Warm weather field care

[Scott E]

Its going to be a warm opening day (75 degrees) so I was wondering what everyones warm weather field care tips are.

Gutless bucher? Field dress and pack with ice? The butcher is about 30 mins from where I hunt.

[gringol]

I do a traditional gutting and dressing, skin it, and throw it in a big cooler with ice.  Sometimes it takes me 2+ days to get to the butcher, but as long as you replace the ice every day you're fine, even in 85+ deg weather.

[Roughrider]

The biggest thing is get the body heat out as quick as possible.  Recover the animal ASAP and get the guts out.  If you have clean, cold water, wash the animal inside and out, and if you can keep it clean, get the hide off.  Keep the animal in the shade where the air can move around it - keep off dust and dirt.  Once the body heat is out, and the animal has good air circulation, they will be fine for at least 48 hours at long as it's below about 85.  Draping them in a light, damp sheet will evaporative cool if it's hot and the humidity isn't too high.  Putting a fan on them when so draped, or in front of a window air conditioner also works.

Placing in a cooler of ice works great if you keep them out of any water that may accumulate in the bottom of the cooler.

[DaveT1963]

75 degrees is not hot - we will probably have 90+ temps here in TX :-)

[Bud B.]

To keep flies off use ground black pepper sprinlked on any exposed meat. Works like a charm to keep flies from laying eggs.

[Shawn Leonard]

Never wash the meat inside and out it introduces bacteria, where does bacteria thrive? Moist warm areas!! Gut them in The field, bring them home, hang them, skin them and cut and quarter them. I than have a huge fridge I removed all The shelves from. I than hang The quarters(4) from Two bars I installed. I let them hang 4-5 days At 35 degrees. I than cut it up myself. The loins and such I let them age a couple days as well, but they get eaten up real quick so I rarely store them long! Shawn

[Mike Vines]

Prime example why I'm glad I got to hunt with Roger Norris this year.  We both tagged out on a couple beautiful mule deer a week ago today.  Both were killed in the evening and the temps were only getting into the low 50's.  I was content leaving them hang till morning then taking care of business, but Roger's wisdom convinced me of the proper thing to do.  We started at 9 PM skinning and quartering the deer, and when cutting the hind quarters off 5 (or so) hrs after the kill, they were still warm to the touch.  Got done with field butchering both deer at 11:30.  Best thing we could have done was exactly what we did.

We layered the meat in between layers of ice in 2 different coolers. The looks on the "Hunters'" faces when I show up to the bar to get a bunch of bags of ice was priceless.  Here they were all decked out in camo, driking, smoking and watching the Broncos playing football and I had the nerve to ask for bagged ice from the bar maid.  She asked what are they for, to which I replied "we have 2 hanging in camp and we need to cool them down".  Everyone just looked at me, and I took the opporrunity to also say "Got both of them with a Longbow too".

We got the coolers full, opened the drain plug so the meat wouldn't be sitting in water (I had a hitch haul to hold the coolers) stopped 1/2 way home on a 26 hour drive to add ice.  Even made it thru S. Dakota and there 100+° weather with no problems.

Dropped the meat at the processor on Saturday evening still packed in ice and picked it up Sunday evening.  It is the best venison I have ever ate.  Even had the heart packed in there with it, and after sitting in the fridge till last night, I cooked it up for desert for my boys and I.  With generic Seasoning salt and black pepper sprinkled on top of the pieces, it was fantastic.

The Key like everyone has said is get the hide off and meat cooled down.

[Cmane07]

Agree with what everyone said.  We have killed deer in 90 degree temps down here.  The best thing to do is get the hide off and put in a cooler with ice ASAP.  Keep adding ice and draining the water and you're good to go    

[gringol]

Mike, I love this part "it was only getting into the low 50s at night." I would kill for that kind of weather right now!  We just started dropping below 78 at night here about a week ago!

[Cmane07]

Ha I agree gringol.  High of 96 here today! ugghhh

[SKITCH]

Originally posted by gringol:
Mike, I love this part "it was only getting into the low 50s at night." I would kill for that kind of weather right now!  We just started dropping below 78 at night here about a week ago!

X2.    Upper 90's during the day....low 80's high 70's at night. Hasn't rained in weeks!    Yuck.

[LB_hntr]

All great suggestions and advise. Also great question to begin with as many of us hunt in these temps.
 Another option that may interest you if you are going to skin and quarter is to finish processing yourself. after the quartering is done the remainder of the process is not long and is fun and rewarding. If you don't have a meat grinder you can put the meat to be ground in a cooler and take that to the butcher to have him grind it for you.
I know there are many reasons why many of us take meat to butchers (myself included, when time is an issue) And you may know how to do it yourself and have a different reason for bring it in to be butchered.
But if your reason is because of not knowing how to there are great videos out there and the process is very easy. I might have a processing video still and if I do I would be happy to mail it to you if you didn't know and wanted to learn.

[John Scifres]

As long as you recover the deer quickly, you won't have any problems.  If you have to wait for whatever reason, it'll be tough.  

However, I shot a deer at last light one time when it was hanging in the upper 60s/low 70s all night and 80 the next day.  It was questionable gut/liver shot and I could not find him quickly and had to come back the next day.  I found him fallen in the shade, thank God, and lost only the tenderloins.  It was a gut shot so I would have likely lost those anyway.  I guess my point is that you can still back out if you absolutely have to but I got lucky.

[Scott E]

^thats the method I was thinking of

I don't have a good space for butchering at my house. I'm not allowed in the kitchen with dead things lol. So I'll probably have ti use a butcher. LB_hntr thank you for the offer though.

[Roadkill]

I carry a spray bottle with cold vinegar.  When the animal is hanging I squirt and wipe it down, especialy the body cavity..  I get all the dirt and hair off before it goes in the coolers and then treat as the others say.  Clean meat and surface treated with vinegar helps keeps bacteria down.  The vinegar does not taint teh the taste of the meat.
I lost an antelope on saturday night to the coyotes.  Could not tell how badly it wanted to die, so backed off to Sunday morn-the yotes tore the ball joints out of the pelvic girdle=0 left for me.  I thought I saw a black wolf earlier in teh day-maybe?  We were about 30 air miles from Idaho, and we have have confirmed spottings here.  I do not believe the wolf was on my kill, just yotes

[tom cunningham]

Adding to Shawn's point. Bacteria growth rapidly spikes up exponentially as temps rise.... I like keeping frozen 2-4  1 gallon jugs of water in the vehicle ice chest. Keeps my food and drinks cold, serves as backup water, then used on an animal killed or if not used they can go back in freezer for the next trip. As usual a little preparation goes a long way. Tom.