do you ice deer?

[JP8]

X20 on icing for a few days.

[JMenendez]

yes to icing 3-5 days, just keep draining water and adding fresh ice.

[Texas8point]

Ice him down bay-bee !

[Low Fence]

If I'm keeping them cool I prefer frozen coke bottles full of water (I have a bunch in an outside freezer). I just rotate the bottles every day and it seems to keep the meat the perfect temp. But if I dont have this opption or Im away from home I use ice with the plug pulled. 7 days

[Red Wing R/C]

Transport is my problem so it needs to be...frozen. No difference in taste.
Back in the day (50`s) when your deer was tied to the fender for the trip home and the mileage was not bad, my deer never saw ....ice. Got it home,cut it up, ate it or I should say, my 5 kids are it.

Time and distance changes everything.

[Tmag]

Ice for 3-5 days and drain and reice daily.

[kfd82]

Anyone ever built a rack/platform hootus to keep the meat off the bottom of the cooler? Just needs to be about 2 inches tall.
It doesnt matter if the drain is open and the cooler is tilted, SOME of the meat is gonna sit in water. A small elevated platform would solve that.

Just thinking out loud...

My deer get gutted and hauled into town and hang at the processor for a while. Hogs I normally skin and quarter and put on ice. I drain the water daily and top off the cooler with new ice. Never gave much thought to having the meat touch/sit in water. With draining every day, I've never noticed a problem.

[Blue Tick]

I fill my coolers full of water and let the deer soak for about an hour to get some of the initial blood out. After that, it's straight ice for 3-4 days with the drain open to get out as much blood as possible.

[systemnt]

ice down for a week...usually because I'm usually in the woods for a week.. but mostly to 'bleed' it out.

[tyak]

5-7 days until the water runs clear.

[Peacock]

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123170

[Winman]

Hanging meat is the best way. Most people that ice deer for days end up letting it sit in too much water. Thats what I have seen. Last year I seen a guy that adds slat to his WTH ?? Salt drys things out and makes it tuff?? An old frig works great just turn it way down.

If you add salt to the ice and water mixture,it will lower the temp.of the slurry and leach out the blood.Back when it was leglal to do,we would bone out all the meat and put it in the cooler with a slurry of salt and ice and water on the lease near Del Rio...when we got home [Houston}we would drain it and re-ice for a day or 3...then rinse and vacuum pack...was always tender and mild tasting.

[Live2Hunt]

When people tell you the deer meat they had tasted 'gamey' I believe its due to poor care of the meat once the kill is located.

Its very important to get the deer gutted and the skin off to start the cooling process. The next step is to get it on ice and drop that temp.

Proper care of the meat will lead to great tasting meals, even if your cooking skills are not as good as your hunting ones...

[billfromtx]

Deer and hogs both. Iced down for 3 or 4 days and drain the blood off every day and add ice as needed.

[Rack Daddy]

I like to ice for 3 to 5 days before I begin processing. I believe the gamey taste in deer resides mostly in the blood. By the time I finish final processing some of the deer may have been on ice for a total of 7 days and I have never had a problem with loss due to spoilage. You must drain daily to get the best results.
I don't know about you guys but I am ready to ice down some venison.