Hunting in warm weather requires extra care to prevent meat from spoiling

Additional tips for meat care include:

Meat can spoil overnight- When an animal is harvested in the evening, it still needs to be found, cleaned, and processed as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that the ground is a great insulator. The elevated part of the carcass might cool slightly, but the bottom-side will retain heat and sometimes spoil if left overnight.

Have ice available- If you're making a relatively short trip from the field to home or field to camp, fill the body cavity of an unskinned pronghorn or deer with ice bags to help cool it. But beware, body heat can remain in the thickest parts of the animal, such as the hindquarters, and stuffing with ice is only a temporary measure. You should not rely on ice alone in the body cavity of larger animals like elk or moose, which will require skinning and additional cutting to allow heat to escape. For longer trips, blocked ice in a quality cooler will last much longer than cubed ice.

Don't hang meat if it's too hot- It is safer to skin, quarter, and put the meat on ice rather than hang it in fluctuating temperatures. A large cooler will hold most or all of a deer that's been quartered, or an elk that has been cut into smaller pieces. Remember to leave evidence of sex and species, as per rules found on page 102 of the big game rules booklet.

Find a meat processor- It is becoming more common for hunters to take animals into a processing facility rather that butcher the meat at home. Knowing where the nearest meat processing facilities are located and their hours of operation will make it much easier to get meat taken care of quickly. Some meat processors only accept game animals at certain times of the year and space may be limited, so it never hurts to make a phone call before you go hunting.

Protect the meat from insects- In temperatures below 40 degrees, flies are rarely a problem, but in higher temperatures, flies are your enemy. Game bags are essential to keep meat free of flies and clean as well. In warm weather, always bag skinned meat immediately. It is far easier to keep meat clean than it is to remove fly eggs, hair, dirt, grass, and pine needles later.

Use water carefully- There are conflicting views about washing down a big game animal with water after it is skinned. Most professional meat processors agree that using clean, cold water to remove animal hair and dirt is a good practice if the carcass air dries quickly so that the water does not encourage bacterial growth. A cold-water spray can also hasten the cooling process.