Thread: Be Honest - How do people carry out meat and large weight

No idea on weight of meat since I always forget to weigh it once I'm home. Recently it has been boned out rear legs above the knee joint, backstraps from butt to base of neck, and tenderloins. Plus when I'm having a good hunt, the antlers. If you don't want the whole skull, capping the antlers off the skull with a folding saw really helps drop unwanted weight.

Meat is bagged in pillow cases, usually with a garbage bag to avoid leakage. If it's garbage bagged then it can be cooled faster by submerging in a cold creek or pond to cool it off as fast as possible, or misted with water and hung for some evaporative cooling, though that doesn't work as well.

Recently hunted with some people who use multiple dry bags for their gear, then amalgamate their gear into one dry bag and use the other for meat, which cuts the weight of the pillow cases and garbage bags, and works out lighter in total weight.

Total gear weight for a 5 day hunt (with a second person to split the stove/tent weight) was 18kg including all clothes (including the ones I was wearing), food, rifle, binos, ammo, 3L water, boots etc etc.
When I went out alone for a two day hunt that was either 20 or 22kg with 4L water.
Meat weight was on top of this on the way out, minus the food I'd already eaten.

Originally Posted by whanahuia

My kit for a week weighs about 11kg minus food- which is eaten before trip out. I bone out all meat before cary out, and will carry a reasonable max of 35-40 kg of meat. So all up around 50kg. I weigh about 85kg. Rifle becomes a walking stick.

@whanahuia I'd be interested in knowing your gear list and weights - 11kg sounds a lot nicer than 18-22.