Thread: Beginner Hunter - need advice

Plastic only as a rain cover or after the meat has cooled and dried.

Otherwise dry fabric (cotton, linen).

Experience shows you never have enough mutton cloth. Clean sleeping bag liners are a good substitute

Originally Posted by Rn-85

So do you double bag it? Cotton then plastic, if you are tramping it out? Otherwise won't you cover all your gear in blood?

I use a separate meat bag.

Originally Posted by MB

I use a separate meat bag.

Waterproof and breathable, I assume. So a pillow slip in a garbage/ drybag won't cut it for sustained periods.

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Originally Posted by Rn-85

Waterproof and breathable, I assume.

Breathable, yes. Waterproof no. Some compromise.

Originally Posted by Rn-85

So a pillow slip in a garbage/ drybag won't cut it for sustained periods.

Personally, I wouldn't want meat in plastic for prolonged periods, but if it's well cooled and you want to put it in your main pack because you have a big walk out, I guess there isn't much option.

Originally Posted by Jt89

I too am an adult onset hunter and not a born and bred kiwi so thirty years behind everybody else as well. Started with a kifaru pack thinking it was a great idea... Weighed nearly 3kg empty and probably almost 4kg if it was wet... Biffed that for an osprey mutant 52. 1.5ish kg

A hut (in summer) means you practically don't need sleeping gear at all, nor a tent etc. A summer sleeping bag (or quilt if that's how you roll) should be half a Kg or less. Winter obviously different story.

Jetboils and the like are a joke. Bulky, heavy. I'll concede the windburners work well, but they're still heavy for the job. MSR pocket rocket solo set is a good budget cooker that takes up bugger all space and is light enough, a BRS titanium stove and 600ml titanium cup off aliexpress is even lighter and cheaper but I hear they are prone to melting the pot supports eventually.

I don't bother with water at all in a haast roar block, guaranteed it's either all around you or about to fall out of the sky... In the top of the south I carry a litre if I can't hear running water and only 3 or 4 if I'm climbing up and know I'm heading further from a known source rather than closer to another.

Picking the right layers and amount of extras is a learning curve you can only do through hard experience, but a great tip I've learnt is if your sleeping bag is rated warmer than you need it to be just go to sleep fully clothed and wet, you'll be dry in the morning. Packing spare dry layers to sleep in is a waste of time and weight, you'll end up putting wet stuff back on in the morning anyway. Wear merino, get wet and sleep in it, socks and all. I'll bet a box of ammo you'll be toasty dry come time to lace up the boots and slam back a coffee! I only carry extra layers now for adding to what I'm already wearing to keep warm, not to change into and out of. Spare socks and jocks for missions longer than 3 days (turn jocks inside out after second day) If you're really in the pissing rain for days on end, everything gets damp anyway and you're not drying anything.

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An excellent post, thanks I learnt something (and I've been hunting over 50 years in all sorts of country!)

Originally Posted by Rn-85

So do you double bag it? Cotton then plastic, if you are tramping it out? Otherwise won't you cover all your gear in blood?

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You want that meat to cool and dry as fast as you can manage and then keep it that way so maintaining air circulation around it is the key. I approach it from the other side of the same coin - wrap all my gear up in dry bags or a plastic rubbish bag to keep the blood out, rather than the meat wrapped in plastic.
I figure it's hunting gear, it's meant to get grubby at some point. The sleeping bag and puffy jacket should be kept watertight no matter what, the rest of it can get covered in blood for all I care. It washes out with cold water easy enough.
I have also been told by an older hunter

that one could carefully and tightly double wrap the meat of a boned out hind in rubbish bags and stash it in a shady section of creek in summer to keep it cool for a few days until you head for home - never tried it myself but I imagine you want to be sure you're watertight.

On the subject of cooling meat, I have heard a rule of thumb around the temperature of the day vs how long that meat will be good for - any of the wiser heads able to help on that one?

Originally Posted by MB

Personally, I wouldn't want meat in plastic for prolonged periods, but if it's well cooled and you want to put it in your main pack because you have a big walk out, I guess there isn't much option.

So those speciality meat packing bags (For Example Kuiu) are no good? I thought they are made out of some kind of plastic.

Originally Posted by Inder

So those speciality meat packing bags (For Example Kuiu) are no good? I thought they are made out of some kind of plastic.

No idea! As above, I think if the meat has been cooled down properly, it's a compromise. A lot of people use plastic bags of one kind or another to carry meat out, it's just not something I've had to do so far.

idealy meat should be allowed to both breath and leak..... plastic stops both.. if meat has been cooled first,and taken out ASAP eg within a few hours,plastic bin liner bags work well.... but you NEED to cool it down and get it out of bags as soon as you can...chuck in passengers floor well with AC on cold when get back to car helps too.
after the hard work of finding animal,shooting it and carting it out..having meat go off is heartbreaking....good mate has lost 2 lots due to freezer issues...... farkin near cried when he told me about last lot as was big velvety stag in stinking hot day,we did everything right and meat was happily in freezer....circuit tripped fuse in garage while he away and he lost the lot.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

idealy meat should be allowed to both breath and leak..... plastic stops both.. if meat has been cooled first,and taken out ASAP eg within a few hours,plastic bin liner bags work well.... but you NEED to cool it down and get it out of bags as soon as you can...chuck in passengers floor well with AC on cold when get back to car helps too.
after the hard work of finding animal,shooting it and carting it out..having meat go off is heartbreaking....good mate has lost 2 lots due to freezer issues...... farkin near cried when he told me about last lot as was big velvety stag in stinking hot day,we did everything right and meat was happily in freezer....circuit tripped fuse in garage while he away and he lost the lot.

its sucks to open a pack and get a wiff of off meat, on a hot day it don't take long this time of year. try and get out of your pack and let it breath in the shade ,use pillow cases for meat bags , not the fancy ones you got as a wedding gift tho. . they are light weight , breath and easy to clean .

the very best meat bags Ive had were made out of old worn NZ flags off roof of building when edges got tatty they were being chucked away. great for gear and ideal for meat as would both breath and leak...yeah the wedding present pillow cases...is there a tale of woe that goes with that warning?? LOL

a mate used his brand spanking new ones. not me tho im not that silly.

So ideally, as you butcher the animal you place it in the pillow slip in the shade to cool. If your out for a few days hang it in the shade wrapped in cotton.

On the way out get it in cool of the car ASAP.

Would you place it in the river to cool?



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I should add, after leaving the meat to sit and cool, then pack it up. Possibly in plastic but still ideally in cotton. And walk it out.


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Originally Posted by Rn-85

So ideally, as you butcher the animal you place it in the pillow slip in the shade to cool. If your out for a few days hang it in the shade wrapped in cotton.

On the way out get it in cool of the car ASAP.

Would you place it in the river to cool?



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if choice between getting flyblown or going off in heat....or dunking it in river/creek....yeah not hard choice to make. Ive chucked hindquarters in creek for a few hours in afternoon heat to keep it fit to eat.... took it out first thing in morning and got it out to home. no issues.