Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

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Lockdown
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Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Lockdown » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:02 pm

Couple years ago my buddy started filling two liter bottles with water and freezing them for use in his cooler while camping. “It works way better and lasts as long or longer than buying tons of ice. It keeps all your food from getting water logged.” As soon as he told me I said “THAT is the ticket for cooler aging venison.”

I’ve cooler aged a few deer (works great) but melting ice and water logged meat is the biggest issue. Figured I’d throw this out there...


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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby jwilkstn » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:08 pm

I did exactly this on a trip to WY a couple years ago. Worked like a charm. You still get some moisture on the meat from condensation, but I like this technique better than direct ice contact.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby bigbuckhunter88 » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:31 pm

Milk jugs work great too. We have always done this for away from home hunts.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Dewey » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:36 pm

bigbuckhunter88 wrote: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.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Bowhunting Brian » Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:32 pm

Add salt to the water too.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby backstraps » Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:10 pm

Goos tip Lockdown!!! I’ve been a bagged ice guy too.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby brancher147 » Fri Sep 06, 2019 11:12 pm

That’s the only way to do it. Milk jugs, 2 liter bottles, big ice packs, whatever. Bagged ice is the very last option.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby austin1990 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:41 am

Done this for years myself. I remember being little and dad and grandpa both saving every milk jug and 2 liter bottle and most got filled with water and frozen. Also most 20 oz coke or water bottles was saved. Grandpa would fill them half up with water, lay them on their side in the freezer and when he'd leave to go bush hog or bale hay he'd fill the rest of the bottle up with water and he'd have cold ice water for a couple hours. That was way back before all these fancy yeti cups and such ;)
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby RiverBottoms » Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:49 am

I like it. I've been using ice cubes, and it does make a mess and require draining. I'll try this out.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Wetfoot » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:08 am

Dewey wrote:
bigbuckhunter88 wrote: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. Been doing the same fishing too :!:
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby tbunao » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:16 am

I've been doing the same for antelope hunts and in ND. I have just your basic 120qt cooler. I've been using a space blanket and it's been keeping the ice for 4-5 days. Plan on using the space blanket to lay meat on top of the ice.

Good tip LD
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby stash59 » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:22 am

Yeah good tip. Traveling elk hunters have used this concept for years. If you have sleeping bags with. Cover the cooler with these, after everything is loaded in. Any added insulation helps things stay cool longer.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Lockdown » Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:23 am

I’m starting to feel like I’m the only one who didn’t know about this :lol:
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby Wetfoot » Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:10 am

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.
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Re: Want to avoid butchering your early season buck right away?

Unread postby muddy » Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:42 am

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.
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