How long would you keep a deer in a cooler

[Stein]

Assuming great conditions, animal found, gutted and quartered right away, on ice within 2 hours of shot.

I have a scenario where the only chance to use my doe tag would result in it potentially in the cooler for 7+ days.  I think the longest I have had an animal on the ice was maybe 2-3 days.

[92xj]

7 days is fine as long as you keep the meat in the ice or above, keep water off of meat, pull the drain plug often to keep any water build up out of cooler. Add ice as needed and keep meat in top half of cooler. Your meat will be fine.

[lord grizzly]

in a cooler on ice? I imagine it will be fine. id drain the water regular and keep fresh ice in there. I've hung bucks for 14 days in the mid-high 30's and they turned out great. like I said my bigger concern would be making sure it wasn't just sitting in water the whole time.

[lord grizzly]

great minds think alike

[TheHunt]

I have had it for 5 days when taking elk from Arizona to Washington and taking time to site see.  Just keep it water from standing in the cooler and keep the ice on it.

[baker5150]

I cut a stainless steel mesh rack to fit in my cooler to keep the ice and meat separated.  It sits down tight about 4" above the floor of the cooler, lets the blood drip into the ice and keeps the water off the meat.  Works great.  I just keep the drain plug a little loose and the melt slowly drains off without letting any potential bugs in.
Ive kept meat for 6 or 7 days this way.  Never had an issue.

[jamesfromseattle]

People age their venison in walk in fridges for multiple weeks.  As long as you've got it dry and cold in the cooler, I think you're pretty much good to go for any reasonable length trip.  I'm in line with the others--about a week is the most I ever do, but I don't have any empirical justification for not being able to keep it in a cooler even longer.  Just never had a reason to as I've never been on a longer trip than that.

[pianoman9701]

  Dry aging is excellent for venison and elk. You have to trim a little more off but the meat will be as tasty and tender as you've ever had. In NH, our butcher let us hang it for two weeks and it was always great.

[ELKBURGER]

Last year I bought a used freezer to keep in the old bunkhouse at the farm I hunt. We were able to hang our critters for days then cut, wrap and freeze prior to heading home. Not too many public coolers to hang meat around those parts.

[pianoman9701]

The longest I get a butcher to promise to hang around here is a week...then they call me in 3 days and say it's ready.

[Stein]

Thanks, I think what I could do is ice it down good overnight so that it is real cold and then dump the cube ice, put some block in the bottom of the cooler, a piece of plywood on top and then the meat on top with air circulation.  That should keep it below 40 for quite a while.  I have an RTIC and once it gets cold it stays that way for a long time.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I really like dry ice for keeping meat in a cooler for an extended period.  Dry ice in the bottom, heavy crumpled paper over it to prevent direct contact and no need to open it to check/drain water.

[Jolten]

I know a few hunters who vacuum seal their meat and submerge in a ice/rock salt bath and they don't seem to have a problem with the meat going bad from deer-end of elk seasons

[erk444]

Why rock salt?

[Jolten]

If I remember correctly it lowers the temperature of the ice somehow. We used to use that mix to make ice cream in school

[Jim/WA]

I keep elk and deer up to 14 days in 120 qt coolers without problems. Similar to Baker5150, I use a couple plastic soda racks upside down in the cooler to keep the meat elevated above the ice. With one end cut off from the end of one of them, I can pour ice down the side of the cooler into the bottom although sometime I just pour it over the meat and let it drain as well.