water/blood proof game bags

[countryboy]

I am looking for some game bags for boning out and packing deer that aren't gonna turn my mossyoak camo to a crimson pattern. My ole man used to have some that would have worked perfect, they were heavy duty and rubber lined but being as old as he is he can't seem to remember where he got them , so any help would be awsome, and if it is something i can order offline it would be even better, something about floating in the middle of the ocean my chain of command doesn't let me run to bass pro too many times. thanks again.

 

[MoCracken]

http://www.kifaru.net/meatbag.HTM



try this link. My hunting partner used these last year and they worked great.

 

[Casper50]

I don't think I'd want to leave meat in a rubber lined bag very long. It would have to be completly cold before I'd put it in a rubber lined bag for more than 15 minutes. Just my opinion.

 

[Michael Strahan]

An Idea

An Idea

I can't imagine trying to carry out a game bag full of meat very far, without having it inside a backpack. I use a trash bag for a pack liner, and just slip my game bag full of meat right inside. I can carry a bag like this as far as I need to, be it a few hundred yards, or a few miles.

If you're looking for a game bag that won't leak blood, I think you're out of luck. If it can't leak fluids, it's not a breathable bag. If it's not a breathable bag, the meat will eventually spoil inside.

-Mike

 

[salmo trutta]

Mike,
I'm doing a 12+ mile hike-in caribou hunt up by Healy next week. If it's hot, I plan to use trash compactor bags to put meat in, seal them, then put em in the creek to cool them while I'm shuttling meat. Only if it's hot out, otherwise I'll just hang the quarters in trees. Is the creek method effective? I still am nervous about the plastic bag/spoilage thing, but it can get so warm up there this time of year....I'd obviously take it out of the plastic to haul it-don't care about blood on the clothes

 

[Michael Strahan]

Water-cooling game meat

Water-cooling game meat

Mike,
I'm doing a 12+ mile hike-in caribou hunt up by Healy next week. If it's hot, I plan to use trash compactor bags to put meat in, seal them, then put em in the creek to cool them while I'm shuttling meat. Only if it's hot out, otherwise I'll just hang the quarters in trees. Is the creek method effective? I still am nervous about the plastic bag/spoilage thing, but it can get so warm up there this time of year....I'd obviously take it out of the plastic to haul it-don't care about blood on the clothes

Sheesh! Twelve miles for a caribou! You boys are tougher than me, that's for sure. You'd have to put a decimal between the 1 and the 2 to get me to even think about it these days!

Well, I'm of the mind that you can hunt here twenty years and never lose any meat to spoilage, without cooling it in water or using citric acid. But in this case, just getting it out of the field, if it's in a trash bag in your pack, could pose some problems. Not to mention that August can be pretty warm. You won't find better eating caribou than an August animal, to be sure, so you want to do a good job with this.

For those who don't know, the water cool method is based on the principle that water dissapates body heat about 25 times faster than air of the same temperature. The sooner you can drop the core temperature of your game meat, short of premature freezing, the longer it will keep in the field. In commercial slaughter houses, sides of beef are routinely run through a cold-water shower system for this reason. You can do something similar in the field; Here are some suggestions on how to do it.

1. Use CONTRACTOR bags, not COMPACTOR bags! Big difference. Both are made of thicker plastic, but the contractor bags are quite a bit larger. You will get an entire quarter in one, but you'll have a tough time doing that with compactor bags. I only use compactor bags for pack liners.

2. Don't leave it in the water long. If you're going to put it in the water, my suggestion is to take it straight off the animal, put it in the bag, strip the air out of the bag and tie it off, then toss it in the water just long enough to take out most of the body heat. In most cases, 45 minutes is all you need. Do not put it in a game bag inside the trash bag; all you'll accomplish is to soak your game bags with condensation.

3. Hand-strip the moisture off the meat as soon as it comes out of the trash bag. There will be a lot of fluid in the trash bag, from condensation, blood, etc. This will hasten drying, which comes next.

4. If you can do it without flies getting to it (it has to be breezy or cold), hang it for a half-hour or so without game bags. Then bag it in your game bags. if there are ANY FLIES AT ALL, forego this step and put it right in the game bags. The purpose of holding off on the game bags is to get the surface of the meat as dry as possible without soaking the game bags.

5. Periodically check your hanging bags to make sure the meat isn't sticking to them. You shouldn't have too much trouble doing this with the quarters and ribs (if they're on the bone), but it will be more challenging with the backstraps, tenderloins, neck and trim.

6. Obey the "Three Rules of Meat Care" (as I call them); A) Keep it clean B) Keep it cool C) Keep it dry. This applies as soon as the hide comes off, and ends at the butcher shop. You will have wasted all your effort if you did these three things in the field, then you toss it in the bed of your pickup, in a place that gets warm from the exhaust pipe, and it sits there for several hours while you drive home! Be careful when you load it in your vehicle, so this doesn't happen.

Hope it helps!

-Mike

 

[jdb3]

I have been using bags from OR (Outdoor Research) for many years. They come in all sizes and some of the new ones are really light. They seal like the normal seal bags. I put them into my pack and the meat sack into the OR bag. It keeps my pack from becoming blood soaked. It is easy to remove the meat sack from the OR bag too. We use them only for transport, let the meat bag hang in a tree before and after the transet. You can get them from REI or Barney's. Jim

 

[Michael Strahan]

Why not trash bags?

Why not trash bags?

I have been using bags from OR (Outdoor Research) for many years. They come in all sizes and some of the new ones are really light. They seal like the normal seal bags. I put them into my pack and the meat sack into the OR bag. It keeps my pack from becoming blood soaked. It is easy to remove the meat sack from the OR bag too. We use them only for transport, let the meat bag hang in a tree before and after the transet. You can get them from REI or Barney's. Jim

Jim,

Just curious why you would use an expensive dry bag when you could use a heavy-duty trash bag at a fraction of the cost, plus you don't have to clean it? To my way of thinking the pack supports the weight of the meat, so you really don't need a stronger dry bag; just something to keep the blood out of your pack.

No big deal, just curious.

-Mike