What do you guys do on an Antelope meat haul

[Bulldawg]

I posted essentially the same question last year but I want some more information.

Me and some family will be going to Wyoming again this year and we try to make it worth our while with a bunch of doe tags as well as our Buck tags. I've tried a couple of different ways of keeping the meat fresh and cold, some have worked some not so much. First couple years I would just quarter them out put all the quarters in a game bag and place in the cooler with ice and the drain plug open. I would put new ice one them everyday and make sure it was draining properly. Last year I tried something different hoping to keep the meat out of water, I used dry ice in the cooler. The dry ice didn't get the meat cold fast like the regular ice and I won't use it by itself anymore.

What I'm thinking might be best this year is to put the meat in contractor bags to keep dry and cover with regular ice and putting dry ice on top to hopefully keep the ice longer. This way I can keep the drain plug closed and have the meat submerged in ice water once a good portion of the ice has melted. I never had any problems with the meat going bad when I put the ice directly on the game bags but it did make things look not appealing sometimes.

How do you guys do it when you get a lot of animals down and its hot outside? I do think it is very important on antelope in particular to get the meat cold fast. This meat will have to sit in a cooler for 4-5 days before I can cut it up and freeze it. Like I said I haven't ever lost meat before and it is usually the best meat in the freezer but I would like to make sure I am doing the BEST thing I can do to ensure the quality is great.

Thanks guys

 

[cowboy]

Boned out meat will cool faster than keeping it in quarters. If you can spread the meat out rather than in a big ball that will help also. Let the meat cool down by itself to at least your current ambient temperature before putting it in your cooler. If I have access to a running water creek, I like to cut a couple logs to lay over the creek in some shade and set my meat bags on the logs just above the water. You would be amazed how cool that air just above running water can be and how fast it will cool down meat. There has been a time when it was really hot out that I've put the meat in heavy plastic bags and put the bags in a creek for a few hours.

I have tried just about everything you can imagine but I prefer pre-freezing water in bottles in various sizes from milk jugs down to 8 oz. water bottles. Using this method you don't have the thawing water problem and keeping a drain plug out.

If your cooler is big enough you can cut a piece of 1/2" plywood just less than the size of the inside of your cooler to lay over your ice - drill some holes in the plywood to allow a little circulation and lay the meat on the plywood.

If you are going to use any ice system with coolers another thing that helps is cover your coolers with a tarp and wet the tarps down good and often, duct taping the lid also will help. And last but not least - don't open them coolers untill you have too.

It's not very practical but a small freezer and portable generator is by far the best. Running the freezer a couple hours in the morning and evening is all that is usually needed.

 

[5MilesBack]

I freeze gallon milk jugs filled with water and that's my ice. Then I pack them around the meat bags in the cooler. They stay frozen longer and keeps the water off the meat.

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Check this article out, you might want to find a meat processor in the area and see if they can do a hang only. That way the meat will be nice and cold for the trip home.

http://www.rokslide.com/2012-01-09-05-12-00/hunting-tips/238-caring-for-antelope-meat

 

[Bulldawg]

Boned out meat will cool faster than keeping it in quarters. If you can spread the meat out rather than in a big ball that will help also. Let the meat cool down by itself to at least your current ambient temperature before putting it in your cooler. If I have access to a running water creek, I like to cut a couple logs to lay over the creek in some shade and set my meat bags on the logs just above the water. You would be amazed how cool that air just above running water can be and how fast it will cool down meat. There has been a time when it was really hot out that I've put the meat in heavy plastic bags and put the bags in a creek for a few hours.

I have tried just about everything you can imagine but I prefer pre-freezing water in bottles in various sizes from milk jugs down to 8 oz. water bottles. Using this method you don't have the thawing water problem and keeping a drain plug out.

If your cooler is big enough you can cut a piece of 1/2" plywood just less than the size of the inside of your cooler to lay over your ice - drill some holes in the plywood to allow a little circulation and lay the meat on the plywood.

If you are going to use any ice system with coolers another thing that helps is cover your coolers with a tarp and wet the tarps down good and often, duct taping the lid also will help. And last but not least - don't open them coolers untill you have too.

It's not very practical but a small freezer and portable generator is by far the best. Running the freezer a couple hours in the morning and evening is all that is usually needed.

I don't know where you hunt antelope but where I hunt it is hot and dry!! Lol so setting the meat out to cool is not much of an option.

That article is nice but I disagree where they talk about having to drain the cooler. I know that if you put meat in a cooler with ice you just leave the drain plugs open and that will alleviate any pooling water.

The problems with frozen gallon jugs is they won't get the meat cooled down as fast as ice that is surrounding it, kinda like using dry ice which is a lot colder than a just of ice.

I'm wondering if using a plastic bag like some guys use to dunk elk meat in a creek to keep it cool for a couple days would be a good method of keeping the meat cold and dry.

 

[MUDDYCRICK]

I'm planning on putting the meat in a contractor bag then dunking it in a stock tank for an hour then load it up in a cooler of frozen bottles till I get to an ice machine. Chances are if your hunting spead goats you'll be around a water source.

 

[6mm Remington]

We have started doing this so we don't have to worry about our meat on the way home, and then worry about either getting it all cut up ourself or taking it someplace. We take our deer and antelope into a processor near where we hunt and have him process them after they cool for a couple days. If we have to stay a day or two extra, to get our meat all done, we sort of plan for that just in case. Better to come home with just one or two that need attention once you get home then 4 or 6 antelope!!

They are frozen solid packages of wrapped meat when we pick them up and we fill our coolers with the processed meat. It survives the trip home quite nicely in the coolers. The full cooler really helps. I like to cut up my own meat, but when we travel a distance to hunt antelope and deer, man it's nice not to have to mess with cutting meat when you get home. I've spoiled myself on that. Now if I shoot a deer or elk or something else here and the weather is cool enough I can hang it, I really prefer to do my own.

 

[Mike7]

What has worked well for us for a week in Wyoming, was going with a small chest freezer partially full with frozen gallon water jugs. As we shot antelope we quartered them and cooled/aired them out over night in TAG bags, and then boned them out and put in gallon freezer bags within about 24 hrs when we weren't hunting. We then threw the gallon freezer bags of meat in with the frozen jugs and covered all of this with an el cheapo EVA foam sleeping pad. Every 2-3 days we ran to town and purchased about ?20 lbs of dry ice. Anything below the dry ice in the freezer froze solid, including the water jugs. The dry ice was placed on a ledge about 1/2 way up in the freezer and we rotated jugs so that they all froze solid...but we only kept meat/cuts below the dry ice that we didn't mind freezing solid.