By all means, get the hide off, the meat trimmed off the bones and get it cooling ASAP. I use cloth bags and carry food grade plastic bags as well (depending on terrain and time of year and location). If there is any cool water nearby, like a stream or lake, I bone the meat and toss it into the big plastic bags and submerge it in the cold water. Laying the meat in bags on river rocks also sucks the heat out of the meat as long as they are in the shade. If the nights are cool, I hang it in the trees in the shade. If the nights are hot, I load up a BIG ice chest and distribute the meat throughout the ice, keeping the water drained. On antelope hunts, I carry an ice chest full of ice and debone the goat right on the spot the put the meat on ice. Keep your hands and knives clean. Don't touch the hide, then the meat with the same hand....espcially during the rut. YOU will get some WILD tasting meat if you do. If someone is with me, I have them grab the skinned, boneless meat with their clean "meat" hands while I wrestle with the hide and bones. I don't want any dirt or musk from the hide on the meat. Take a couple of sharp knives, a small bone saw and a sharpener. In most cases, you don't even need to gut the animal when you bone it out. Don't forget to leave evidence of sex on the boned out meat. Flinch
