Hanging moose time/temperature limits.

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Clay00019

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Looking for a time/temp/humidity chart that indicates how long it is safe to hang a moose outside in a shed without a cooler.

We always gut, skin, quarter, wash, dry, game bag & hang in a shed by the lakeshore ASAP at our moose camp which is fly in.

It is a sat phone call and a float plane charge to come retrieve the moose and put in the cooler, so it would nice to have a chart or some sort of reference to know when to make the call.

We do a seven day hunt, Sunday-Sunday. Day temps are suppose to be about 7 Deg C, & 1-2 Deg C at night.

I have also heard of an anti bacterial spray and using black pepper???

Thanks for any info.
 
Can't help with a chart, but can pass on advice from butcher in NE Sask - hang it as cool as you can without freezing to age it - when it gets "sticky" (as in you can feel it with your hand) it is time to cut, wrap and freeze it. In his big cooler, I have seen more than 20 elk and moose carcasses hanging - about 4 degrees C - he said some big, older ones can hang for 20 days or more - some young spikers (elk), he cut up after only 3 or 4 days hanging.
 
Moisture is more of a problem than temperature, with in limits. It can handle quite a bit as long as a nice dry skin forms over the meat.
 
I would refrain from washing meat...if possible.

You want your meat to get cool & dry. Also get the animal quartered asap as the hump and neck area will retain heat for 24 hrs or more.

Fans definitely help.

If possible put in sealed plastic bag and submerge in cold Lake water.

Then hang and air dry....use paper towels to dry surface of meat.

The key to meat hanging is to get cold asap.

If you get a frost at night your golden.

Your meat can hang easily for several days if you get a good frost....even IF the daytime temps get to 10 deg. Keep it in the shade and fans blowing on it.
 
We have had meet hanging for a couple days when the temp got into the low 20's one year, try to get it hanging in the air as soon as you can, the cooling in the lake is a good suggestion if you have water nearby.
 
On the retail level, meat is best stored at 4 degrees or less. Of course, those are ideal conditions. You can get a portable temperature reader/gun and measure the temp of the meat and get an idea what temperature the meat is at.
 
As long as you can control the moisture and flies you shouldn't have an issue hanging it for 6-7 days in those temps.

In a controlled environment, you can hang game for a long time. Thriftys Foods sells 48 day aged beef, which is nothing compared to what I heard about on the Meat Eater podcast - they were talking with a chef who had an Audad quarter that had been hanging for over a year. Apparently it had a thick rind built up but under that was super tender meat.
 
You spend a lot of time and money on a hunt, why take the chance? For us, we'll hang overnight, but it's quartered and gone the next day if it's warm enough for flies. We have a 4" heavy wall steel pipe for a hanging pole. It's high enough to make the carcass out of reach for most animals. If it's cool, and no flies, it'll hang a few days. We take ours out by ATV so not as expensive a proposition as yours.
You may find a meat storage chart, but I doubt you will find one for game. How and where it's hung is different for all of us. As simple as being in or out of the sun makes a huge difference.
For deer, I have packed ice in the cavity, tied in, and it worked well for several days. We don't have the ability to keep ice at camp, so never tried it on moose.
 
Over the years we have hung moose in the bush, whole, hide on, in shade, for 7-8 days in 30' to 40' F night time temps without issue. The day time temps can get into the 60's but being in shade with "hide on" helps keep the meat cool against the day temps. Pepper and cheese cloth is great for controlling flies and whisky jacks but does squat for heat. When it gets consistently warm you risk loosing your meat, period.

We camped one time not far from 4 Yugoslavian fellas, the weather was unseasonably warm 80's and 90's F. The European/Yugoslavian boys shot a nice bull opening day. I said I guess with this heat you'll be heading home ASAP. They said no as they have two more tags they want to fill, greedy folks just maybe. Long story short they let that bull hang quartered in the bush for the next 8 days in that heat wrapped in cheese cloth and lathered in pepper. The moose rotted as you could smell it 200 yds. before you got to there camp. They thought it was fine as it had pepper on it. Crazy, Greedy SOB's. And they never seen anymore moose. I reported them to the CO's when we got out of bush, knowing the Ontario CO's I doubt if anything came of it.
 
I saw that Costco has those temperature guns for $35. They use them extensively in the grocery industry .... just point the laser and it reads the surface temperature. Different materials reflect the beam back differently, so make sure you temp the meat and not the meat bag or cheesecloth or whatever. They are used to check the safety of food after equipment failures or to check that refridgeration is working properly. They’re not 100% accurate, but they give a good indication of what temperature the meat is at.

If you know what temp your meat is, you can judge how fast to move it afterwards.

My dad and I always hung the meat and quartered the animal to cool faster.
 
we endeavor to get our animals skinned and washed down as soon as possible and into game bags. Keeps bugs off and allows the meat to skin over as it cools.
Usually our moose and elk hunts are cold enough we don't worry too much about temps as long as the meat is always well shaded. We'll burn a smudge fire near hanging deer if september temps are too warm but again, gut em, skin em, wash em and whole body game bag. I hate blow flies and don't like peppering a perfectly good animal.

My butcher (bob from forest grove bc) told me for my hanging room and mobile meat cooler trailer that 6 degrees C was about perfect hanging temp so I follow that rule.
 
City Boy said:
I saw that Costco has those temperature guns for $35. They use them extensively in the grocery industry .... just point the laser and it reads the surface temperature. Different materials reflect the beam back differently, so make sure you temp the meat and not the meat bag or cheesecloth or whatever. They are used to check the safety of food after equipment failures or to check that refridgeration is working properly. They’re not 100% accurate, but they give a good indication of what temperature the meat is at.

If you know what temp your meat is, you can judge how fast to move it afterwards.

My dad and I always hung the meat and quartered the animal to cool faster.
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They're accurate enough for Fraser Health. They came in to inspect the pizza joint I was working at (routine health inspection) and determined basically all the toppings were over temp and needed to be tossed...

45ACPKING said:
we endeavor to get our animals skinned and washed down as soon as possible and into game bags. Keeps bugs off and allows the meat to skin over as it cools.
Usually our moose and elk hunts are cold enough we don't worry too much about temps as long as the meat is always well shaded. We'll burn a smudge fire near hanging deer if september temps are too warm but again, gut em, skin em, wash em and whole body game bag. I hate blow flies and don't like peppering a perfectly good animal.

My butcher (bob from forest grove bc) told me for my hanging room and mobile meat cooler trailer that 6 degrees C was about perfect hanging temp so I follow that rule.
Click to expand...

6c sounds a smidge warm. The chef I mentioned above recommends 37f, which is about 2.8c. Personally if I was making a dedicated fridge/cooler for hanging meat I'd be shooting for 2-4c.
 
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