Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Getting the meat home after the hunt

If you're curious about hauling meat home in an ice chest with several days of travel. Here is a first hand experience with a Couple Yeti Chests and some Dry Ice

I boned out and froze up about 100lbs of pork from the wild hogs I shot with my bow. It was all in 1 gallon zip lock bags except for the bigger hind quarters which were in white plastic trash bags to keep them from freezing together with everything.

Once frozen solid the meat was placed into the two Yeti Ice chests. It stayed frozen from the hunting camp in Texas to the one I went to in Oklahoma, about 8 hours drive away. Next morning it was still hard as a rock, now 24 hours. I hunted here three days and it was 86-91 deg during the daytime. One night back to near freezing. They were kept in the shade during this whole hunting period.

I did not add ice for this three day time, the meat without ice in the yeti ice chest was getting a bit softer but still quite frozen. When we left Oklahoma we drove to Colorado. Just in time for the worst spring snow in ten years. I used my shovel to fill and level off both ice chests with packed snow.

We stayed in the Denver-Thornton area for a few days. Upon leaving I put 10lbs of dry ice into each of the cool boxes. I did not have any liquid to drain everything was solid ice. I had to carve out an area to place the dry Ice on the top.

When we arrived in the Twin Falls area for the next stop on the "tour" 3 days later, the dry ice was still mostly intact, and the contents of the box was one giant Yeti shaped ice cube with meat in the middle. You would need a hammer and chisel to break apart the snow now turned solid block of ice.

We arrived home several days after that, I cannot get the meat out of the ice chest because it's still one giant block of ice. Let there be no doubt that if you must travel with meat a long way, having it frozen before you leave and then using dry ice along the way, it will stay as had as a rock.

Even if the weather was much warmer, there is absolutely no doubt that once frozen meat is put into a Yeti chest, it will stay frozen with most of the airspace taken up by ice or snow, and kept well below zero with dry ice. I think ( from this experience)you would need 10lbs of dry ice every three days

I feel very confident that if it was not frozen ahead of time, and the amount of dry ice was doubled ( approx) then the meat would freeze in the chest anyway. This is a very good practical way to hunt far from home and get the meat back. I will be headed to Texas again as soon as I can get a plan together so I can shoot some more hogs!

It's a pretty good drive from Eastern Wa. to Texas, but the fuel and using our camp trailer are way less expensive then airfare and the hotel costs! Plus I can bring everything I want with me, and all the meat home!

Yes. Starting out with everything frozen works quite well. Last summer I did an archery deer hunt (5 days) followed by 5 days of fishing. Thereafter I left my Igloo cooler in the cab high canopy of the truck parked in the sun at home. The last ice vanished on the 17th day.

Had I started with 4 cases of warm beer in there, things might have thawed a bit quicker.

Well packed and frozen meat shipped from Alaska shows up solid as rock.

Don't have dry ice locally, but I'd like to give it a try.

All walmarts carry dry ice sold by the pound. At least all the walmarts I've stopped at!

It's usually about a buck a pound, not exactly cheap, but it will super freeze everything in the ice chest. It's normal state is way below zero, like minus 100 degrees or something close. The trick is to fill the entire chest's volume, try to get to minimal airspace. Dry ice dissolves as a gas, so without the space for the gas to go, it seems to last far longer. Cold also sinks to the bottom, so keep the dry ice on top.

I might also suggest that the dry ice be kept from contact with the meat. I used a layer of bubble wrap. I think it would freezer burn the meat if rested right on top of meat in a plastic bag.

20 pounds or 20 bucks worth of Dry Ice ( 10 bucks or 10 pounds, worth every three days) with pre frozen meat in an 85 quart Yeti ice chest will get a week of travel easily, even in warm weather. You could likely get 5 days at a time with the dry ice? I've not had to go that long yet, but 3 days per ten pounds will absolutely work.

Just read the precautions on handling dry ice. Use gloves to handle it. It will flash freeze your skin instantly upon contact.