Hunting Early

[Karl]

So the plan is this year to head up north to take advantage of the end of august moose season.... im super excited to go up there never been up to that land and am looking forward to seeing some different terrain! anyways my question is i know people have done this hunt before and my biggest worry is getting an animal down and having the heat claim my meat.... anyone have any tips for preventing this nightmare??? also bugs worry me aswell.... any information from people that have been there done that would be appreciated!! thanks

[Bugle master]

I've done fly in hunts for elk in the northern Rockies and have had 25+ degree weather. We have knocked down game on the first day of a 10 hunt and never lost a animal yet.
Make your self a meat tent, don't know if you can buy them but what we did is take that same type of material as what you would find on your average tent windows, that mesh. Sew it all together and on the bottom end sew a zipper in. Make sure its big enough.This meat tent is a awesome way to keep the flies and birds off your meat it lets the wind go thru nicely. Be sure to still hang the meat high on a game poll as this wont keep the bears out. Lol.

We always found a poplar stand a nice place for this. Always seemed to have a cool breeze go thru them and have good shade from the sun. Once the meat has set up, then your golden. One last thing once you put the tent over your meat it's important to keep the sides of the tent off the meat, a couple of sticks at the inside the top of the tent will do the trick.

[RiverOtter]

There's an add for those style of tents in the Hunting Synopsis, they are made just outside of Lumby.

We used them last Sept for 2 elk and while they worked as advertised, they were a pain to get around the quarters with the meat hung high enough off the ground to keep bears at bay. Will have to look at my pics again, but I believe the consensus was different zipper placement to make them more versatile, as we had 4 guys working on getting the quarters covered and it was not a smooth process.

[Bugle master]

What we did was had holes on each end of the tent to side a poll thru and ties for for closing the ends around the log. By doing this you can easily pull up quarters with a rope. Down side is you have to put up new game poll for the tent but we always just tied the poll to the trees so it was easy to take down after use. Hope this helps

[Karl]

the tent thing is a great idea... we have already considered this and are in the planning of aquiring such things...... so that deals with flies.... but! what about the heat??? is the hot heat of the day a meat wrecker??? is it a must to have a deep freeze hooked to a generator??? if an animal cannot be recovered for awhile due certain circumstances will it ruin??? but the tent thing great idea!! thanks guys keep em comin!

[Jelvis]

In the heat the meat won't last long before it bone sours, it feels fairly cool when you touch the outside of the quarter but inside the heat by the bone sours and wrecks the meat. I'd say two or three days maybe ok but anything longer in heat like mid August you won't be having fresh meat. IMHO. That's why I like close to home early hunts for deer and wait til late October for moose. Do not put any plastic material on the meat when warm, Even game bags will let some flys and bees in if you rip it a bit or fail to close them tight. And then driving home on top of that. You need a freezer with a generator or might as well stay home. Jelly Head Cheese.

[ianwuzhere]

lots of meat gets wrecked. i recommend shooting early or in afternoon and get to a cooler asap to prevent spoilage if is hot/sunny- or bring a cooler and generator and just toss in there..
good luck

[250 sav]

After the shot be efficent, gut, 1/4,hang in the shade, wipe down with vinegar and water. If shot in the AM I try to the criter to to the butcher (cooler) that day, if shot midday or evening to the cooler the next morning. I hunt the peace ag. zone the last week or 10 days of aug. If I go later mid sept onward I hang it at camp. Note: the vinegar does not deter wasps but wasps don't cause maggots. On average I get stung 10-20 times while skinning in the heat so if your allergic to stings be aware.

[solo]

Wow 250 SAV you are a bee magnet!

[250 sav]

Last year was brutal, was a yellow jacket hive near camp just had to man up and get the job done.

[dhog]

There is a forum called meat cutters list has lots of places to take it and process or hang call ahead we had a hard time finding a place last year started to get worried but finally got one The list from the forum is fairly accurate some have closed shop others have opened good luck on your hunt

[srthomas75]

most people I know take their own cooler unit. [homemade walk in style] If you know of anyone that has one and you plan to be staying a while then it can be very handy. We would use it as our fridge too as we stayed in a wall tent. But it let us stay in camp for two weeks in august in the peace river area with animals hanging.

[kennyg826]

I've hunted this season for years. We down a moose, gut it as quickly as we can, transport back to camp to skin it right away. Hoist up to hanging tree in half for quartering. Let hang in quarters. Wrap lightly in cheese cloth to keep clean an bugs off. Eat breakfast. Load quarters into truck and take to town where someone has a cooler. To transport home after being in the cooler at least a couple days, we load up our stuff just before the cooler operator closes for the night and we drive all night with vents open where meat is stored. Store in cooler at home or butchers. Cheers

[junkyard_g]

last year i just bit the bullet and hung my moose at russels in chetwynd.$25 bucks a day, 3 day minimum charge. pricey but it was 28C out and i had some bowhunting to do still. They also took the moose in at 9:55pm and let me use their hangers to skin it out. and old 10cubic ft freezer will hold a surprisingly large animal if fully deboned. just run genny til fully froze then just every couple hours after that.

[Spy]

After the shot be efficent, gut, 1/4,hang in the shade, wipe down with vinegar and water. If shot in the AM I try to the criter to to the butcher (cooler) that day, if shot midday or evening to the cooler the next morning. I hunt the peace ag. zone the last week or 10 days of aug. If I go later mid sept onward I hang it at camp. Note: the vinegar does not deter wasps but wasps don't cause maggots. On average I get stung 10-20 times while skinning in the heat so if your allergic to stings be aware.
Good info on wasps & being ellergic.

[RiverOtter]

You find the nest, often on the ground, and a can of "Brake Clean" is your friend. I carry one in my falling pack all summer and can totally wipe out a good sized ground nest in about 15 seconds, its that effective.

[hunter1947]

We took a deep freezer with a small generator we put down two bull moose that year on opening day in Aug we sectioned them out and put them in the freezer all was legal by sectioning them out with the sex left on each of the hind quarters ,,

Note freezing your meat for a week or two then thawing it out to butcher it when you get it back home does not hurt the meat at all ,,just think about it many hunter shoot there animals in -20 or colder temperatures and the meat will freeze up till they get it to a butcher back home the butcher will hung the frozen animal in the cooler till it is unthawed then cut it up...

Was smoking hot back then when we got our bulls down thank god we had this generator and freezer to keep the meat from spoiling you can ether do this or get your animal out that day to a butcher..

[hunter1947]

last year i just bit the bullet and hung my moose at russels in chetwynd.$25 bucks a day, 3 day minimum charge. pricey but it was 28C out and i had some bowhunting to do still. They also took the moose in at 9:55pm and let me use their hangers to skin it out. and old 10cubic ft freezer will hold a surprisingly large animal if fully deboned. just run genny til fully froze then just every couple hours after that.



You where lucky because most times he has not got the room to hung your moose..

[RiverOtter]

As per bone sour, getting the hide off ASAP(even if shot in late evening) and then boning out will prevent bone sour and makes for less to pack out as well...

[hellojello74]

any tips for those that are not near the truck/cooler, I am thinking say fly in, river or horse type hunts in the early season?

[Buck TraX]

Im going up around sept 15 to 30th can you usually hang game by then? sorry for hijackin

[Jelvis]

No way buck trax still too warm for an already hot carcass, you'll need to get the meat into town meat locker or the meat will be bad and sour. imho. Jello bello.

[Bugle master]

15 to the 30 is not early to hang meat. By then you get frost over night some times even snow in the northern parts of B.C
done this for 15 plus years never lost game yet. Quarter, skin and hang right away. Once the meat sets up and get a nice hard gaze on it your good.

[Buck TraX]

15 to the 30 is not early to hang meat. By then you get frost over night some times even snow in the northern parts of B.C
done this for 15 plus years never lost game yet. Quarter, skin and hang right away. Once the meat sets up and get a nice hard gaze on it your good.

that's what we were hoping to hear will be our groups first time heading up north going around tumbler

[Chuck Norris]

that's what we were hoping to hear will be our groups first time heading up north going around tumbler

Check out the alpine mule deer thread that's going on right now, it has some useful information on this subject

[HotRodHooligan]

Has Anyone Ever used a river too cool the meat?