What’s a Pronghorn Hindquarter Measure?

Trying to decide which of my coolers to bring on an upcoming hunt.
If you cut off the hoof at the joint, what would the length of the hind quarter measure from a buck?

If you can fit a whitetail hind quarter in, the pronghorn quarter will fit.

Never had a problem getting them into a 70qt cooler.

If ya bone it out……put the whole “goat” in a 48 qt. ice chest! memtb

I usually bone out the whole buck, put the meat into zip lock bags and then into a soft cooler, the weight will be between 40 and 45 lbs.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Originally Posted by memtb

If ya bone it out……put the whole “goat” in a 48 qt. ice chest! memtb

Man, i thought I really accomplished something by fitting a whole pronghorn in a 75qt chest! You put me to shame!

I'd leave it on the bone and take off the lower legs, less chance of cold shortening then.
60 qt would work fine.

Originally Posted by wytex

I'd leave it on the bone and take off the lower legs, less chance of cold shortening then.
60 qt would work fine.

“cold shortening” ? memtb

Originally Posted by memtb

Originally Posted by wytex

I'd leave it on the bone and take off the lower legs, less chance of cold shortening then.
60 qt would work fine.

“cold shortening” ? memtb

Originally Posted by Mule Deer

Tejano,

There are a couple of related phenomena, one called "cold shortening" and the other "thaw rigor."

What you especially want to avoid is the meat freezing before it goes into rigor mortis (thaw rigor), but simply cooling down too quickly can also cause "cold shortening," even if the meat doesn't freeze. Either causes the meat to stay tough even if it's aged meat considerably.

I learned about it after hanging a young mule deer buck up in the open during a day down near zero, in a pretty stiff wind, one morning many years ago. The buck was field-dressed but not skinned, and froze solid by evening. After thawing the buck out and "aging" it for a week, even the backstraps were tough!

The big trick is to prevent the meat from chilling below about 60 degrees for the first 10-12 hours, and then not freezing until it comes out of rigor.

A 3’ X 3’ tarp for reference

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Thanks! Good info! memtb

We often put bone-in quarters in the freezer, because Eileen sometimes uses them for meat-cutting demonstrations. Found a hindquarter from one of the bigger bucks we've killed, which was taken off by popping the hip joint and cutting off the lower leg. It measures 16" long.

We have a pair of 110-quart coolers we use for transporting meat, and have fitted the bone-in quarters and otherwise boned meat from up to three pronghorns easily in one of them.

Originally Posted by memtb

If ya bone it out……put the whole “goat” in a 48 qt. ice chest! memtb

This! With chances that temps will be above 60 or 70 degrees during the day, it's best to just skin them out, de-bone them and put them in a cooler. At our big Antelope camp, we had started bringing a small freezer with and run it off a Honda generator to keep gallon water jugs frozen for the coolers and of course boned out meat as well if traveling long distances....just remember evidence of sex.

Ziplock! LOL They're petite and delicious!

Only problem with pronghorn is they are too small, it’s my favorite game meat.