. As you’re boning the animal out, place the meat in a bag laid flat on the ground, which helps accelerate cooling. I usually prop my pack up with my rifle over the bag for shade.
Once back to the vehicle, there’s always one pre-cooled cooler and a second cooler full of ice.
With a good base layer of ice in the floor of one cooler, I place my cotton meat bags inside of a heavy dutyy contractor trash bag and lay the meat out in an even layer within the bag over the base layer of ice. The open portion of the bag is squeezed flat and dripped over the lip of the cooler with another layer of ice poured in on top of it.
Meat cools quickly this way, and doesn’t get waterlogged, which ruins the meat. As soon as we’re back home, I pulled the cotton meat out of the plastic and hang them in the walk-in cooler to dry age and drain for a couple of days before cutting and wrapping.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Two coolers ideally not directly exposed to the sun nor locked in an enclosed space (ex: truck topper with windows closed). One cooler is full of frozen water jugs with blankets on top for insulation. One cooler is empty; may want to consider a throw away block of ice to pre-cool it every day. Field dress the antelope however you want. Put loaded game bags in empty cooler with water jugs interspersed to help with cooling. Go kill another antelope and do the same with the cooler with the remaining ice jugs.

Depending on distance to drive, grab some dry ice and freeze the snot out of the suckers.

Works in AZ so may work elsewhere in their heat.

 

[bnsafe]

sounds like great advice all. thank you so much.

 

[Bhonn7]

Get the hide off asap and cooled. Haven’t had a bad tasting antelope yet.