Question for you warm weather hunters

[Charlieyca]

Opening day of muzzleloader our temps were in the 90s. I think there is a balance between getting to a deer quick and making sure the deer is dead quick. If i make a good shot and hear it crash, I go straight to. I immediately gut it and first gas station gets it a bag of ice in the cavity. Bow season I give them 30 mins regardless when its hot. Then start tracking. Once guts are out, Im not nearly as worried about the meat and spoilage.

 

[Steve Daniel]

For those of you down South that deal with 80+ temperatures during hunting season, what do you do with the deer immediately after you shoot it? I would imagine that as soon as you take the shot it's a rush to get it to the freezer. Here in Michigan, it's not uncommon to have a deer hanging in the garage for a week or two.


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In Alabama we Field Dress Deer ASAP. Then guy either take their Deer to a Processor, or take it home and butcher it yourself. When I was a kid my Dad was an ole Time Butcher. He Butchered my first Deer with me watching. My second Deer, he watched and advised. That was 50 years ago. I still process my own Deer. Now days I don't do much more than separate the Quarters for my Smokers, maybe cut some Roast and or carve some steaks, and cut up a lot of Stew Meat. If it's a decent head, I boil it and do a European Mount. If not... I give the antlers to a buddy who does wood carvings. In Alabama half the Winter is too warm to hang Deer outside. We Gut em quick, and get them out of the woods before it gets too hot, and before the Coyotes move in.

 

[Drycreek]

Pretty common to have temps too high to hang deer here in ETexas. Sixty or below we can kinda take our time, above that there's no time to waste. What I've done most of my life is plan ahead for the care of the meat. One place I hunt has a cold storage facility, the three others do not. On two places, I either take the deer directly to the processor, or skin and quarter, and put it on ice. The last place it's pretty well skin and quarter, and ice it down. My truck has a cover and I carry a clean ice chest at all times. I'm never over twenty minutes away from an ice source. ( Never, NEVER, buy ice ahead of time, it's a jinx !) The one exception to that is if you are hunting somewhere where ice is an hour or more away. In that case, challenge the jinx !

I remember antelope hunting in Wyoming once, three of us, and forgetting to load up on ice. If you've never been to Wyoming, well, there are long stretches of highway where there is nothing except cattle and antelope, and a few mule deer. The round trip to get ice took me almost an hour and a half, and Wyoming temps in September can be as hot as they are in Texas. Worked out well though, the other guys had the two goats skinned and quartered by the time I got back, and I got to skip the work !