How to Care For Meat During The Early Season

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There are few things more captivating for a hunter than sneaking up on a high country velvet buck, watching a bear gorging on acorns, or hearing the guttural screams of a bull elk. These are sights and sounds of the early season and they’re worth their weight in gold. With that said, it’s not all peaches and lollipops. Ma Nature can bite back in the form of hot weather during this time, so meat care needs to be top of mind.

My history with hot weather is quite rich. I live down in Arizona where water is scarce and early-season temperatures are rarely forgiving. Because of this, caring for game meat when it’s hot is something I’ve become quite familiar with. And it starts the very moment the animal hits the ground.

Start Tracking ASAP

First, I want to touch on your actions immediately following the shot, especially if it was last light. Time is not on your side. Because of this, it’s imperative that you get on the blood trail ASAP, even if that means tracking in the dark. Of course, this duration will vary from shot to shot. A double lung hit vs. a gut hit requires two different approaches. Proceed with care.

Your Time is Limited

You’ve always got a time limit when an animal is lying at your feet no matter the season. When it’s hot, that window is much shorter. The average internal temperature of a deer is right around 101F degrees and bacteria multiplies rapidly north of 70F degrees. So, you need to act accordingly in order to slow the process. The cooler the temps the slower that process will be. Freezing the meat will stop bacteria growth altogether.

Be Quick with Your Photos

I’m all for taking photos, but you better be on your A-game and not dilly-dally in hot weather. If that animal is left for a few hours in 80-90-degree weather, you risk the meat spoiling entirely. Trust me, I’ve been there, and it isn’t a good feeling. Do what you need to do, do it quickly, and break out the knives sooner than later. Time is of the essence.

Cool the Meat

We want to make sure that we start the cooling process sooner than later. I’m not necessarily referring to getting the meat on ice either. I’m talking about the middle ground until you do get it on ice. Remember, the 70-80 degrees that it may be outside is still technically cooler than the inside of the animal. **I’m going to focus on the gutless method here. I believe that’s what most Western hunters will be doing and the Westies are the ones that are more likely going to be faced with having to cool meat in the field for a longer period of time, due to the more prevalent act of backpack hunting.

Remove Hide and Quarters

The first thing you’re going to want to do is to remove the hide. It acts as an insulator and our goal is to let heat escape as quickly as possible. From there detach the quarters from the heater that is the main cavity. And to take it a step further, consider making an incision, on the hind quarters especially, along the bone to expose it. Bones hold heat and could result in bone sour, where the meat rots from the inside out if left untouched for too long.

Boning out the meat would completely remove the thermal core that is the bone, plus save you some packing weight. Keep in mind that boned-out meat tends to ball up in the bottom of a game bag, and will not cool as quickly in the center of that ball. You need to be sure to rotate the meat around in the bag every now and then to cool things more evenly.

Quality Game Bags are a Must

Hot weather usually means bugs. Because of this, I highly suggest getting a quality set of game bags to keep the flies at bay. If not, you risk your meat getting fly-blown. Eating fly-blown meat can cause intestinal myiasis. Some folks are asymptomatic to this, but others end up having issues with things coming out of both ends if you read what I’m putting down. It’s best to just try and avoid it altogether. Plus, the meat is much easier to carry in a game bag as well. I really like the game bags that are reusable after a simple wash.

Cool and Dry

The goal from this point forward is to keep the meat as cool and dry as you can. Air circulation is key for this. I like to hang my game bags with meat in a tree where it’s shady. Down along a creek is even better. This air circulation will build up a dry rind on the outside of the meat, which will protect the goods underneath. If you don’t have trees, consider building a small grate out of branches to lay the meat on so air can still circulate.

Another thing you can do is put meat in a contractor bag and store it in a running creek. Just be careful no water gets in the bag. You could also hang your meat at night, then cover it during the day with your sleeping bag if you need to stay in the field. Your sleeping bag will insulate the cool meat from the warm outside air. I’ve never personally had to do this, but the more tricks you have in the backcountry the better.

How Much Time Do I Have?

So, how much time do you actually have with meat in the field before it goes bad? Well, there are a lot of variables. The big one is the outside temperature. If the lows are getting 40F and below, then you’re fine for longer than you’ll be comfortable. A week, or even more, is fine. On most early-season hunts with temperatures above 40F degrees at night, a few days hanging in the backcountry is totally doable if you’re taking the precautions we’ve talked about. If the meat is cool to the touch, I don’t usually worry too much. I’ve never had an issue operating like this.

Get it “On” Ice

All said and done, I always approach getting meat on ice in an ASAP manner. That is going to mean something different if I’m backpacked in vs. if I’m operating out of a truck camp. That aside, there are a few things I do to care for the meat once it is in the cooler.

Remember our goals of cool and dry. One way of doing this with a cooler is by freezing water in gallon jugs to essentially make ice blocks without water melting all over your meat. If I am using actual ice bags, then I prefer blocked ice over cubed. The blocks last longer. On top of that, I’ll lay a contractor bag out to separate the meat from the ice. From there, I just try to maintain a regular drain routine to keep as much water out of the cooler as possible and add more ice when necessary.

Closing

If you’re anything like me, you cherish your hard-earned wild game meat. And because of how long we wait for this glorious time of year, we’d be doing ourselves and the animal a disservice by not doing what’s necessary to ensure said meat is cared for and ready to process to feed our families. We all have different experiences out there and these have been mine. The early season is here. Make the most of it!

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