timwlarsen

Friend & I are hunting 1st season this fall in CO. We are backpacking in 3-5 miles as we did last year in Unit 12/24. This is my first opportunity to hunt 1st season. Last year the temps werre very cool at 10K. Thisearlyit may be warm. Any idea on timelines for meat spoilage? I am concerned with a 1 day pack back to camp and then another very soild day out before things would be iced. I just don't know how much time one gets. It is pointless to get too far back if everything would spoil. Everything I have read said to hangdry/shade. I had considered dropping Qtr. in a stream or lake if things got too hot which would go opposite of what I have read..

ironranger

I've never had to deal with it yet as the two elk I've taken were quartered and the truck wasn't a great distance. What I remember reading in a similiar post was that they would hang the quarters (In game bags) in the trees during the night to cool them and then they would wrap them in sleeping bags as an insulator in the morning and put them in amongst some shady pines where the sun never hits. Not sure if that is the way to go but I'm just passing along what I remember reading.

tangozulu

Though I haven't done it myself, I know moose hunters who store quarters in the river with game bags on, with good succcess. I ahve eaten some of this meat and it is wonderful.

Elkcrazy8

Split the hind quarters and the front legs and neck to get the internal meat temp down if not boning right away. The meat will spoil first there. The next step I do is bone out the meat, it starts the cooling process faster. I have and will store the meat in the creek at camp for a few days if I have to. Use cloth game bags and NO PLASTIC, unless you are putting it directly into the water. Pack the meat out when it is cool and get it on ice as soon as possible. I leave two large coolers at the trailhead in the pickup with ice to get the meat as cool as I can. If the meat is wet from the creek it will spoil fast if left in the heat.

We have used the creek for at least a dozen elk in the last 5-6 years, and have not lost one yet, and nobody got a weird disease from it.

Smithbros.1

What about putting the Quaters in a big plastic bag then in the creek. NO bacteria but still cools??