Hunting Tips: Meat Care and Preparing For The Packout

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I’d worked the bugling bull all afternoon. Finally, with less than five minutes of shooting light remaining, he stepped out of the timber. The air was still. The cross-canyon shot was straight forward with the Nosler .325 WSM.

Before pulling the trigger, I played out the recovery in my mind. It would take the better part of an hour to reach the bull if it died where it stood. That meant navigating in the dark. If the shot wasn’t perfect, the bull could end up in the bottom of Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon—aptly named. If all went well, I’d finish by 11:00 p.m. and return the next day to wrap up the packing.

The first shot punched the bull in the lungs. A quick follow-up hit next to the first. I watched, confident it would fall right there. But the big bull regained his strength, turned and slowly walked back toward the timber. I shot for the neck but missed, sending the bullet to the right at 410 yards. As the bull reached the crest of the hill, five yards from where it was first hit, it fell.

An hour after I started navigating the rugged mountainside, I reached where the bull fell. It was pitch dark, had been for a while. The bull was gone. Blood glowed in the headlamp, good blood. Scuff marks revealed the bull rolled over, then toppled down the backside of the mountain. Three hundred yards down the mountain, the bull was dead. A buddy joined me, thankfully. We skinned, quartered, bagged the meat and got it hanging. We made it back to camp at 2:30 a.m. By 7:00 a.m. we were packing out the bull and finished at 3:30 that afternoon.

Meat Recovery 101

Meat recovery often becomes the most taxing part of a hunt. I’ve experienced long nights with mountain goat, Dall sheep, moose, bear, deer, caribou and more. Going into each hunt, preparation is the key to alleviating stress, optimizing the workload and retaining the best quality meat possible—even if it means working through the night.

When hunting rugged land, shot opportunities often come minutes before dark. Be prepared to spend much of the night breaking down an animal so the meat doesn’t spoil. If you’re not willing to work in the dark, don’t shoot.

An animal should never be left to recover the following morning, especially in winter. Animal hides are insulators. As hair thickens through fall and winter it becomes even more important to get the animal broken down and quickly cooling.

Prior to every hunt, assess the possible breakdown scenarios and prepare accordingly. I often strap a day pack to a pack frame so I can bring one load of meat out. There are packs on the market designed for this. If moose hunting in Alaska from a boat where space isn’t a concern, I’ll try to take a tarp to lay the massive amounts of meat on. If on horseback in the backcountry, saving weight and space are a priority, so rope and game bags are key pieces of gear.

Typically, game bags, rope, a knife and steel are all you need to breakdown any big game animal. All bones can be disarticulated at the joints. A saw is only needed to cut the skull cap off antlered and horned game.

Heat Extraction

I use the gutless method of field dressing as it’s quick and clean. Remove all bloodshot tissue as you go. In warm conditions with big boned game like moose, elk and bear, separate the large muscles on the hind quarters, leaving them attached by the tendons at the knee. Prior to putting in game bags, hang by the exposed femur, in the shade, so the muscles fold over the lower leg. This allows the meat to cool from the inside and outside. Big bones retain heat and the quicker muscles can be separated from them, the faster they’ll cool.

If there’s snow on the ground, lay meat and all four quarters on it to cool. Leaving muscles attached to leg bones is preferred in cool situations. It’s best to age meat on the bone as the loss of moisture stretches and breaks down the cells, making the muscle tissue tender. If outside temperatures are under 50º, I’ll leave meat attached to the bone for transporting. Hanging meat on the bone in 34º to 44º for a minimum of five days is ideal.

For a nighttime breakdown, have a good headlamp, even two. Remove the batteries before putting the light in your pack. It’s a helpless feeling seeing a dim glowing in the pack, having been accidentally turned on hours prior. Always take extra batteries.

With the quarters and all body meat in game bags, hang them in the shade on sunny days so air can circulate around them. Never place meat in plastic bags and don’t pile game bags atop one another as this traps heat.

In bear country, have enough rope to hoist game bags into trees. If hunting the tundra and you have to overnight near the kill, stash it a safe distance from your tent as grizzlies will smell it from miles away. If you have to make multiple trips to pack out meat, mark the kill site and trail on a GPS so you can navigate in the dark, fog, clouds, heavy rain or snow.

Game Plan

Before every hunt, develop a plan of how you’ll get meat from the field to the trailhead, into cold storage in the nearest town if necessary and then home. A detailed plan is especially important in hot conditions commonly associated with early fall and late spring hunts.

The more prepared you are to breakdown big game in the dark, the smoother the process will go and the cleaner the meat will be. You’ll know you’ve done it right when you sink your teeth into the tender, tasty meat. That’s the true litmus test to proper field care.

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