Benefits of Cooling Antelope

[LoveBirdDogs]

I am going to cover this again. Those who disagree, please be respectful in your disagreement because I do have biological evidence available to post to show it. There are benefits to cooling antelope as soon as you can.

The mean body temperature of pronghorn antelope is 42.1 celcus or 106.16 farenheight. Evidence here: https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/56/3/698/848965?redirectedFrom=PDF
There are many other studies online that substantiate this.

When an antelope senses a threat and runs or chasing competitors off, the core temperature rises. In addition to that, antelopes' adrenal glands pump epinephrine, more commonly known as adrenalin into the blood stream and muscles. This gives the antelope a short term burst of energy that allows them to run at high speeds and for longer distances. This also affects the taste of the meat and the burn off of energy causes the body temperature to warm substantially. This is also why I will never shoot a running antelope. My preferred targets are resting antelope in the early morning and later in the afternoon. I will take a bedded antelope in a heartbeat.

Just at a resting situation, the 106.16 temperature of a pronghorn equates to a very high fever for us humanoids. So does antelope quickly have any benefit? I say it does. The warmer the meat is, the quicker it begins to rot. Some people have never experienced meat based food poisoning from antelope they carried arround in the back of their pickup for a couple hours. I have, four time and it aint purty. Randy's episode on dysentery is a mild example of what I went through.

Hints I would suggest to cool antelope if you can't hang it in the shade as soon as possible :

• Gut it asap. If you need an explanation of why, talk to a butcher or biologist.
• Remove the hide. The hide holds in heat and there are glands in the fat under the skin that affect how well the meat will taste. Cover it with a full size game bag to protect it from flies and insects.
• Keep it out of sunlight. No explanation needed.

I do not recommend deboning until after the rigor phase has passed and you can flex the leg muscles freely. If you can cool the carcass down as a whole carcass or even halves that is better than quartering and deboning. If you debone too soon, the meat is going to want to contract and it will be tougher and more grissly than you may want. By cooling as soon as possible, I prefer to do it immediately. That is me. I have a huge cooler I can put a whole carcass in. I remove the hide, put it in a game back, and into the cooler with frozen 1 liter soda bottles on top. I also put some of these jugs in the body cavity. Once I get it home, I hang it in an insulated shed out of the sun.

Now, if I had a late season antelope license where I can hunt in November/December time frame, all I would do is gut and skin the animal and put it into a game bag. The temp then is cold to freezing so cooling is achieved just by skinning and gutting.

Now I realize some will jump on the bandwagon that they do it different. That is cool. This is the way I do it and I am willing to do a side by side taste testing some day to prove it. Once of them challenging is going to happen at my elk hunt. I will post the results. In this case, someone said they won't eat antelope because it is way too gamey. I will prove them wrong just by doing what I suggest here.

With Chronic wasting disease does Wyoming still allow field dressing? here in MI no part of an animal can be left behind it all has to be taken out.

 

[WyoDoug]

With Chronic wasting disease does Wyoming still allow field dressing? here in MI no part of an animal can be left behind it all has to be taken out.

You can field dress in Wyoming near as I can tell. They have not made any changes that I have seen, however the CWD issue is changing daily so they might eventually. Watch the online game brochures on that.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Regulations/Regulation-PDFs/REGULATIONS_CH5_BROCHURE.pdf

CWD and Carcass Disposal | Wyoming Game & Fish Department

Wildlife managers with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department are reminding hunters that there are very specific laws and regulations that apply when processing and transporting harvested game animals. These laws and regulations are in place to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

wgfd.wyo.gov

Right now if you read the above you can leave the carcass at the site of the kill which makes gutless perfectly legal.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing I post covers transportation of carcasses killed in Wyoming to your home state. You are governed in those cases both by Wyoming and your home state and in most cases each state you travel through taking game meat home.

 

[NEWHunter]

Antelope don’t carry CWD.

 

[WyoDoug]

Antelope don’t carry CWD.

Better way I would say this, not yet. No confirmed cases in antelope that I know about.

 

[Bob-WY]

Not in pronghorn. They are biologically different family, if I remember right. That might help

Warden I asked said "nope"

But yeah, that really a not yet unless someone smarter in biologically can say for sure

 

[sapperJ24]

Antelope currently do not carry CWD, but there is potential over the longer-term.

Predicting the spread-risk potential of chronic wasting disease to sympatric ungulate species​

Predicting the spread-risk potential of chronic wasting disease to sympatric ungulate species - PMC

Wildlife disease incidence is increasing, resulting in negative impacts on the economy, biodiversity, and potentially human health. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids (wild and captive) which ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

"Inclusion of the species with unknown susceptibility in the phylogeny allowed us to predict the probability of CWD susceptibility. From this, bison are predicted to be resistant, while pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain goat are likely to be susceptible, with pronghorn more likely to be susceptible than bighorn sheep and mountain goat (Figure 2)."

 

[madtom]

We’re worried about transmission to humans, but definitely couldn’t jump from deer family to antelope family

 

[mxracer317]

There is a huge difference here but you are right in general. Deer and elk are generally hunted in October - December when weather cools significantly as a rule. Ambient temperature during that time ranges between 60 down to below freezing depending on where you hunt. I start hunting antelope in August when the temps still hover around 90 sometimes. It's important first to field dress your kill immediately regardless of what it is because the first part of the animal that starts spoiling is the abdominal area which is why you see bloating with roadkill. Immediately after a kill, the animal actually starts decomposition at the state of autolysis where the body releases chemicals and proteins that begin to break tissue down into simpler components. Next stage is putrefaction where internal bacteria starts working which is where you see bloating. Once it reaches that stage, the bacteria is in the meat and no good. At this stage the bacteria releases cadaverine and putrescine which emits that unmistakable odor of putrefaction.

Pros on removing hide as soon as you can:

• Cools the meat quicker
• Stops oils and enzymes in the skin and backfat from breaking down the meat and spoiling it (this takes a while so not an immediate priority)
• Less hair contamination

Cons against removing the hide as soon as you can:

• Meat dries out sooner
• Longer meat hangs without the hide, the thicker the layer of dry crusty meat you have to trim off.
• Helps keep insects off the meat

The most critical part is dressing the carcass immediately. Cooling the meat is next and that depends on the ambient temperature a quite a bit. When I am hunting in near freezing weather, I don't remove the hide on deer and antelope. On elk I do because of the muscle mass they have. I ice any antelope or deer I shoot in the fall when ambient temps hang above 60 most of the day. I never hunted elk in the special archery season yet so most of my elk hunting has been in October-November timeframe where icing does not really provide a lot of benefit. Icing to cool your meat is not an absolute critical thing to do, but cooling the meat quickly does pay off in my opinion. If you have access to running water cleaning the body cavity will help cool the meat down on top of cleaning out contaminants and just might be enough to cool the meat sufficiently.

Great write up! Thank you.

I’ve always heard that water should NEVER touch meat?

 

[WyoDoug]

Great write up! Thank you.

I’ve always heard that water should NEVER touch meat?

This is true for setting water such as in your cooler.

Running water such as tap water from your hose to wash them off is OK. You do not want meat sitting in water long term.

 

[TheJason]

I’ve always heard that water should NEVER touch meat?

There is no truth to this at all. Moisture, heat, and bacteria can all combine to various degrees to promote spoilage. For bacterial growth, life begins at 40 degrees F. Excess moisture and dirty conditions can greatly exacerbate spoilage above 40 degrees.

If your game meat is submerged in ice water in a cooler, it won't hurt it one bit.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

There is no truth to this at all. Moisture, heat, and bacteria can all combine to various degrees to promote spoilage. For bacterial growth, life begins at 40 degrees F. Excess moisture and dirty conditions can greatly exacerbate spoilage above 40 degrees.

If your game meat is submerged in ice water in a cooler, it won't hurt it one bit.

There are a ton of people in TX that wet age their meat in coolers. I use to do it and still do to a certain degree since ice melts so fast here but prefer dry aging.
I can also guarantee that most processors at least wash the cavities out of animals brought in.

 

[Shangobango]

There is no truth to this at all. Moisture, heat, and bacteria can all combine to various degrees to promote spoilage. For bacterial growth, life begins at 40 degrees F. Excess moisture and dirty conditions can greatly exacerbate spoilage above 40 degrees.

If your game meat is submerged in ice water in a cooler, it won't hurt it one bit.

Thank you.

It is very common down here for quarters or boned out meat to go straight into an ice chest and stay there for several days. Some people open the plug periodically and let the water out some guys prefer to leave it in an ice/water slurry for several days.

I am not a huge fan of this method but do use it short term in a pinch. The only effect I can tell that the water has on the meat is that it makes it less flavorful. Some say it makes it less gamey. What they call gamey I call flavor which is why I am not a huge fan.

 

[TheJason]

It is very common down here for quarters or boned out meat to go straight into an ice chest and stay there for several days

If you do this, it IS important to either let the quarter cool down first before it goes in, or else check the ice periodically. If you have a bag of ice on the bottom and throw a couple of body temp hinds on top, then close 'er up you're bound to have a surprise waiting for you after a few days.

 

[Shangobango]

If you do this, it IS important to either let the quarter cool down first before it goes in, or else check the ice periodically. If you have a bag of ice on the bottom and throw a couple of body temp hinds on top, then close 'er up you're bound to have a surprise waiting for you after a few days.

For sure. When I do it I tend to check my ice daily.

Edited to add: I also start with no airspace in the cooler. All the space not taken up by meat is taken up by ice.

 

[WyoDoug]

Short term exposure of meat to water is not a problem especially tap water. Exposure of meat to water in coolers is not an issue short term especially if it is iced and temperature controlled. Standing water is a bad conduit for bacteria and you should be careful. I routinely wash my antelope carcasses with a hose or soak it in a cool stream or creek to cool it and wash out excess blood and that. I also soak heart and liver in a brine of kosher salt and water to draw the blood out. You do not want meat sitting in standing water especially lukewarm to warm but to say that you should not allow meat to touch water is off a bit.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

If you do this, it IS important to either let the quarter cool down first before it goes in, or else check the ice periodically. If you have a bag of ice on the bottom and throw a couple of body temp hinds on top, then close 'er up you're bound to have a surprise waiting for you after a few days.

I was guilty of that when I first started hunting. Now I hang for as long as possible before going in the cooler.
Got one hanging right now actually.

 

[Bob-WY]

Have to remember a cooler isn't really a "cooler" but an "insulator", put hot stuff in there and close it, it will stay hot/warm.

If you put warm meat in with ice, the ice will melt and then you have the "cooler" doing it's thing and trying to keep the temp stable, stable being hot or cold. It can and should be done, by replacing the ice constantly. A good idea, if it's "cool" that first night, is to put the meat in the cooler with the ice, but leave the cover cracked/open, that lets the heat escape, ice help cool it faster and the air temp around it is colder than the meat, it will help cool it.

You have to pay attention to the temp outside vs inside the cooler. The cooler/insulator simply tries to keep the inside temp stable as possible. Get it colder inside than outside and that's what you want. Then keep replacing the ice.

 

[DanWyo]

This is how I was taught...and antelope is the top rated game meat at our house!