Actually, my experience with back-pack caribou, sheep, and moose that take several days to get out is that if promptly gutted, skinned, pieced, you have 3-4 days before processing becomes mandatory, especially if it cools off well at night, even without ice.
Get that hide off, the guts out, and chunked up to where it can lose it's natural body heat (even if only down to 60 degrees or so), it will be fine for a couple days.
One moose killed near dark was gutted , mostly skinned out, the 4 legs whacked off and placed on a log rack just off the ground, and the rest left on his back overnight, propped open, on the skin. We did not get the neck skinned out, and it was green-"bone soured" by the time we got back to it about noon the next day (We siwashed overnight halfway out to the road when it got too dangerous to travel, even by flashlight). About 40 lbs of meat lost.
Had we gotten the skin off the neck up to the base of the head it would have been fine...
Last edited by las; 09/04/13.
