Hot Temps worrying?

All you guys headed to the backcountry:
I would love to hear your strategy on avoiding spoilage... I've hunted hot temps before, but I'm fairly new to hunting miles from vehicle access at the same time. How much time do you have in the shade? Will you quarter or debone it in the field? If you do debone it and hang it in a shady spot, how fast is the clock ticking? What else is part of your strategy?

Anyway, just thought I'd dig for some info- I'd be crushed if I got lucky enough to score and then flailed on the follow thru.
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alpinbowman
Once you :arrow your animal and find it get it to bone out the animal as soon as possible. don't worry about gutting it. there is no need to do that just get the meat in pieces and off of the bone as soon as possible it will keep it cooler and make it lighter for the pack out. I put the meat into game bags and then a plastic bag so my pack doesn't get all bloody. If you can only take part of the animal at a time hang the meat in the shade in only the game bag.
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killerbee
different situations change that clock, if were to hit a little far back and open the guts at all you just made that clock tick twice as fast. i had some bulls in new mexico lay over night [ to make sure they were dead and we didn't just jump them out of there beds] in the early archery hunts and it is hot down there and they would be just fine the next morning///// then on the other side of the spectrom one of our guides failed to clean out some remaining gut perticles in the late hunts with 2 ft. of snow and had a bull spoil in few hrs!
i spend most all of my hunts packed in for 4-8 days at a time throughout bowseason and "most" of the time as long as you get every thing opened up and aired out good, then hang the quarters you cant pack in a tree in the shade maybe by a creek bottem somewhere you should be just fine. but last year i did a pack in in the eagle cap wilderness. at one point we were 13 miles on our GPS, so farther as the trail runs, and at that distance you should call a packer to bring horses or have some buddies you can call to get that meat out of there!
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southwind
debone and hang in shade as quick as possible. Once the outer layer has dryed and you keep it in the shade you can relax a little. I place deboned meat in game bags and then for packing out I try to keep away from any source of warmth like your back or the back of an animal without some barrier to stop the transmission of heat. Also try to keep meat seperated so you have no meat to meat contact.

This can be a topic of great debate. Some europeon and asian countries will hang meat dry at room temps for a month. Look at any primitive or underdeveloped people and all meat is dryed in many different types of climents.

I always had thought that if I had doubts and feared meat loss I would strip it out in jerky type strips and either smoke it on site or just dry it and smoke it later. It may not be the prefered way but if it was dry it or lose it I would do it.

I did lose a deer once many moons ago. I had shot this buck and gutted him and hung him in my garage in about 50 degree weather. The humidity was high and the hinds were touching each other in a couple of places and I guess with the hide and meat to meat contact it never cooled and within 24 hours was well into bad. I tried to save it but it ended up being a total loss.
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