How Do You Transport Your Elk Home?

[lostagain]

For all of you experienced Elk hunters out there I got a question for you.

How do you transport your Elk home with you after you have quartered it out (ice chest, plywood box, wrapped in sleeping bags...? We may not have the ability to cool it by hanging the quarters due to the time we are hunting (Early season)

Do you think an Elk would fit into two (2) 160 quart ice chest?

Just looking for ideas. I know you guys are a creative bunch.

 

[paulc]

Nobody has responded so I will tell you how I do it.

If it is an early season elk hunt, I would bone out the meat, hang it in game bags (the good heavy cotton ones not the cheese cloth junk ones) i the shade. I dont care how warm it is, if it is in the shade and getting down at least into the 60s at night you will be fine.

Now when you leave, you can put these cloth bags of meat (you can also use pillow cases) into ice chests and pick us a little dry ice on the way home to maintain the temp.

I package it when i get home or you can take it to the butcher. Get as much dry ice as you will need to keep your mind at ease.

Typically you can buy 10 lbs and split it up amongst your ice chests and it will do its job.

 

[spectr17]

Mattress covers at army surplus work real good. Heavy cottom like PaulC mentioned. They have a drawstring to pull them up over the meat tight.

 

[84toyota]

Over the years, my dad and I have accumulated numerous styrofoam "shipping boxes"... the kind that they send frozen food in. They are generally a few inches thick, and tend to insulate fairly well... We hunt Colorado every year, so we pack food and other items in the styrofoam boxes to take over to Colorado... we eat the food while we are there, and then pack them full of elk for the drive home... That, coupled with ice chests, and we're good to go... We hang the meat out the night before we return home to get it cooled off... stays cool the whole trip.

ken

 

[BOWUNTR]

Here's how I got them home last year!!! Ed F

 

[Arrowslinger]

Great advice guys, but this is the proper method:

 

[paulc]

 

[lostagain]

Thanks for the help guys. Was that one of Jesse's first JHP stickers on the bumper.

 

[bowhuntr]

I guess I have to go buy a Pacer or a Pinto, cant tell what the car is.

 

[BDB]

I got my last (and only) one home in a 148 qt chest but I didn't have the whole elk (shared with hunting buds) but it was quartered. Speck shot a nice bull a couple of years back and cut and wrapped it and said it fit perfectly in the 150 qt ice chest.

 

[spectr17]

AMC Gremlin?

 

[Speckmisser]

Well, you said "experienced" and I've only been twice... but brought bulls home from CO both times so I guess that counts for something.

Like BDB said, I hung mine in camp for most of the week, then boned and butchered it myself and packed it in a big 150 or 160qt cooler. The first one I packed in butcher paper, and I didn't trim it very much, so it took the full cooler plus a 48qt cooler. The only bones I brought home were the skull plate and some ribs.

The second bull was about the same size, but I butchered this one carefully, did all my trimming right there on the spot, and vacuum packed all the cuts. This allowed me to fit the whole thing into a single 150 qt cooler, with enough room for plenty of dry ice.

Couple of notes about that dry ice, though. First of all, a little goes a long ways. It's cold stuff, and it tends to sink down so put it on top of your cooler.

Also, if you use much or leave it packed nice and tight, it will freeze all the meat in the cooler. Now this was alright with me, as I only had to move it from the cooler into the freezer when I got back to CA. If your meat isn't wrapped, layer something between the dry ice and the meat to keep it from burning. You can always trim it later, but a simple step along the way makes life easier.

As long as your temps don't get too high during the week, you can hang the meat in camp for several days. Get the hide off, cut it up (at least quarters), and keep it shaded and covered. Same way you'd manage a deer. If it gets warm, you'll probably have a bit more trim when you butcher, but it won't hurt the meat.

If you're packing it all the way back to CA, I'd go ahead and bone it out, rather than packing bone. And, of course, you're not permitted to bring any spine back across state lines anyway, due to the CWD issue... even if you're not hunting in a CWD zone.

 

[Aden]

Those are some great ideas for moving animals. A friend and I once packed mule deer quarters in the legs of our neoprene waders, dumped ice in and tied the tops shut. We wrapped our sleeping bags around the waders and tarped the entire thing and they came home unscathed and cool. My dog is still sniffing my waders though.