Field Dressed Hog

[kingfisher_jr]

Scenario

You shoot a hog at sunrise. You immediately field dress the animal and place it in the bed of your vehicle. You get back into stand and continue to hunt. How long do you have before meat spoiling becomes an issue? Let's say the hog is ~60 lbs (live weight), it is gutted immediately, and the outside temperature is 60 to 70 F. Also, say the meat smells fine when butchering, no bugs, ect.

I have done some researching online and most of what I can find says up to 12 hours.. that just seems a little long to me. I would never be in a scenario to go this long but I also don't see 3 hours being an issue. I know when I was a kid I used to run dogs a lot with my uncles. It wasn't uncommon to kill a hog in the same temperature conditions and not butcher it for up to 6 hours. This was without field dressing them. I don't recall anyone ever getting sick but again I was a kid and may not have been told if they did.

[bakin7005]

Really should skin him too. And get him on ice. Longer you wait less quality of the meat.

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[kingfisher_jr]

Really should skin him too. And get him on ice. Longer you wait less quality of the meat.

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I would normally always do this. But let's say it isn't an option. This is just a hypothetical situation.

[Quackerbox]

Short of an apocalypse, I can't think of a single scenario to field dress a hog.



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[Oldblue]

It should be fine IMO. I’ve been hunting and shot one first light and get out of stand at 9am and never had an issue. Of course, you always want to clean and place on ice as soon as possible but, that’s not always possible. Place in bed of truck out of the sunlight and cover with feed sack and keep hunting. Good Luck

[dgilbert]

All depends on the temperature like anything else.

[Paycheck]

I would think 4 or 5 hours would be ok.

[Burwabit]

12 hrs too long in that heat for me. 4 max before ice bag in chest.

[kingfisher_jr]

All depends on the temperature like anything else.

The scenario I mention is with a outside temp of 60 to 70 F. It's usually cooler than this when/where I hunt so I wanted to do a "worst case" type of thing.

[bakin7005]

The scenario I mention is with a outside temp of 60 to 70 F. It's usually cooler than this when/where I hunt so I wanted to do a "worst case" type of thing.

No way that's too warm. If you want to consume a harvested animal you would want to take very good care of it. In those temps gut, skin, ice right away. Anything else is questionable at best.

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[critter69]

We have coolers with frozen milk jugs ( I hate placing them in ice) in our side by side or trucks. When we get one down it’s immediately skinned, then we do the gutless method, place the meat in a game bag and place in the cooler. And on to get the next one, then when we get back to camp each night the game bags are placed in the freezer, water jugs are placed in there also. And the next morning those or new frozen jugs are placed in the cooler again, and ready to get some more. We use this method for every thing we hunt, it works great at getting the meat cooled ASAP. I don’t see no reason to wait, especially putting them in the back of the truck and waiting until getting back to camp to start the process. That is how most do it and we see some animals that were killed first thing in the morning, and been in the back of the bed all day and not skinned nor gutted. Some even shot the day before and recovered the next day, and still sat in the bed all day. Every body thinks we didn't kill any thing because we are never at the meat pole, cleaning station.

[Ætheling]

Wind speed, direction, humidity, shade… there have to be so many variables affecting the outcome of that meat.


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[jnd1959]

If it's in the bed of the pickup and not turned periodically the bottom side may degrade faster. In hot weather, Backcountry or away from ice, I try to quarter and hang in bags, over a creek if possible, so air can flow around the meat and a casing can form. If your making sausage, 5 hours would be my limit. If it will be dried and aged 2 to 3. In between for everything else. Skin off and bagged would be best. If it's hotter, separate meat down to the hips joint to allow that to cool. That joint is the first one to spoil. If it's good the rest is likely good. There's a big time difference between best care and still edible.

[critter69]

You ever rode in the back of a pick up and sat over where the exhaust runs underneath it, some get **** hot, way hotter then the 60-70 degrees your talking the outside temp to be.

[Lynn21]

As said, it all depends on the temp. If it’s above 45, gut and skin right there, ice ASAP.