Keeping a shot beast cool

[Camelfarm]

Got a 6' larder fridge from Facebook market place for £60 or so. Drilled two holes in the sides near the top (after establishing beyond doubt that there were no electronics or parts of the cooling system in there) and pushed a bit of aluminium pipe through. It easily holds 2 x roe or 1 x fallow. When not in use it sits in a corner of the office with the door held ajar to prevent moisture and mould. Gets a good wipe down with an odourless disinfectant before anything s put in it. Some layers of kitchen roll on the bottom make cleaning a bit easier after the meat has hung.

If you have a little bit of space then its a great and cheap addition - would live happily in a garage as it is manually controlled and not referenced to outside temperature like some commercial ones.

 

[geoffw]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

You could skin & tag and ask a butcher, esp a wholesale butcher, if you could hang it in their chiller for a week for a few quid/share of the meat.
It's an easier ask still if you're getting them to butcher/sausage/burger/vac pack it for you.

 

[Morkai]

Instead of starting a new thread -

How do you go about keep them cool when transporting a carcass bag from a stalk?

 

[geoffw]

Instead of starting a new thread -

How do you go about keep them cool when transporting a carcass bag from a stalk?

Once you get back to the vehicle, decant from bag into a suitable tub, ideally with a grid in the base (to keep them out of the blood).
I would avoid transporting in a bag for longer than you have to/ if you can avoid it- as you're trapping the hot air in/allowing blood pooling into the coat which is a faf.

 

[Morkai]

Once you get back to the vehicle, decant from bag into a suitable tub, ideally with a grid in the base (to keep them out of the blood).
I would avoid transporting in a bag for longer than you have to/ if you can avoid it- as you're trapping the hot air in/allowing blood pooling into the coat which is a faf.

Thanks,

I have a relatively small car and no room for a big cooler etc, maybe I'll chuck a few bags of ice inside the cavity for longer trips back.

 

[gixer1]

We obsess over coke fridges etc, but be warned, they often come with faults, yes they can be good value but if you end up having to dispose of it at the local tip (same applies with commercial fridges) you will be charged handsomely for disposal.
A domestic tall fridge is just as effective for medium sized deer and again readily available on Facebook etc, and often have had an easier life. Doesn’t need to be a top of the range Miele a cheapo beko tall fridge is fine, just pull the shelves out and hang a bar from the top row of shelving brackets which are normally moulded plastic internals and perfectly strong enough. Be very cautious if drilling holes in fridges for bars to hang from, you may very easily drill through the cooling system!

^^this^^ - the one I used below - cost a whole £40!

 

[75]

Thanks,

I have a relatively small car and no room for a big cooler etc, maybe I'll chuck a few bags of ice inside the cavity for longer trips back.

Couple of 2l water bottles frozen work well and easy to wash / recycle

 

[Morkai]

Couple of 2l water bottles frozen work well and easy to wash / recycle

Tidy, good idea.

 

[finnbear270]

Thanks,

I have a relatively small car and no room for a big cooler etc, maybe I'll chuck a few bags of ice inside the cavity for longer trips back.

Keep the ice packs off direct contact.

 

[JohnSmith]

Larders aren’t a thing in Canada, never heard of anyone having one in their house/shed here.

In summer/fall when temps are high, we clean the animal asap in the field and put the meat in a large cooler to transport home. Many who don’t have a cooler drive the meat back home asap then freeze the meat.

When I shot my last bear it was ~30°C. I cleaned the bear in an hour, threw it all in the back of my truck (without a cooler), drove it two hours back “home”, then spent another hour deboning it all outside of my work. Then finally put the meat into game bags and threw them in the freezer.

Without a chiller there’s no way to keep them cool enough in hot temps. For back country hunts you can put the meat in a garbage bag and submerge the meat in a shallow river to keep it cool (using rocks to anchor part of the bag on shore) but I don’t think that scenario applies.

 

[finnbear270]

I can just see myself kneeling beside the rain drain on the Thelwall viaduct, ............... Sorry officer just needed to cool my shot deer a bit.

 

[Heym SR20]

I skin on the spot, let carcass cool down in what ever breeze there is and then take off haunches, shoulders, backstraps and other bits of meat - either once I get home or in the field depending on where I am, time of day, midge levels etc. I have an old fish box with the holes plugged into which I put the carcass. Once at home, if its still a whole carcass and its late and I am knackered I have about four freezer blocks that go into and around the carcass and that helps to cool it it further. I have also picked up bags of ice from a garage. One of those large cool boxes would be better, but they are a pain to store, carry etc. The decathlon body bags also work well.

I then age the meat in my fridge - ideally leaving for three days to a week. Works well.

But also do think on the conditions before pulling the trigger. And now that we are well through July and getting into August the bucks are in pretty poor condition after the rut. I shot one the other night and it was skin and bones. May be worth leaving them for a wee while till it starts getting Autumnal and they put on some condition. Indeed August all the bucks just seem to dissappear.

 

[wildfowler.250]

I think the interesting thing with this is how many folk seem to hang stuff in sections in a tall fridge.

I’ve got a couple of small fridges and have often wondered if I could hang legs and backstraps for a week (fur on or off) for the same as I could in a proper chiller?

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

Thanks,

I have a relatively small car and no room for a big cooler etc, maybe I'll chuck a few bags of ice inside the cavity for longer trips back.

I use a Golf for my stalking adventures. Throw the carcass into a 175ltr tub and drive home. Takes an hours drive but never had a problem

 

[Freeforester]

They managed in summer by eating small animals immediately (or big animals butchered and eaten on the spot by a whole tribe).
Once people became less nomadic, killing would be carried out during the winter only, with the surplus salted or smoked for preservation.
The old saying about only killing animals when there's an "r" in the month still has some sense in it, although our milder winters these days mean flies are a pest for longer. Certainly you'll get flies laying eggs on a carcass in September, October and November these days, and also March and April. So, for the stalker who has no chiller, and only wants a few animals for home consumption, Dec, Jan and Feb give the best opportunity for hanging the carcass for a decent amount of time and not having to rush the butchery side of things. If someone's sole reason for stalking is to achieve that then it wouldn't matter to them not to stalk at other times of year.

Er, regional variations may apply..

 

[badbob]

Roe bucks in July. A thousand flies and a million midges eating you alive. I don't really like summer stalking. ... Wait til September.


A 175 litre black tub with a lid and ice bottles for transporting, a larder fridge for chilling, a freezer for storing, a dedicated cook.. All pretty essential if you want to do justice to what you shoot.

 

[NullMac]

be wary of catering fridges, as they often reference outside temperature, and as such don't work outside unless it's very warm.

Sorry didn't understand that, could you explain a bit more fully ??

 

[zambezi]

How do you go about keep them cool when transporting a carcass bag from a stalk?

I freeze water in 1 and 2 liter bottles the day before a stalk, particularly if stalking area is a distance from home.

After gralloch, carcass goes in the sled in the back of the pickup and the 1L ice bottles are slipped into the body cavity [between haunches] and 2L bottles arrayed on top.

Even on a 4 hour motorway run in midsummer carcass remains cool and not all of the ice melts.

 

[Morkai]

I freeze water in 1 and 2 liter bottles the day before a stalk, particularly if stalking area is a distance from home.

After gralloch, carcass goes in the sled in the back of the pickup and the 1L ice bottles are slipped into the body cavity [between haunches] and 2L bottles arrayed on top.

Even on a 4 hour motorway run in midsummer carcass remains cool and not all of the ice melts.

The is the sort of journey lengths I may ne looking at. Thank you

 

[Malxwal]

Sorry didn't understand that, could you explain a bit more fully ??

The fridge I have (admittedly far from new, but checked over by a refrigeration engineer) references external temperature, and in some way I don't quite understand, looks for warm outside temperature. It came out of a hotel kitchen, and works fine when it's warm outside, but not when it's cold.
To be honest, I can't see how that's a system that would sell...