Warm weather hunting

H

Hollow Point

CGN Regular
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Location
New Brunswick
Here in NB you can hunt Moose and Bears in September when day time temps can easily get into the mid 20's C.

If I were to get a bear on a Friday evening I have to wait until monday morning to register it. Moose season is different as they have registration stations open all weekend as the season is only 5 days. But local butcher shops fill up fast. How do I keep meat from spoiling in these temperatures? Do I build a cooler, Pack it in/on ice? What about flies? do the cheese cloth sacks sold through Canadian tire and Cabela's work?

Any tips, tricks, or advice?
 
Freeze a 5 gallon pail ( hint, 1 gallon at a time or the pail bursts and floods the freezer ).
Take the pail out at the start of dressing and after hanging the carcass, pick up the pail and tip the (now free, thawed whilst dressing) block of ice into the ribcage. Wrap the carcass shut as best you can and the ice will keep it cold til the carcass can dealt with. Other than legalities, don't waste your time hanging it to improve the meat...it won't. Lot's of folk will argue otherwise but US & CA government advise against hanging wild meat...the butchers that are honest will too. Hang beef and nought else, just dries it out.
But do as you wish...of course.
 
Well I'd try to secure a dark, cold place....at our cabin we have a little garage - I keep the door shut to keep it cool and its made with cinder blocks so its always 5-7 degrees colder than outside if I keep it closed. Improvise a cooler, get lots of ice. The sun is your enemy so obviously don't be hanging anything where the sun will reach it. If you do choose to hang, air flow and shade are key.
 
Quarter it, clean all the hair off it and then put the clean quarters into clear plastic leaf bags and throw it in the freezer until Monday.
 
At my camp I built a frame for a box out of 2x2's and then attached insulation panels and covered the inside with plastic. I'll throw a few bags of ice in the bottom and then put a painting drop sheet over and put the meat in. It comes apart nicely for storage when not in use.
 
Trailer turned into a cooler with an air conditioner and a cool bot.
Keeps it between 2 and 4 deg. C.
That's what we do anyway.
We always hang our moose 7 to 14 days and butcher it ourselves.
 
From the shot to the freezer, processing your own game meat is very rewarding.
The knowledge of what has been done to it by whom, and that it's all still there is also worth the effort.

A piece of advice that always stuck with me is that even if you mess up the cuts you don't lose anything, it just becomes a different cut. :)
I remember the days when it was an intimidating task to butcher an entire moose.
As with anything in life, you learn as you go and you have to start somewhere.

My experience with hanging moose is that it does make the meat more tender.
You do have to be careful with temperture though, if it is too warm you are asking for trouble.
 
Skin and quarter, Wrap in white cotton bed sheets and hang in the shade and breeze. Sao sheets with clan water a couple times per day. Evaporation will have incredible cooling abilities. Get meat to meat locker asap...
 
my father once shot a moose on the south coast of nb on a particularly warm day. we did the field dressing, loaded it in the truck, drove down to the pier and filled the chest cavity with ice we got from a company that transported fish. we did all this to keep it cool long enough to register the kill. after that it was straight to the butcher.
 
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