One of the biggest challenges with hunting public land is often retrieving and processing deer, especially when hunting remote areas. In this section we'll cover the following questions.
1) How do you quarter a deer out?
2) At what point does meat begin to spoil and how do you prevent spoilage?
3) How do you store meat on an out of state trip?
4) What equipment do you use to process game at home?
5) Game carts, sleds, and packs. Which one do I need to get my deer out?
Preventing Spoilage
The number one way to keep your deer meat from spoiling is to kill and recover the animal quickly. We know this doesn't always happen but it also serves as a reminder that making good shots on deer is critical, especially in warm temperatures. We've harvested several deer in early season with temps above 70 degrees. The deer we recovered quickly tasted great and had no spoilage. Those we had to leave overnight or recovered 6+ hours after the shot had issues either with spoilage or taste. With that said, deer we recovered in temperatures under 60 degrees were good even when recovery was delayed.
There are multiple videos on YouTube which serve as a good resource for gutting and field dressing deer. If you decide NOT to quarter your animal, it's best to gut the deer as soon as possible.
Here is a good example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sChcEu862s
Quartering Deer
We've started quartering and packing deer out more and more in the past 3 years. Here's a video of how we do it!
Storing Meat Before Processing
We bring an overbuilt molded cooler of some kind on every trip. We have a couple of YETI's and Orion coolers.
STEP 1 - Chill the cooler a day or two before leaving on the trip.
Start with frozen milk jugs (or something similar) then add ice accordingly throughout your trip. Chilling the cooler ahead of time helps reduce the amount of ice it takes to hold a cool temp for multiple days.
STEP 2 - Hang the meat exposed to the air in game bags.
In warm weather this is an obvious step, but we've hung meat in 60 degrees and below in shade or overnight and it's cooled down nicely. Leave the meat on the quarter if possible to hang in the game bags overnight. Then store it in the cooler for the trip home. If the cooler has been properly chilled throughout the trip and kept in the shade, the meat will need very little ice to maintain cool temperatures. We brought an elk back in 90 degree weather from Wyoming last Fall and put ice on it one time during the trip back.
Meat Processing
Once the meat is home, we use a grinder and vacuum sealer to process and store in the deep freeze. This past Fall we used the 500 watt grinder from MEAT accompanied with their MEAT! Bags and Poly Bag Tape kit. The process works best if you can trim fat and silver skin off the meat. Adding a little bit of fat back in doesn't hurt anything either.
For select cuts like steaks, roasts, ribs, etc. we use this vacuum sealer. Buy plenty of extra vacuum bags as well.
We also take a few deer to our local processor each season if we don't have the time to process at home.
Game Retrieval Gear
We've used a variety of deer carts, sleds, and packs for retrieving deer. Please see the essential gear section in Chapter 2 to learn more about the individual products.
Carts, sleds, and packs can all come in handy for varying scenarios in the field. In some states it is illegal to quarter deer so you're left with a cart of sled for retrieval.
