What to do with animal in hot weather?

the noobie

the noobie

New member
Dumb question but this is my forst year archery hunting so this will also be my forst time hunting in hotter weather.

What is best to do with the animals? Do you just gut them and get them to the butcher asap or do you skin? 1/4 and pack on ice?

I will be quite a ways from anywhere to buy ice and about an hour-2 from my butcher. Looks like opening weekend will be in high 60 to low 70.
 
you're going to have to cool that animal down, as quickly as possible. a good cooler with some ice stockpiled in it in your case is probably going to be a necessary evil

when we do crop hunts in the summer we used to ice bag as soon as field dressed and drive them to the budget with the ice melting out of the bag on the way there.

unfortunatly now that the only option for butchering closes at 2pm on saturdays... we're in the position to need to build a walk-in freezer.
 
A good cooler full of frozen milk jugs full of water or block ice. Quarter the critter and get the meat on ice and it'll be fine. I killed an orxy a few years ago in 100 degree weather. We used the gutless method to recover all the meat, packed it about 1.5 miles, and put it in the cooler with 8 gallon jugs of ice. No problems. Tasty meat.
 
I need to learn how to do a gutless quarter, it sounds like its quick and clean. No body I know does it and I am not comfortable enough to just try it alone in the field after watching a few videos. I also dont know how appreciative the butcher would be of 1/4's. This is my last year of college so next year I can just butcher my own at home.

Would gutting and skinning in the field then packing the body cavity with frozen jugs/icebags at the truck work as well?
 
It would work but not as well as the gutless method and a cooler full of ice.

Are you close to a vehicle? Backpacking?

I've used the gutless method for years. I also use the skin and clean, or don't skin, just gut in the field. depends on the animal and and temps.
 
If you process your own deer going gutless and deboning/quartering in the field is no big deal. It'll come naturally once you get started. It takes me about 45 minutes - 1 hour by myself to get one in the backpack. About half that with help. That's four quarters, backstraps, tenderloins, brisket, rib and neck. I don't leave any edible meat behind. I don't hurry or rush around, I actually sort of enjoy the process. It's an important part of the hunting experience for me.

Get a good frame pack to haul your meat out. You get about 40% edible meat from a deer so for me that may be from 40 - 80 pounds in the pack and a good frame meat hauler makes that doable. What you are leaving behind is guts, skeletal structure, hide, head, ect. all the throw away stuff that you would otherwise have to deal with later at home. A nice buck can be caped out for a shoulder mount or just the head and antlers brought home for a Euro mount. That increases the weight on your back... I like Euro mounts.

I bring my stuff back to the truck where I have a 150 qt. 5 day Extreme Coleman outdoor cooler. I have that partitioned off with a removable piece of 1/4" plexiglass on the drain hole end. This small end section has ice in it with drinks and lunch. About 80% of that cooler is dry until I put meat in there. The nearest place to get ice is about 15 miles away and on the trip home. Home is about 30 - 60 miles or better depending upon how far into the timber I drove. Dump some ice on the meat and it's good from there on. Even for a couple days if you need it to be.

Later at home all that's needed is a couple hours or less from setting up the butcher table and garden hose to final clean up to cut that meat up ready for the freezer. It is much easier to cut up when it's chilled, way better than working on warm quarters in above 45* temperatures. We have a Food Saver vacuum sealer that does quick work and the steaks, tenderloins, backstraps and meat for the grinding goes in the freezer immediately. The sum total of the scrap trimmings can be put in a small plastic Walmart bag as opposed to having a whole deer hide, bones, head, ect. to deal with at home.

Years ago before I started using this method I would look over topo maps and find great places to hunt back in away from the roads and any hunting pressure. The problem was how to get a deer out. Dragging a field dressed deer up and down these steep slopes with heavy timber and brush for a mile or more was an ornery chore. Especially so by yourself. Warm temperatures made this a real concern. Killing a deer at dark and then dragging it out in the night wasn't fun and warm weather complicated this. Figuring out how to take care of an animal after the kill is a big responsibility if you get off the family farm and other small acreages. It's the limiting factor for many hunters on big tracts of land. Not now, I hunt where I want. If I can walk in, I can walk a deboned deer out with proper equipment. Nobody in my area does this and I have tons of secluded acreage completely to myself to hunt. But keep this to yourself, it's our little secret... wink
 
I dont think I will be hunting much more than 1 mile in any direction from a road. There are tons of logging roads up in this area and being alone I dont like to venture to far out. After my deer last year this year I will be parking low and hunting the high country not parking high and hunting low country, that and my new winter sled should help with dragging if needed.

What worries me is I just do not know how to get the meat off the animal. I know the general areas where it is at (except for the tenderloins). I could probably struggle my way through figuring out how to get the legs off, hardest part I can think of would be be the last bit right around the hip socket and bones. But the rest of the meat I'm just scared of wasting too much, or cutting wrong and puncturing a gut.
 
Believe it or not, YouTube has just about everything you need to know.
Gut first then quarter or bone out. Can't puncture a gut if you already took them out. Not to mention heart, liver, kidneys are all edible and not bad tasting. And its easier to get to the tenderloins with everything out of the way.
 
Look on YouTube at Jay Scott Outdoors two part series on gutless game processing in the field. Also the Fred Eichler and Randy Newburg videos. I'm sure there are some more there that are quality videos too but I can recommend these for sure. I understand your concerns and different strokes for different folks and all that stuff but there is no reason to gut an animal when using this technique. Heck, doing it this way you hardly get blood on your hands.
 
Pop over to the Hog forum and read the guess cleaning method. I carry 2 heavy duty garbage bags to put meat in. Like GC said, 45 minutes and you will be on your way. A yeti with frozen gallon jugs.
 
Thanks! the Jay Scott video was the best ive seen so far, you could actually see what he was doing and he wasnt just flying through it. Did not realize that there isnt a ball joint on the front legs, that makes it a lot easier.

Seems like there is no easy way to get the tenderloins, does anyone have their favorite method? If I can get gutless method down I would prefer it, my nose works really well so I hate the smell of gutting deer. A lot of the guys say just open the stomach to relieve pressure and get tenders out but if I can do it without thats even better.
 
The only way I would carry skeleton bone out in a hiking situation is because of regulation. Go gutless pull,hang quarters then bone,have black pepper to repel flies. After removing loins and quarters you can make an incision behind the last rib(on each side) and slip a hand in and remove the tender no knife needed it can be pulled on deer and elk. Have the carcass on its belly.
 
Originally Posted By: the noobieSeems like there is no easy way to get the tenderloins, does anyone have their favorite method? If I can get gutless method down I would prefer it, my nose works really well so I hate the smell of gutting deer.

Once you're removed all the meat (shoulders, hind quarter, neck meat, backstraps) you can roll what's left onto its front. Then get a big rock or chunk of wood ready. Pick up the rear and block up the pelvis with the rock/wood. That will allow the weight of the guts to sag the paunch. You should then be able to slit behind the last rib and reach in from either side for the tenderloins. When the critter is still warm, you may even be able to pull them loose by hand without needing a knife in there. Of course, if you want to recover any of the organ meat, you can just gut it first, get what you want, and recover the tenderloins from inside.

The first time I used the gutless method on a deer, it took a couple hours. I worked slowly and methodically, removing each part and keeping the meat clean as I went. Now that I've done it a few times I'm down to about an hour like GC. It's not as hard as it seems. Once you get going I don't think you'll have any trouble. Just take your time and keep the meat clean. With only a mile to go, you shouldn't have any worries about losing meat between the kill and the ice in your truck.
 
I've been using the gutless method for years. It really doesn't matter the size of animal whether deer or elk, I can have it done usually in under an hour by myself. I'm fat and old and I'm not packing anything out I can't eat. I carry game bags with me when I elk hunt and pack the first load out with me. Then I pick up my pack frame for the remaining loads to make it easier. I have packed some elk out of pretty nasty places even in warm weather and have never lost any meat. Get it quartered and boned and bagged and make sure it is hung in the shade and it will give you some time.
With deer I just carry 2 pillow cases in my pack, bone them out tie them together and tie them to my day pack. Bring it out with me when I go.
another tip I have figured out is I use Alaskan game bags and put them in my vacuum packer and you can suck 4 bags down smaller than a baseball so they take up very little space in your pack. With 4 bags I can get all the meat off a elk in them.

drscott
 
Getting the tenderloins out when boning out a deer is easy. After all the other meat is off, slice into the body cavity below the side of the spine, starting behind the rib cage and going back to the rear leg joint. You can reach in over the guts, feel for both ends of the tenderloin, and cut them loose. No mess.

On a doe or antelope, they are small enough you can often rip them out intact without even cutting.

Since learning to bone out, I've done it when possible. Where I deer hunt locally, I do need to remove the deer from the property so I still gut. But when I get it home, I bone out the carcass just like I would in the field. No reason to mess hanging it up.
 
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