How to Care for Deer Meat in Hot Weather

Whether you’re hunting the early season or unseasonably warm temps, taking care of the meat should be your first priority. As long as you’ve executed a good shot, you won’t have to sweat this process. Here are a few ways you can keep your deer meat from spoiling when the mercury rises.

Post Recovery

Depending on your hunting situation, you’ll want to consider the most efficient way to break down your deer. For elk, you don’t have a choice, but with whitetails, you have a couple options. If you’re hunting the family farm and have access to a side-by-side or four-wheeler, you won’t need to field dress your deer if you plan on immediately skinning it or dropping it off at the processor.

If your drive to the processor requires an hour or more, gut the deer and stash a bag of ice inside the abdominal cavity to help cool the meat. It might not seem like a big deal, but it’ll help tremendously if you’re dealing with scorching temps.

Break It Down

If you’re hunting half a mile or more from the nearest road, you should already have a pack-out plan, especially in hot weather. For starters, you’ll need a good hunting knife. If the terrain allows, you can field dress your deer and use a cart to haul it back to the truck. However, a lot of steep, thick, or wet terrain just doesn’t make this possible. Depending on your pack situation, you can quarter out a whitetail or debone it in the field if local regulations allow.

Quartering out a deer requires a few extra trips, which is why I prefer the bone-out method. Sure, it takes a little extra time, but it lightens the load on your hunting backpack, and you won’t have to worry about that process later since it’s already done. Whether you quarter or debone, you can skip the gutting step if the recovery didn’t take too long. If it’s especially hot, lay out your game bags and let the meat cool in the shade while you finish the rest of the deer.

I know a lot of folks use contractor bags to save a few bucks, but this doesn’t allow the meat to breathe in hot, humid temps. Invest in some solid game bags if you plan on packing deer out this way. They’re reusable and provide adequate airflow for meat.

Get the Meat On Ice

Once you’re back at the truck, you need to get the meat cooled as quickly as possible. When you’re travel hunting, bags of ice work great. If you’re hunting close to home or you prepared ahead of time, you can use large ice packs or even frozen two-liter bottles to keep the meat cool and dry.

If you use ice, leave the meat on top of it rather than submerged so it doesn’t turn soggy and gray. Ideally, you’ll have a large cooler (at least 60 quarts) that allows you to do this previous step without packing the meat so tight. Good coolers are expensive, but they justify those prices when you’re dealing with hot temps for extended periods of time.

Quality Taste Starts in the Field

I’m still surprised when hunters complain about deer meat’s “gamey” taste. It wasn’t until I went to college and started processing my own deer that I realized that term meant someone either waterlogged the meat to death, spilled gut bile on it, or simply let it spoil.

I’ve never tasted anything weird about deer that I’ve processed myself. That goes for deer that I killed in hot weather, too. You need to know how to cook, of course, but the quality of your deer meat depends on how well you take care of it in the field. Trust me, it’s worth the effort and the time when one of your elated guests says, “That’s incredible,” and asks for another helping.