Meat cooler for DIY butchers

H

Hollow Point

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lots of good advice in another post for information oon butchering your own game so I thought i'd start another post to see if anyone has any advice for building a meat cooler to hang and age your game in. Most of the ones I have seen consist of insulated room or shed with an air conditioner but I have read you should also have humidity control. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?
 
If I were to built one it would be spray foamed and air tight.

I would use 2 air conditioners set up on a timer so to keep them from freezing.

Other option would be a "cool bot".

I would also install a dehumidifier and small hole in floor for drain.
 
If you are going to hang (dry age) one game animal at a time have you consider find an used commercial glass fridge (pop or beverage fridge or even an old side by side fridge?

I have seen those going for cheap sometimes next to nothing as long as you move it on your own and it should be tall enough for a deer size animal if you remove the head and its legs and may work on an elk size if you find a double door one just put a humidifier at the bottom and monitor with a humistat.

Not my pics but give you an idea:



 
My son & I have a 7X7X7 cooler. It was retrofitted from an old walk in cooler. One 5000 btu air conditioner and a coolbot. Holds temp at 37F in any weather. Instead of a coolbot one can use two inkbird controllers that are much cheaper than the coolbot. Our cooler is 3 inches thick & the floor is insulated as well. Have so far seen no use for a dehumidifier. 37 degrees seems to be the perfect temp. Lots of ways to go about it but that is what we did.
 
I built a 5X10 walk-in cooler in my pole shed. Tried the A/C units but was not real happy with them when it was +35 out during the archery elk/deer season at the end of Aug. Bought a used compressor and refrigeration unit from a local company and had them install it. A little pricey but no problem to get the temp below freezing if I chose to. My buddies are very happy to know that they have a place to hang their meat should they shoot something on a Saturday Evening or Sunday I’m not really into Archery hunting anymore so by the time I start shooting deer a cooler is almost not needed. I do have a few sheep running around the place and it is nice to have a place to hang lambs anytime I decide it is time to butcher them.
 
I plan on building a walk in cooler before the fall for hanging deer when the temps are too warm. There is a canadian version of the cool bot called Ichill sold by Maleshewski Gunsmith (Camrose Alberta) for $269 that I will be buying.
 
DMS1 said:
I plan on building a walk in cooler before the fall for hanging deer when the temps are too warm. There is a canadian version of the cool bot called Ichill sold by Maleshewski Gunsmith (Camrose Alberta) for $269 that I will be buying.
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do you have a link to the product? I tried to google it but all i got was some sleep aide dietary supplement.
 
I have used the coolbot( bought when under $300) system for 5plus yrs now without any issues so far have one at cabin 8x8 6” insulation and 8k air conditioning and one at home 4x7 31/2” insul 8k air conditioning. I do use one of them Pepsi container humidifier in mine but not sure of real benifit( keeps pops from raging on me). Have kept animals up to 10-12 days hanging in it
 
Suka said:
We bone them out where they drop, pack them out, have a little deepfreeze and genny on the trailer back at main camp. Get it home, thaw it in the sink, cut and package. Not ideal maybe but works.
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If you get your meat COLD fast....it can hang for days at warmer temps...the initial flash cool is most important.

We were on a Mule Deer once and I was tagged out first.

My meat was hanging for 4 days....but on first night it froze hard....after that no more frost.

On way home we hit + 18 degrees in Nov. In S'TOON.....some of the guys with 1 & 2 day old deer spoiled!.....Mine was fine.

We now bring small freezer, and Genny and devine and freeze.
 
Never saw the point in sending my hard earned game meat to the floor as trimmed scrap. Other than getting it cold as I can, as fast as I can, getting it cut, as fast as I can, has always been the next highest priority.

Known a few folks now, that hauled a freezer and genset out into the sticks to deal with the best keeping of their meat.
 
I'm building my Coolbot controlled meat cooler on a trailer. The bottom 1/2 has been started and kinda got put to the side for other projects. It will be a mobile meat cooler when finished and the gennie mounts on the trailer tongue. Interior will have D-ring's on walls , ceiling and floor to hang and secure large game 1/4's or whole deer (head and legs off) while the unit is travelling.
Been kind of a long term project but I hope to finish it this year sometime LOL
 
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