How long could deer stay in the back of a truck?

[Curly]

If you do get a permit or are going hunting general season just post a message on here. I bet you will get plenty of volunteers to help show you the ropes on how to take care of the animal

[Todd_ID]

Guys,  it's not the air temperature  that preserves meat. Yes, that helps a bit. The biggest loss of most of meat comes from lack of air flow.  You can lose half an elk that lies in snow: been there, done that.  The bone/sour/heat is where the problem originates. You have to get the meat off the bone to get this process stopped in weather above 50 degrees.  Elk meat can last 10 days at 70 degree days if you care for it properly.  You'll lose every part of that deer or elk that touches the pickup bed if you throw those packs in there that night and think you'll just run it to the cooler in the morning. 

[zike]

An old frig or freezer makes a great cooler. A friend of mine was trying to figure a way to haul a moose from Canada to Spokane. I told him to find an old huge chest freezer, build a platform to keep the meat out of water and pack the moose on ice. He used that freezer on a number of trips. I shot a elk and it was to warm to hang it in the shop. So I had an old single door frig I was going to make a smoker out of.
I made a platform and put the elk and ice in it for a week then butchered it. It was just fine.

[LeviD1]

Knowing this it all makes more sense now. Just bring coolers with ice and game bags. I like to use block ice and lay them down in the cooler then put a plastic garbage bag over them so it doesn't sit directly on the ice laying the meat in the game bags on top of the plastic. If the hike from where your hunting back to the truck isn't terrible, just gut it where you find it then drag it back with the hide on it to the truck to protect the meat. It wont spoil as long as it doesn't take hours upon hours to drag. Bring a tarp with you and leave it in the truck so when you get the deer to the vehicle you can skin it on the tarp just incase things get a little crazy to keep the meat cleaner. Bone it out there or quarter it, cut the backstraps, tenderloins and misc. Other meat off and put it in the game bags then into the coolers. If there's a place to get ice reasonably close to where your hunting within a half hour then you can just buy the ice after all that.

[Little Dave]

For my son's first deer we gutted it, hung it up, skinned it.  Should have had game bags, looked like it was about to rain... but I came up with a pretty good idea.  Stopped at the local Les Schwab and asked my son to go in there and ask if he could have a few tire bags for his deer.  They all came out to see.  Worked fine for the four hour drive.

[UptheCreek]

Second on the gutless method.  Fast and easy and works great for hauling out your meat.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

It depends if the deer is dead or alive???

[Smoke]

younger years hunted down south (S. Carolina) many years... if the temp was above 70 or not leaving camp for more then 24 hrs, I'd bone it out and put in cooler on ice.. if below 70, I'd just field dress it, leaving the hide on to protect from insects, and hang in off the ground till time to leave....... then it went into the back of the truck on top of all our gear to keep if off the heat from exhaust coming up under the bed... soon as I get home, skin, quarter, soak in salt water for few hours to get the blood out of the meat (over night if home late), then butcher and into the freezer...  20+ deer over 6 years and NEVER lost any meat to spoilage

[Bean Counter]

Josie as you can see there are two competing interests at heart here: cleanliness and temperature. I've never had meat spoil based on the way I've handled it but I've probably been a bit over the top with my OCD--even to the point of passing on trophy photos when I was learning on my own 

If you keep the hide on the meat won't get as dirty, but if you leave it on then more heat will be retained and the meat will spoil faster. IMHO its generally worth the time to skin the animal and debone the femurs (which radiate a lot of heat into the surrounding meat and therefore hasten spoilage), and toss everything into pillow cases or game bags. this will keep most dust and contaminants off, and allow the meat to cool quickly.

The safest bet is to debone it all and get it into coolers with layers of ice between. Cold and dry is ideal but cold and wet (from melting ice) is far better than warm and dry. Drain the  water (melted ice) out after the first day or so after the meat has cooled and then relayer more chipped ice inside so that you have layers of meat against ice and not meat against meat. I've made it a week like this and been fine. Again, I'm a bit OCD but didnt have any spoilage.

I've gone by a 30/60 rule that has worked well. If it gets into the 30s at night it can hang so long as the temps don't hit 60 degrees during the day. I've hung deboned, skinned meat in bags for several days when its been mid 30s at night, getting the meat so cold that as long as it stays hanging in the shade it hasn't spoiled on me when temps reached into the mid 50s by day.

[Bean Counter]

Oh yeah, if you're pushing it for one reason or the next and driving home with meat in the cooler in the bed of at truck and its warm out, tape up the edges of the cooler to keep warm air from going into the cooler as you drive 

[HunterStrait]

Depending how warm it is the day you harvest a deer, its best to quarter it up and put it on ice if the drive is going to be that long. But the meat needs to remain dry.

[police women of America]

thanks for the answers!

[Magnum_Willys]

Depending how warm it is the day you harvest a deer, its best to quarter it up and put it on ice if the drive is going to be that long. But the meat needs to remain dry.

   block and cube Ice in garbage bags.

[BLDtraLR]

I've killed many deer in early archery season in N. E. washington with some hot to warm temps and a 6hr plus drive home. Was taught By a wise old man. You want to cool it FAST!!!. Gut,Skin, Hang.  Get it in a meat cooler quickly as possible.We bring our deer back whole after hanging for at least a day in the meat locker even if we have to stay an extra day. We wrap them up in an insulated tarp and pack the cavity with dry or regular ice, I know it sounds crazy but it holds the cold in. Than we put the deer on wood pallets in the truck to keep them off the bed and also to let air flow. Drive at nite or early morn.

[wapiti hunter2]

the question is very real. I'm the first one in my family to take a interest in hunting so I just need to learn a few simple things before this hunting season.

There are other threads on meat care but the crux of it is to get the meat cooled down as fast as possible and keep it cool. A lot depends on the weather but it is almost never a good idea to keep the hide on. Skin it as soon as practical. You are only asking for trouble if you try to drive across the state with the hide on. Unless it is freezing outside. The other advice here is good. Get good quality reusable game bags to put the skinned meat in then get it to a processing place or cooler asap.