Venison is one of the greatest protein sources on earth, yet preserving this tasty meat in warm weather can be challenging. Whether you hunt elk in the high mountains, mule deer in early season on backyard whitetails, you will want to take specific steps to keep your harvest in tip-top shape.
Begin with the End in Mind
Just as you will carry all the shooting gear to bag that buck or bull, think equally through the events after the animal is down. You will need specific tools, depending on the size of the animal you are hunting. Think situationally as well. If you score as the sun sets, how will you handle the meat? Must you pack it out in the dark or can you leave it in the field where it is at risk of a bear or coyotes stealing you prize?
Keep Predators at Bay
On a big game hunt, most hunters have multiple places to post. If getting your game to camp will be difficult, you may want to save those most remote quests for morning hunts as retrieving meat in daylight is immensely easier than by flashlight. If you must leave your animal in the field, maximize human scent at the scene to ward off predators. Many hunters urinate nearby, take off a sweaty t-shirt or use old socks to stake out their claim. Make sure that you mark the location well so that it’s easy to find the next day.
Complete Meat Care
This post by Corey Jacobsin on the Western Hunter website is very well written and comprehensive in scope. As you plan for those exciting fall hunting trips, keep this savvy information in mind:
Many times, our planning takes us only to the point where we reach our intended goal. We spend countless hours preparing to accomplish a difficult task, yet fail to recognize the elements that are often encountered after we reach our goal.
Elk hunters are no different. Our goal is usually centered around some level of success, but our preparations don’t always include what takes place after we put the cameras away.
Field processing and packing of elk meat can sometimes be enough to rain on the otherwise glorious sunset of success, especially if we aren’t prepared. That figurative rain can become a downpour if we’re trying to do this in extreme heat. Add to these elements a long distance out of the backcountry to the nearest cooler, and we just hit flashflood stage.
