Have a plan for any deer you get this weekend, its going to be warm!!

[BLACKJACK]

Forecast says 80 degrees on Sunday, if you go bowhunting Sat night, have a plan for your deer!!! Hate to see it goto waste!! I know I'll be going out Friday night and Sunday night, because the local butcher is open Sat and Monday, but going to skip going out Saturday night.

[Muskie456]

There are other options other than not hunting. You can pack your animal in ice and cover with a tarp and then the thickest blanket or comforter your wife will let you use. Keep the animal out of the sun (I keep it on the garage floor) and your good. Or you can skin them, quarter them, and get them into coolers. I have done this many times and it works just fine.

[sticknstring]

I cut while the wife grinds & vacuum seals. That's my plan. Hope the deer get the memo!

[Bear55]

I never let warm temps keep me out of the woods. I either cut them up and into the freezer asap or I have an old fridge in the garage so I can skin/quarter and take care of them later.

[TruthWalleyes]

Quarter it and put it in the fridge, or in coolers with ice, or butcher completely, or bring to the butcher...really not a big deal hunting in the heat unless your on a couple day trip away from any immediate modes of transportation or electricty for cooling.

[BLACKJACK]

The key is that you guys have a plan, just wanted all the rookie bowhunters to be thinking Sat afternoon, what will I do with that deer I get tonight, considering its going to be 80 degrees Sunday??

Personaly I don't feel like spending all day Sunday butchering a deer, my plan is to have a nice barbecue Sat afternoon and also get my 'Before pheasant hunting' to-do list whittled down so when I get back from SoDak on Oct. 20 I can hit both bowhunting and pheasant hunting hard. Lots of nicer hunting days ahead!!!

I know from past experience on this forum that my comment above about 'spending all day Sunday butchering a deer' will bring out the "I can get it skinned down and packaged up in xx minutes" but in my experience, by the time you clean up the area, skin, quarter, cut up, wrap, cleanup the mess left over, you're looking at considerable amount of time, people need to plan accordingly.

Good luck all!!

[Bear55]

I know from past experience on this forum that my comment above about 'spending all day Sunday butchering a deer' will bring out the "I can get it skinned down and packaged up in xx minutes"

[TruthWalleyes]

That's usually 3 beers worth of time to skin, butcher, and pack.

[reinhard1]

i'll take some of the ribbing as well. while all day may be streching it but i know what you mean. i proccessed 3 deer by myself [as usual] last year and i like to take my time. last firearms opener was warmer than i liked it. fortunatly it was cold in the evenings and one of the deer was shot first morning. cleaned them real well and drained all the blood as possible and cut em up three days later.

not too many people can skin, clean, trim the fat off, get the hair off the meat, cut the meat properly, wrap, label, put in the freezer, and clean up afterwards in a few minutes by themselves. i've had to do this a few times when i bow hunted, and had to drive back to andover from up north. what i did was put the deer in the back of the truck on a tarp. stopped at the first gas station and bought enough ice bags and blocks of ice to do the job for the night. i filled the body cavity full of ice blocks and put ice bags on top of the side of the deer showing from the head to the rear end. it was worth the money. iwould then cover the deer up with the tarp and leave it in the back of the truck till the next morning and cut it up. the deer was always fine. good luck.

[deerminator]

Good point Reinhard. Spend the money on the ice. Early season, I used to keep half a dozen milk jugs frozen in the freezer. I'd pile them into the body cavity and on top and then someone pointed out, hey, you're missing most of the meat on the hams. So now I'll always throw several bags of ice on each ham if need be. Last year, though, I tagged my one deer I get - a hoss of a mature doe - on the evening of Dec. 15. It was -14 so I gutted her out and took my time in getting her to the processor the next day. Good luck guss and gals!

[goblueM]

wow... its 80 in minnesota but its getting down to low 40s for opener in Virginia? bizarro world

We shot a few crop damage permit deer this summer in 90 degree heat - its not bad, just brought a cooler of ice in the back of the truck, and skinned/quartered and put into the cooler asap. Then you can deal with it at your convenience

[Archerysniper]

My buddy owns a meat locker 10 miles away and I have a key, works great for bear hunting and early season. I shot one tonight and have it skinned hanging in the pole barn it's 37 and frost advisory for tonight nothing to worry about.