Free: Contests & Raffles.
The benefit of taking the meat off of the bone highly outweighs, imo, the time saved to not do it. Get rid of all that bone, your meat will cool much faster and no reason in the world to pack bone out, unless you owe your dog a huge favor. I have never lost meat but nearly did two seasons ago. It never got below 60 degrees over night. Killed my elk at 10:30 a.m., boned it and hung it up. I usually cut my meat into smaller chunks but this time I decided to cut large chunks. The next day after 9 hours of me and my buddy packing it out, I started my inspection. Cut into the larger portions and the meat had a slight smell to it. I cut them all down and put them in a cooler and all was saved. The good thing about it is that once you get the meat cool it stays cool. Overnight, if the lows are low enough, all should be good. I have killed elk on 80 degree plus days where the overnight temps. went to the lower 40's and left the meat out there in the woods for two days. MMMM, scrumptious.
What do you think about the citric acid technique? Has anyone done it and is it worth it?