elk meat in a cooler

[bowgy]

When transporting elk meat in a cooler for a two day drive is it necessary to keep the meat dry or can you just keep dumping ice over it as it melts?

[cnelk]

If the meat is cooled down, ice in the cooler should be enough.
Wrap the cooler(s) in sleeping bags to add thermal protection
Otherwise use some dry ice

[hornart]

even if you have water in your cooler it will only discolor the outer layer where it was cut from the bone,,try to drain off the water as much as possible,,but continue to add ice as needed,,it will be fine,,and keep your coolers in the shade as much as possible also

[Vanish]

Anyone know where to get dry ice on my way? Boulder->Golden->Silverthorne->Kremmling

This year we have a 9 day hunt planned and I don't want to have to run to town to get ice should we shoot something.

[>>>---WW---->]

Just about every grocery store and wal-mart on the western slope has dry ice.

[Vanish]

Just about every grocery store and wal-mart on the western slope has dry ice.

That's a long way from my route! ( Boulder->Golden->Silverthorne->Kremmling )

But, I guess that means I should just check out the grocery stores. The local Wal-marts did not have it last time I tried.

[Goneelkn]

If you want to drive to Steamboat, i know City Market has it.

[eltaco]

How long does dried ice stay cold in a decent cooler? Never tried that before. I've always just thrown bags of ice on top of and around my quarters without issue.

[WillyP]

years ago I brought back meat in a huge cooler we built and used dry ice on unfrozen meat to transport it but you have to insulate the meat from the dry ice well and let the cold flow out and around the meat. You might look at buying a used small freezer and running it off an inverter with the unit set on low. You can find them pretty cheap on Craigs list etc. My freezer draws 300 watts when running. I admit I just have my meat processed in town and then keep it frozen already cut and packaged now. Dry ice in a cooler that is duct taped and wrapped in an old sleeping bag will get a guy two days of travel time. I hate recovering from a 30+ hour drive AND having meat to process at home so I have taken to being lazy in my older years.

[Magic]

I have handled meat with ice and processed/wrapped with dry ice. No question that the dry ice options is the best.

When using ice and not processing, I like to let the quarters hang overnight to cool down before icing down using plastic bags to keep the meat dry.

I know one group of hunters that puts the ice directly on the meat. I guess that it works for them.

[Lefty]

I dont like meltwater on my meat. I take a big cooler with 5 and 7 gallon frozen water containers, milk jugs and Army surplus canteens, No melt water but some condensation

Placed in a cooler dry ice layered in paper with a thin clean piece of plywood works great. then the same on the top , plywood, then newspaper then dry ice.

On one hunt we buchered and wrapped three antelope, not much meat on antelope, dry ice in the bottom, and top,.. Two days later the meat was frozen hard when they got home

Just check the local grocery stores dry ice works very good, just dont place it directly on your cooler or meat

My cow two years ago I placed the gutted cow in a plastic tarp , filled the gut carivty with ice,and sewed the cavity back shut, placed large containers of ice around the body : it was 87 degrees , after 2 hours the meqt had cooled and the elk was cold to skin

[Bullnuts]

I don't like water on any of my meat. We've cooled our meat by putting it in a big culvert that had an icy stream running through it. Just build a frame out of aspen logs and make sure you meat is in game bags to keep the flies off and lay the quarters on the logs. If I have to ice a carcass, the ice goess into big trash bags, double wrapped, and stuffed into the cavity. Coolers wrapped in sleeping bags works goood too.

[cnelk]

Dry ice gives off a toxic gas. Be sure that the meat is in a enclosed cooler with dry ice
Dry ice works so well that it can actually freeze the meat if left in the cooler for a while.

[Magic]

Dry ice gives off a toxic gas.

Well, not really toxic as in poisonous. Carbon dioxide is not oxygen, and it would be the "lack of oxygen" that would kill you if you are enclosed without proper ventilation.

It is something to not cause alarm but to be respected, because dead is dead.