Cooler for deboned elk!

[cokeson]

How much cooler  space does a deboned bull elk take up? Trying to figure out how much cooler space I need. Also, dry ice or regular ice?

 

[BrentLaBere]

I cant remember if the ones ive used are 120 or 150 qt but two of them has been enough for elk quarters with ice. If the weather is nice enough, cool enough, I hang the meat for a day or two and then transfer the meat to the butcher. Usually do this on extended hunt if I wont be doing the processing. When transferring them I will place them in a thermal blanket and tape the end so that no air escapes. It acts as a cooler and doesnt allow the meat to be warmed up when transferring it. Really simple way if you arent going to travel very far. Doesnt take up any room either. If you are deboning, you will easily fit more than 1 elk in the larger coolers I listed. No experience with dry ice.

 

[DTP]

This trip I had a 150qt, a 100qt, and a 60qt.  My bull boned out possibly could have fit in the 100 & 60, but that wouldn't have allowed any ice.  I think having a minimum of two that are over 100 would do you well. 


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[ILbowhntr]

I asked the same question on another elk board and the general answer was 3, 65 quart coolers minimum. That's for boned out.

 

[wapiti_will]

May depend on if you want to get dry ice or not.  I used to go with 40 lbs of regular ice and a 10 lb block of dry ice (dry ice keeps the regular ice from melting) in a 200 qt cooler.  That would allow me to hunt for well over a week and have a cooler with ice that would fit a boned out elk.
Recently I just got tired of getting dry ice and being forced to debone if I didn't need to or if the situation didn't call for it.  So now I have a small chest freezer that I throw in my truck and fill partially with water filled milk jugs and/or bag ice.  I leave it plugged in, freezing everything solid before I head out, and it lasts for weeks and can fit a quartered out elk in it easily (and a small chest freezer is as cheap or cheaper than a huge cooler)[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif].  [/font]

 

[ltsheets]

How do you plug in your freezer?  I've done the same thing using a freezer as a cooler but have never thought to plug it in.

 

[DTP]

How do you plug in your freezer?  I've done the same thing using a freezer as a cooler but have never thought to plug it in.

I know lots of people who will bring out their generator(Like my mini 2K). They will get out there, run the generator to get the freezer frozen, shut it down, and not open it until they need to put an elk in it. Then they will run it until it freezes the meat. Not a bad option!

 

[ILbowhntr]

Buying 2-120 quart Coleman Extreme coolers. Cheaper than my Yeti, but only going to use them on the trip home. They'll fit perfectly side by side on the trailer I'm building.

 

[IowaHawkeye]

Buying 2-120 quart Coleman Extreme coolers. Cheaper than my Yeti, but only going to use them on the trip home. They'll fit perfectly side by side on the trailer I'm building.

Be careful with the Coleman coolers. My buddy has one. We bring four 120+ qt coolers with us on elk hunts with plans of filling them with two elk for the trip home. We fill them with gear for the trip out. I have a Yeti and two Igloo coolers. We drove through some rain on the way to New Mexico this year. All three of my coolers were dry inside when we got there. My buddies coleman had an inch of water in the bottom. Then after we dried everything out he put some gear back into it. It rained while we were there and the cooler was just sitting on the ground. Again it got water inside. Poor design, if nothing else. I figure if it leaks water that easily, it isn't very air tight either. Just FYI

 

[IowaHawkeye]

Oh, and this year I put a boned out bull in a 125 and 150 qt coolers. Ice on the bottom and open the drain plug to let water drain. I had it on ice in the cooler for a week before my other buddy got his elk, then another day to drive home. The meat was perfect.