Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Pronghorn meat and coolers

A couple of questions on pronghorns and meat.

First, wondering how much boned meat a pronghorm buck will yield? I've seen figures of 30 pounds on the low end to 40 on the top.

Second, will one boned out buck fit in a 48 quart cooler, with room for ice?

Yeah, one will fit in a 48 qt. cooler with plenty of room for ice. I can't tell you how many pound of meat. They're not that big.

We always took coolers full of ice, gutted, skinned and quartered out goats, got them iced down ASAP, on site.

We saw a goat hanging from a tractor front end loader, must have been there for quite a while. And, it was HOT. When they call them "stink goats", someone doesn't know how to take care of meat.

Pronghorns need to be on ice ASAP, especially when it's hot. They're really good eating if handled properly.

DF

Wrapids,

In our experience it takes a BIG-bodied buck to result in 40 pounds of boned meat. The biggest buck we've ever weighed on the freight scale in our garage was 92 pounds field-dressed, and if I recall corectly resulted in around 42 pounds of meat. Mature does and average bucks usually yield 30-35 pounds.

While it's a good idea to skin, quarter and ice if you're transporting them for a while, I'll note that if the weather's cool they don't even have to skinned immediately. Here in Montana the rifle season starts around the 10th of October and lasts for four weeks. On many occasions we've killed them in very cool weather (sometimes with snow on the ground) and simply field-dressed them, though we always lay them on their back in the pickup so the body heat can rise and dissipate quickly. In slightly warmer weather, say up to 55 degrees, we've done the same, but placed a bag of ice or two inside the body cavity to cool them quicker.

A lot depends on where you're hunting. In some states the season opens in late August, with temperatures often in the 90's, and when I hunt those states my goats get skinned, quartered and put in a cooler with ice.

My bud and I have made a number of trips to NM in Aug.

It's hot, especially as the day wears on, not so bad at daylight.

I can see it not being as critical in a cooler climate.

Good eating when the meat is handled right...

DF

I like JB try to get them cooled down and skinned quickly.
It is warm 50-75 degrees here during most antelope seasons and I have made a point to put several Gallon jugs frozen solid and 5 gallons of wash water in the truck antelope hunting. I field dress and rinse out thoroughly as fast as possible and put the gallon jugs inside to cool down and then head home to get them skinned and further cooled. I try to keep them on their backs to allow air to circulate and allow further cooling.
The most I ever got from a single goat was this year , a very large doe that I shot in ribs and it missed both shoulders. My personal best was 28 minutes from shot to hanging in my garage skinned and 10 minutes of that was driving through town!!!!!

Any gun bigger then a .223 will waste shoulders quickly if a shoulder shot is taken. I got 40 lbs from the doe this year, usually around 30-35 is average. I shot one a few years ago that yielded less then 20 lb.s because it was a dang small bodied buck that I decided to center punch both shoulders with a 130 gr. berger(6.5).

Yep, shoulder-shooting can sure ruin a higher percentage of pronghorn meat!

The least amount of meat, however, that we ever got off one was 15 pounds, a fawn my wife shot one year when we had plenty of tags, just to see what it tasted like. Eileen didn't ruin more than an ounce of meat, shooting it in front the chest when facing straight-on. It was very good meat, pale and almost pork-like in flavor, but there was o little we haven't shot one that small since.

My brother calls me a Wasteful hunter because over half the antelope I have killed have been high shoulder shots. More then a few of them have had both shoulders and the neck ruined.
I told him it's a mental thing ,I hold for ribs then at the last second move a little closer to the edge of the orange hair and up to insure easy tracking job........

I ruined a cape with a 140 gr. VLD Hunting out of a 6.5-284 at 385 yds.

Last one was shot off hand at 80 yds., .240, 100 gr. NPT.

DRT, just not as much damage.

DF

I hate that slimy nastiness that develops on the meat surface when a skinned animal is on ice, but when its hot out and you're a ways from town or a fridge, there's no other choice.

Yes, a mature buck will fit into a 48 qt cooler with plenty of room left over. I've never weighed boned out meat so I will defer to the others on here.

They'll stay OK on ice for several days. I think the ice water helps.

We'll ice'em down, drive 14 hours home, even spend the night. They'll stay iced until getting them to the processor, which may be 2-3 days from when they were killed.

Seems to work well.

DF

The last few years,I have been hunting an early December doe antelope hunt. So temps are not a problem. In the overall scheme of things getting the skin off pronto sure isn't going to hurt anything.
Surprisingly in early December when temps are maybe 30-35 degrees,it is amazing how warm the meat stays while the hide is still on. Several hours and mine have been warm to the touch.
Here, antelope season is usually about the 1st of Oct. and the bucks are still in rut. They indeed are rather stinky. It is what is on the hide though and not the meat during that period. Does nothing smells though.

When I do happen to hunt at that time and shoot a buck, I try to get the hide off ASAP and throw it as far as I can.Later in the year,that smell seems to be gone.

I usually take a 100 qt cooler, remove the legs at the knees and cut in half. They will fit in that cooler with a few jugs of ice

I never put meat directly on Ice. I use gallon juice containers frozen solid and leave the drain open on coolers to allow any fluid to run out.

Worst I ever had was a 6 " exit hole in the center of a shoulder with a 130 gr. berger at 615 yds. ....

The 140 at 385 was about that bad.

DF

On the last buck I shot with a Berger (6.5 140 Hunting VLD), I deliberately placed the bullet about a hand's width behind the shoulder, and since he was quartering very slightly to me, the 3-4" exit was in the middle of the far ribs. He went down quickly within 15-20 feet. Bergers do so much internal damage you don't have to place them anywhere near the shoulder to kill quickly.

The last 30 +/- goats I have shot have all been completely deboned where they fell. I put the boneless meat in gallon freezer bags and pack them right out to an ice filled cooler in my truck. In the dozen or so years I've been doing this, I've never had a bad tasting antelope.

The boned out meat of an average goat buck will fit in 6 gallon freezer bags. If a shoulder is hit, a good goat buck will often fit in 5 plump full gallon bags. My goat tags are usually filled opening day: September 24 - Oct 2, depending on the state and unit. In the last dozen or so years, I can only remember 1 opening day in Wyoming that was cool enough for me to feel comfortable not skinning and deboning a goat before loading it in the truck… Out of habit, we deboned the goats we shot that day too.

A boneless goat will fit just fine in a 48 quart cooler, with room for dang near 20 pounds of ice too.

Yep, I'd be worried about a tracking job in the mostly pretty open spaces they inhabit... yes I've seen em in the trees, and even in pretty high mountains, I"ve never seen em in thickets though.

Tracking, yep I"d worry about that one. LOL

Agreed. Quite often, a well hit goat will rear up on its hind legs, tip over backwards and not move more than another 5 yards. Tracking (not seeing the critter hit the ground) is a rare occurrence.

Best meatloaf I ever made was speed goat. Added pork fat cracklings and an Asian inspired glaze. Damn was it good.

I have only bowhunted antelope and that starts mid Aug. It can be very hot. So when I shoot one it gets skinned, cut in half behind the ribs and tossed in a 100qt cooler with several one gallon recycled milk jugs frozen solid with ice. I doubt you would get one in a 48qt cooler without boning it completely out first. In the 100qt cooler I have to cut a nice buck in half and slip the legs inside the chest to get it to fit.