Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

[Horizontal Hunter]

Milk jugs work great too. We have always done this for away from home hunts.

Been using gallon and half gallon ice jugs for as long as I have been hunting and butchering. Bags of cubed ice suck. I prefer block ice if I don’t have my plastic jugs.

Same here.

I put the deer on a tarp then a gallon jug of ice goes in the chest cavity, 1/2 gallon jug in between the rear legs and a couple along the back and neck. Then I wrap it up like a burrito and set it out of the sun and leave it alone. If it’s really warm I will throw an old comforter over it.

You can keep a deer for along time like that. 24-36 hours isn’t a problem. I have never lost any meat doing it this way.

I keep the milk jugs of ice in the freezer year round so if I lose power the ice will buy me some more time before the contents thaw.

When I go on vacation I put an ice cube in a small glass in the chest freezer. That was if I lose power and the contents thaws and re-freezes I will know that it happened.

If you salt the ice, you can actually drop the temperature low enough to freeze fish. The ice obviously won't last as long though. Never tried this with a deer. Might help to cool an animal more quickly though.

I’ll have to try this next time I freeze some more jugs. I knew this technique is used for homemade ice cream but I never thought to to it to my ice blocks.

Bob

[Buckshot20]

If you salt the ice, you can actually drop the temperature low enough to freeze fish. The ice obviously won't last as long though. Never tried this with a deer. Might help to cool an animal more quickly though.

This is how I ice fish. I usually fish salt water so I just add water to make the slurry but it brings the fish down quickly and they are easier to fillet.

I’ve never had a problem keeping deer in a ice cooler. Just pull the drain so it doesn’t fill with water. Fill the bottom with ice and meat on top. If you are worried about the meat touching the ice put some plastic down first on top of the ice. Just pull the drain do it doesn’t water log. That’s how just about everybody in my state does it.

[hambone]

I used milk jugs for a lot of years. But 2 liter soda bottles are easier to clean and fit between the hind legs easier, so they are all I use these days. I keep the bottom of my deep freezer lined with them year round. I haven't bought ice in over 30 years.

[Tufrthnails]

Another positive for loading the freezer with jugs is the freezer doesn't have to work as hard filled as it does empty to maintain temp. I get free ice at work so I load my coolers down with my ice jugs and run by work and top off the coolers before I head to KY for 2 to 3 weeks. My cousin has an upright freezer also and we can rotate jugs and without having to buy more then a bag or two of ice for the drink cooler on a 3 week hunt. When we started doing that it saved us a ton of money buying 100# of every week.

[ol_ben]

Hard to store all those bottles of ice though. Very lucky my local locker will store deer for $5 a day. Really helps for crunch time during hot weather.

Yeah, mine will keep it for a week for just their normal $15 skinning fee. I've got a stash of jugs I'm accumulating for my muley trip this fall though.