Field Care of Game in Arizona

The way you handle game after it’s harvested can have a significant impact on the quality of the meat. In Arizona, you may find a wide range of temperatures from 100 degrees to below zero. Obviously, colder temperatures do not require much in the way of special care, but you need to have a plan for the care of your game when temperatures are above 50 degrees.

When dealing with big game, one of the most effective ways to prevent spoilage and cool the carcass is to “quarter” the animal.

There are many videos available that demonstrate the “gutless” method of quartering an animal. This entails skinning the carcass and removing the front shoulders and legs from the rib cage and the rear hips and legs from the pelvis. This can be done with a knife relatively easily.

Once the quarters are removed, the neck can be boned out, the backstraps and tenderloins removed, and any rib meat cut off the carcass.

As the quarters and meat are removed, place them in a game bag to keep them clean and either hang them in a tree or prop them up on rocks, logs or bushes to increase cooling and air circulation. Once the quarters and meat are removed from the field, they either need to go into a cooler with ice or taken to a meat processor immediately.

If nighttime temperatures are below 40 degrees, you can hang it outside, but it will still need to be kept cold during the day in a cooler. When storing your meat in a cooler, make sure to keep it dry — you do not want it sitting in melted ice as water will promote the growth of bacteria.