Cooling Meat in Water?

[PointMan]

Just curious on your thoughts about keeping the deer you just bagged cool in a creek or stream. This of course would be a last resort, assuming it was bagged early on what turned out to be a fairly warm day and no quick way out of the bush. Not something I would normally have considered, but it was suggested to me by an old timer that I know has killed PLENTY deer in his 70 plus years. Haven't done it yet, but now it's in the back of my mind.

[BCPilotguy]

Personally I wouldn't want my meat in the water with all of the potenital nastiness that is in there (fecal coliforms, giardia etc. etc.). However a quick Google search didn't turn up any conclusive evidence against the practice.

[3kills]

some people on here swear by it and some say to never do it. do a search on here this topic has come up lots

[Dannybuoy]

Have done it once to cool down a deer , on the advise of an oldtime butcher /hunter.
his advise was : Leave the hide on or your meat will turn white /slimey , the inside has a membrane that prevents this . thats why you just wipe the outside of a carcass but can wash the inside with water
We just left it in the creek about an hour or so to coool it down and wash it up and then headed for home .

[snowhunter]

On a warm day, and after gutting the deer, I find no harm in cooling down and cleaning the deer for blood etc, in a river or creek, before skinning it.

One very cute butcher at Rich's Meat, Cranbrook, just told me not to wash the deer on the outside. She also did a very nice job in cutting and wrapping the deer.

[Steeleco]

I've been told as a last resort, double bag the meat and drop in a creek or the edge of a pond. Keep the bags open enough to let the initial moisture out for the first while. Once cold tot he touch, either hang on your pole, of bug out and find a cooler.

[bear buster]

build a rack just above water. we have done this lots by creeks and rivers, keeps meat cool and dont have to worry about whats in the water

[MB_Boy]

"If" you are going to do it.....be sure as noted by Steeleco that you bag it.

It may not be too bad if you do it without if you are going to be heading off to the butcher in short order, but if you are cooling it in a creek to have it hang for a week in camp I wouldn't do it. If you do it....make sure you have the meat wrapped in cheesecloth and have game bags over the top. Water can get into the tissue pockets and provide an outstanding environment for bacteria to grow, blowflies to lay eggs etc etc. Not to mention the crap that can be in water as well.

I am sure many, many do as 3kills noted it has been discussed at length on here. My advice was given to me by someone who has many, many years of studying parasites in wildlife. As mentioned in other posts, get the hide off and get it hanging ASAP, in shade or next to creek etc.

[sfire436]

I have done it MANY times with moose quarters. Hide down in a moving stream overnight will cool it to the bone. Hang the meat and let the hide drip dry then skin it and bag it. NEVER had it spoil and never had problens with bugs as the meat is cool. Other hunters I have brought on trips have been hesitant to do it because of old wives tales but are always sold once they see the results.

[mijinkal]

I haven't done it yet, but if I was in the position to, I'd double bag it for extra protection.

[IronNoggin]

A few years back (well... OK... it has now been a couple of decades it seems...) I was hunting elk in Southern Alberta's mountains. My partner had tagged out early, so wanted to get his bull off the hill. Sent him out with his saddle horse and our packer, told him I would be OK without him returning. Two days later I took a fine bull, and the timing for me was right close! Had to be at work the very next day!! EEK! Loaded up the head and front quarters on my saddle horse (a Big Boy capable of the job). Got them to the truck and returned for the hinds. Had them aboard, and was again on the way out, when a HUGE Mule Deer strode out into a little meadow just below me. Don't know where common sense ran off to, but I wanted that Muley BAD! One shot rang out before my mind engaged, and down he went. Now What?? I simply didn't have time to deal with getting the muley off the hill, or I would not make it back to work for the following day (and with an anti-hunting Boss those days, that would have been the end...)

So, I cleaned the deer and drug him a ways to a very cold spring with a decent pool I knew of. Skinned him out, quartered and let him cool for a spell. Then double bagged the lot, and sank it with stones down in the pool - hoping the meat was submerged enough Mr. Grizz wouldn't be able to locate it...

The way things turned out, I couldn't get back there for nearly 10 days. Expected to find that the bear had taken it, or it might have turned sour. To my amazement, the meat looked fine, with only about a loonie-sized spot on one shoulder where the water had just started to seep through that looked suspicious. Did the extract, cut him up as usual, and he turned out to be one of the finer eating animals I have ever taken! :mrgreen:

Under extreme circumstances I would not hesitate to do the same. Dunno if at this stage I would take the Muley, but dealing with the circumstances after I did so certainly opened my eyes...

As always, your mileage may vary...

Cheers,
Nog

[Surrey Boy]

Depending on the cleanliness of the water I'd do it. I drink out of glacier-fed streams without purification tablets, so why would I be worried about my carcass? If it turns out bad, well, that's why they invented spicy food.

[Hunt'n Guide]

build a rack just above water. we have done this lots by creeks and rivers, keeps meat cool and dont have to worry about whats in the water

This works well.

Those with pack horses can just put some willow or like brush in the bottom of pack boxes and stck the meat on top, placing the boxes in a few inches of water. It keeps the meat nice and cool. You can stretch a game bag over the mouth of the pack box to allow air circulation if the weather is dry or keep the lid on to keep things dry.

[Xenomorph]

Had a bear down early morning side of the creek one old season. Gutted and placed in middle of creek and covered with stones. Went back and retrieved it the next morning and skinned/hung.

If creek is nice and clean/clear I have absolutely no hesitation. Good healthy cold water flow to cool down meat fast when I'm at an impasse? In my opinion it's a no brainer.

[Rotorwash]

I always pack some garbage bags. I figured I would skin it, quarter it , cheese cloth it till it it gets a bit of a crust. Then toss it in garbage bag and into a stream. With the top of the bag above water.

I've never been in the situation to try it. But that's my plan if the situation ever comes up

[Squire]

I always pack some garbage bags. I figured I would skin it, quarter it , cheese cloth it till it it gets a bit of a crust. Then toss it in garbage bag and into a stream. With the top of the bag above water.

I've never been in the situation to try it. But that's my plan if the situation ever comes up

I have actually done this several times (minus the crust part) when a snow patch was no longer available in the high country and the meat has always been great. I don't let the water touch the meat and I like to leave it overnight before the pack out the next day. I also leave it where it can be approached with good sight lines and never too close to camp for obvious reasons.

[okas]

all good as still wet once it gets a crust on it no way it will spoil asp

[Singleshotneeded]

Just curious on your thoughts about keeping the deer you just bagged cool in a creek or stream. This of course would be a last resort, assuming it was bagged early on what turned out to be a fairly warm day and no quick way out of the bush. Not something I would normally have considered, but it was suggested to me by an old timer that I know has killed PLENTY deer in his 70 plus years. Haven't done it yet, but now it's in the back of my mind.

I've put dozens of deer in a very high mountain stream for an hour or more, as long as you gut it carefully and leave the hide on, the hide protects the outside and the inner membrane protects the inside of the deer carcass. It's a lot better to keep it in an icy mountain stream whilst it's sunny and 20C+ at your home in the valley, and then bring it down in late afternoon when it's cooling off. I then hose it off, hang it, and skin it, and it's in a cold locker next morning...all the deer have been tasty and perfect. The old timer was right, too many paranoid schizophrenics wandering amongst us in 2017. :-)

[scotty30-06]

Lmao....whatevers in that water is still better then what's in store/fast food meat lol....i will take the water beetles over the anabolic/radioactive/ cancer causing "bugs" lol

[hunter1947]

In the past I put the whole animal in the creeks skin and all on it to cool it down was in the creek for about one or two hours then took it out then skinned the animal,,as for straight meat from a game animal I put the meat in big zip lock bags that are air tight be careful when putting the zip lock bag into the creek you don't want to poke a hole into the bag when putting it into the creek when temperatures where in the 30C mark I have left the meat in the creek when in a zip lock bag up to 4 days with no problems ,,note that some creeks are colder then others I did a temperature test on the creek I used was 6C..

[Weatherby Fan]

Nothing wrong at all with cooling an animal in the water.

[tomahawk]

done it a few times on pack in trips early in the season in the mountains, left the hide on and laid the animal back side down so no water touched the meat for several hours, then built a crib with rocks and limbs just above the stream and placed it chest side down. Reversed this process once per day, meat was great and as cool as it could be considering the weather.

[firebird]

I had a group in an outpost camp hang moose quarters off the dock in the lake. They did it because they thought the air temperature was to warm and the bugs were bad. Well they didn't realise the water temp was warmer. When I got there with the plane the quarters were grey and green.

Personally I wouldn't do it, neither do I wash blood out with water. I might be naive but id only use filtered water.

IMO the initial cooling of the meat after its shot is the most important. I get the hide off right away upon recovery then next thing is to find a spot out of the sun.

Last season I had a deer go bad, i shot it late afternoon and it was around freezing overnight. I found a bloody bed and stopped looking cause it had got up and kept moving. Early the next morning i came back and found it only a few hundreds yards from the first bed, dead. I hit the top of one lung. It was still 'warm' in the body cavity. If I had found it dead the night i shot it and I had it gutted and cavity opened up (and even if i left it in the woods) I believe it would have been a different story. I have left moose this way before with no issue. Also had moose hung in 17 C temps in the shade for a couple days with no problems.

[blackhawk19]

biggest thing is to make sure you wipe it down when it comes out of the water,and don't pile the meat on top of each other during transport

[caddisguy]

We often place meat in a Rubbermaid and set it in a creek (snow run-off​)

I would only cool meat directly in the water if absolutely necessary (no other way to cool it or keep it cool) That said, I would want to get that meat frozen as soon as possible, as i believe placing it in the water will have exposed it to all sorts of bacteria that will accelerate spoilage and only freezing will pause that.

[wideopenthrottle]

as others have said, from my experience, the most important part of ensuring good meat quality is getting it from warm and bloody to cool and dry as quickly as possible....if getting it wet does not substantially affect drying it later (nice cool dry breeze) then getting it wet will cool it and clean any blood guts and gore off making it much better table fare....if keeping it dry means it is not getting cooled down quickly enough then keeping it dry is worse than getting it wet

[Ride Red]

Nothing wrong at all with cooling an animal in the water.

I've done this many times over the years without incident. I wouldn't drop it in the Fraser River here in the valley, but no issues with mountain streams. Getting the hide off right away helps cool the meat a lot quicker too. Common sense prevails.

[longwalk]

I have dumped deer carcasses in running water for years. Cools the meat quickly, flushes everything g out and gives me a clean carcass to hang. Never had an issue with spoilage or bacteria.

[PointMan]

Pretty funny to see a 7 year old thread resurrected out of nowhere. Still good to see everyone's take on it just the same.

[Ferenc]

We often place meat in a Rubbermaid and set it in a creek (snow run-off​)

I would only cool meat directly in the water if absolutely necessary (no other way to cool it or keep it cool) That said, I would want to get that meat frozen as soon as possible, as i believe placing it in the water will have exposed it to all sorts of bacteria that will accelerate spoilage and only freezing will pause that.

This is the best way in a container... some buddies of mine that jetboat up north use 10 litre buckets with lids.... seems to work well for the early hunts up
the rivers,every pail is marked.. evidence of sex etc.

[HarryToolips]

I have dumped deer carcasses in running water for years. Cools the meat quickly, flushes everything g out and gives me a clean carcass to hang. Never had an issue with spoilage or bacteria.
Good to know..I've always hosed out my carcasses, and rubbed them down with vinegar water to rid of the hair, and never had any issues, so I figured this would be ok..

[blackhawk19]

when you take it out of the water make sure you wipe it down dry,if you dont the meat tends to get mushy ,you will loose a lot of trim at the butcher

[bc sportsman]

I've been doing this every year since early 80s. 30 plus years...never a problem and butcher's still can't believe I do this. Have kept moose meat in prime shape even in high 20 C temps. Get meat into cold running water...wuartered is fine but hide on. The internal membrane protects meat. Don't leave in water more than 24 hrs. Hand to dry. NEVER put quarters that have developed a crust in water. Leave hide on till ready to go home. Hide keeps internal temps cool.