Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Field Game Care and Bringing it home to the lower 48

Hi Again,

As mentioned previously, my brother and I are hunting the Brooks Range in mid-late August for caribou. I've done a fair amount of research on game care but mostly I see arguments and incomplete or out of date advice.

First, let's talk about field care. We've got game bags from AlaskaGameBags.com on order. We chose these primarily based on reviews. Good choice?

We are planning to debone all the meat, double bag it in heavy duty zip lock bags, place those bags in contractor bags and then put the contractor bags in the water for the purposes of cooling and fooling the bears. Obviously we'll want to make sure nothing leaks because water can ruin the meat. Does this sound like the best practice? If it's colder, say highs not reaching 50, would we be better off not doing this?

Also, I've seen salt, pepper, citric acid and a few other things recommended as preservatives for the meant. What are yout recommendations?

Next is getting the meat home from Fairbanks. Due to the facilities in Bettles and the limited timeframe we'll be dealing with, it's not likely that we'll be able to freeze the meat, probably not even partially.

It looks like the best way to get the meat home from Fairbanks will be to ship it via Alaska Air freight. I've seen recommendations for Rubbermade Action Packers, large coolers and wax boxes as far as what to pack the meat in. I've seen arguments for and against dry ice.

What say you?

Also, is there a recommended game processor in Fairbanks that will process our meat there and ship it home for us if we want to go that route?

Similarly, I've always taken my deer from the field to the butcher to the taxidermist and never had to worry much about cap care other than not to screw it up during field dressing. I know the about splitting the skull, but if we want to do head mounts I would assume that there's special care to be taken when taking the hide off the skulls.

I've probably field dressed around 50 deer and pronghorn in my time, but I've only had to skin one deer out of all of them. If anyone knows a great step by step guide for field care, quartering, deboning, etc. of a caribou something like "Caribou Field Care for Dummies" that would suit my dumb ass perfectly.

Thanks again for all of the feedback.

Done sumtin' similar and it panned out. Not referring to your "bear foolin" comment, just the cooling part.

Bears are not easily fooled, at least not the ones I have encountered.

I'd change my plans when it comes to the "not frozen before shipping" part.
Spend a couple days in town after the hunt and freeze it prior to departure, you're risking enough with your plans of chillin it.

Happy huntin'

Use TAG bags from Pristine Ventures. Citric acid is an okay additive to the problem. Elevate and let the meat in the meat bags air out and cool. Protect from direct sunlight. Keep in the shade. Do not place in air-tight zip bags. Take to a meat processing place in FBKS (if there is one). Place the meat in heavy-duty waxed fish boxes and FREEZE the meat for a couple of days. Then pick up the boxes, deliver to Alaska Air Cargo (you have to be qualified as a "known shipper") and have them ship the meat to your nearest affiliated airport. THEN have the meat unfrozen and processed. Easy Peasy but you have to work the problem ahead of time.

Apply now for "known shipper" status. Required for out of state shipments. You will also need to get an export tag from F&G to export the "trophy" head.

Ditto John's zip lock bag comment and freezing. If you MUST submerse meat to cool it, get it as dried and drained as possible beforehand. And maybe take it out to hang nights? Wet meat in plastic sours rapidly. Do try to get it crusted over if possible.

Leave the meat in as large pieces as possible, preferably bone in on the legs, if not on the ribs/back/neck.

Airlines require waterproof shipping containers, and should have waxed boxes on hand for sale. Proibably best to make sure by buying ahead of time. Or use coolers, etc.

Swabbing meat surfaces with citric acid/vinegar changes the Ph from base to acidic , helping to crust and to prevent mold. Flies won't lay eggs on crusted meat. If they do, the eggs won't hatch and are easily removed. A Liberal pepper coat repels flies, but does nothing for mold formation. Best used on cut surfaces and wet crevasses -refer to large pieces/bone in.

Thanks for the feedback. That really clears the air on the differences between the acid/vinegar treatments and salt.

It kinda blows my mind that there's not someone in Fairbanks that I can just pay like $300 per animal to that handles all of this. Any Fairbanks locals, here's an opportunity. Just to be clear, I mean the $300 as a handling fee, not as a total price.

I wish staying a few extra days for freezing was an option, but just getting the 10 days already allocated to this trip away from work and the fam was difficult enough and costly enough.

if temps are not above 50 in the shade, I hang and use citric acid if I feel the need. Depends on how many days out, and how low the lows get too.

Keep the meat dry.

Make sure you can debone it.. I will not debone anything for 24 to 48 hours so it doesn't become tough to start with. Shortening or some name like that.

If Bettles has a freezer, stick the meat in coolers in the freezer if for only a few hours.

Fairbanks has a freezer at the airport and you can keep it there overnight, gives it a good freeze.

I usually just take a couple of decent 70 quart ones and pay extra freight to put on the plane.

A day later home in TX I've never had the meat thawed... Often don't check the cooler until 48 later when I come home from work anyway.

If you have not caped its not that hard if you have ever skinned a coon to sell or such. Ask your taxidermist ahead of time to show you. And whether they want a Y cut or 7 cut that I by far prefer. If you split the skull, make sure to measure width at least 2 points so they have something to shoot for when screwing both halves of the skull to the form later. I tend to try to cut the skull from both sides at a slight angle so its easier to mate back up. Kind of a sideways really mild V if you will.

I used to have a VHS tape of me caping an animal on the work desk here, I don't know if its still there or if you can view VHS, but if it would help let me know, I can dig....

If you debone the meat, you can get all of the meat from a caribou bull into a 100 quart Igloo cooler. The last time I deboned a caribou, the cutting tables were outside and the ambient temperature was in the twentys. So the meat was pretty cold when it went into the cooler. I left the cooler outside that night and we flew out the next morning. I carried the cooler as checked baggage. It weighed just under fifty pounds, so no extra charge for overweight baggage. We arrived at home and everything was fine.

KC

If you show up with under 40 pounds of meat (coolers weigh close to 10 pounds in the 100 quart versions) and a semi-mature bull rack expect serious and deserved scrutiny!

An ordinary yearling bull caribou should have at least 70 pounds of meat after boning. The issue of wanton Waste is taken very seriously in Alaska. A very large bull might push 150 boned.

Have yet to see a deboning knife for sale...

To whom did you give the remaining 1/2 or 2/3 of your meat before flying out?

This looks like good advice.

But, depending on you hunting area, you may not have anything tall and sturdy enough to hang meat. A method I used when camped above tree line was to set the game bagged meat on rocks in a boulder field, with an aluminized space blanket rigged to give shade but still allow some air circulation. Worked very well for several days. Game meat siting out in the shade with daytime temp in the 50s and nights in the 30s-40s ages very nicely. As for bears, definitely some risk (but I had a grizzly tag in case of argument!)

No grizzly tags for us unguided, non residents. From what I understand of the area, the likelihood of being able to hang the meat from anything is quite low.

I'll probably make my brother hold it up until all the blood drains. He's a bit of a rookie.

We just found willows to lay our meat on to get air circulation. YMMV because I"ve not been that far north.

Id do every last thing I could to avoid having to use the water, and if you do have to, make sure all body heat is out before you submerse.

Make sure you bone everything or salvage everything to look like a biology specimen IMHO.... they'll hammer you on waste, even waste you don't think is waste... see references to KC's post...

Wish I could reco a good game processor for you here in fbks.

Have tried them all over the years, always end up unhappy

We just do our own

Only ones I trust are in Delta 100 miles from fbks.

I used to haul my burger cuts to them, but since we purchased a better grinder doing that at home too

I can't see paying someone to burger... but thats just me.

Bought and hauled a decent LEM grinder to Delta... ain't shot a moose since... LOL.

Quit with the temp postings, you'll scare Carolyn... we hit 89 yesterady. I can't wait for the damn heat this year.. it should really suck... 99 was south of us almost a month ago... ugh... its as bad as cold.