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Hunting
The Basics, Starting Out
Game Bags….and their use
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<blockquote data-quote="Rcritch" data-source="post: 2951579" data-attributes="member: 125956"><p>Dragging your deer out from wherever it's "at" is never a viable choice ... unless you're just harvesting deer for dog food. All North American big game animals that are worth eating have enough body weight, insulating hide and retained blood in their muscle tissue that they take time to chill out and firm up to where they can be transported without degrading the quality of the harvested meat. Even when transported on a cart or pack animal a fresh kill's meat will loose quality with each mile traveled. Best way to have meat worth consuming is to carefully (i.e. cleanly) skin and quarter or bone out the deer at the kill site then bag and hang in the shade out of reach of predators overnight. Only then will your meat be cool enough to transport without micro-bruising. For those who fear skinning and quartering a big game animal at the kill sight can't be done in anything like a sanitary manner I can only say that I have single handedly done so by rolling the animal onto an old king-sized bedsheet and using care not to litter the sheet with dirt, leaves, needles and other forest debris. (It can help to use a green spruce limb to rake the ground clean first and weight the sheet with rocks at each corner.)</p><p></p><p>As for the game bags, not knowing where you are hunting I have no idea what threats need to be avoided while the meat chills out, but here in the Rocky Mountain west those threats rule out anything of a "light weight" nature. The ubiquitous cheese cloth bags are absolutely the worst. Even pillow cases and bags made of bed sheeting won't last more than a few seconds when discovered by crows, magpies or ravens. And once one of those scavenging birds finds the bagged deer it will quickly consume a baseball sized chunk of prime meat, leaving a large hole in the bag to invite every wasp, fly and other meat eating insect in to gorge themselves.</p><p></p><p>Good quality heavier cotton game bags that are available commercially should serve well, but are a bit pricey. In my own 60 years of big game hunting I have bagged deer, elk, caribou and oryx (gemsbok) without any loss of meat using the following inexpensive (less than a Bidenomic $5 bill) homemade game bag:</p><p></p><p>Shop around and find a good deal on decent quality cotton painter's drop cloths. They should be no less than 6 ounce fabric (for durability) and no more than 10 ounce) for breathability, I've always used, and recommend, the 9' x 12' size. Cut the cloth into four 3' x 9' pieces, fold each of them to 3' x 4-1/2' size and sew the sides shut leaving a 3' opening at the end. Then turn them inside out to better protect the sewn 4-1/2' sides and put a deer quarter in each bag which still has plenty of open neck to twist closed and tie off securely with light rope or parachute cord, leaving enough tag end of rope/cord to hang the bag. For mature larger game, such as elk, I cut the lower leg off, tie the upper leg to a hanging rope and tightly tie the bag shut with cord against the hanging rope.</p><p></p><p>Piece of cake! And, after processing, a freezer full of quality meat.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rcritch, post: 2951579, member: 125956"] Dragging your deer out from wherever it's "at" is never a viable choice ... unless you're just harvesting deer for dog food. All North American big game animals that are worth eating have enough body weight, insulating hide and retained blood in their muscle tissue that they take time to chill out and firm up to where they can be transported without degrading the quality of the harvested meat. Even when transported on a cart or pack animal a fresh kill's meat will loose quality with each mile traveled. Best way to have meat worth consuming is to carefully (i.e. cleanly) skin and quarter or bone out the deer at the kill site then bag and hang in the shade out of reach of predators overnight. Only then will your meat be cool enough to transport without micro-bruising. For those who fear skinning and quartering a big game animal at the kill sight can't be done in anything like a sanitary manner I can only say that I have single handedly done so by rolling the animal onto an old king-sized bedsheet and using care not to litter the sheet with dirt, leaves, needles and other forest debris. (It can help to use a green spruce limb to rake the ground clean first and weight the sheet with rocks at each corner.) As for the game bags, not knowing where you are hunting I have no idea what threats need to be avoided while the meat chills out, but here in the Rocky Mountain west those threats rule out anything of a "light weight" nature. The ubiquitous cheese cloth bags are absolutely the worst. Even pillow cases and bags made of bed sheeting won't last more than a few seconds when discovered by crows, magpies or ravens. And once one of those scavenging birds finds the bagged deer it will quickly consume a baseball sized chunk of prime meat, leaving a large hole in the bag to invite every wasp, fly and other meat eating insect in to gorge themselves. Good quality heavier cotton game bags that are available commercially should serve well, but are a bit pricey. In my own 60 years of big game hunting I have bagged deer, elk, caribou and oryx (gemsbok) without any loss of meat using the following inexpensive (less than a Bidenomic $5 bill) homemade game bag: Shop around and find a good deal on decent quality cotton painter's drop cloths. They should be no less than 6 ounce fabric (for durability) and no more than 10 ounce) for breathability, I've always used, and recommend, the 9' x 12' size. Cut the cloth into four 3' x 9' pieces, fold each of them to 3' x 4-1/2' size and sew the sides shut leaving a 3' opening at the end. Then turn them inside out to better protect the sewn 4-1/2' sides and put a deer quarter in each bag which still has plenty of open neck to twist closed and tie off securely with light rope or parachute cord, leaving enough tag end of rope/cord to hang the bag. For mature larger game, such as elk, I cut the lower leg off, tie the upper leg to a hanging rope and tightly tie the bag shut with cord against the hanging rope. Piece of cake! And, after processing, a freezer full of quality meat. [/QUOTE]
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The Basics, Starting Out
Game Bags….and their use
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