Taking care of game in the field

This is the first of a two-part series about taking care of game in the field.

The message was from Jeff Kitchel, Administrator of the Grant County Health District and titled "Hunting Food Safety Tips."

"Dennis, Thought you might like to share this with your readers," Best, Jeff.

Indeed this is an important topic, one many hunters don't consider as significant as they should.

Here is what Fish and Wildlife suggests to provide the proper food safety before, during and after a hunt:

Ensure you have the following: Rope, rubber or disposable gloves, sharp hunting knife, game saw, bags for the heart and liver, game bags, clean rags or paper towels or wipes of some type, tarps or canvas, cheesecloth, black pepper.

Dennis note: OK, I agree with some of this. Read on.

Strive for a clean shot; avoid gut shots, which can result in contamination of the meat with intestinal contents.

Dennis note: Always try for a one-shot kill. However, stuff happens.

Wear rubber or disposable gloves while field dressing, skinning, and butchering.

Dennis note: Some people do and some don't. After shooting a wild pig, Ted Nugent stopped and put on disposable gloves, looked at the camera and said, "I make my living with these hands. I can't afford to have anything happen to them."

Bleed the carcass and remove the internal organs as quickly as possible. The longer the intestines and other organs are left inside the carcass, the greater the chances that the meat will spoil.

Dennis note: There is no need to bleed the carcass 99 percent of the time, as most of the blood will be out of the circulatory system after the shot. Most of the time there is a pool of blood inside the animal.

While gutting, take special care to not puncture the stomach or intestines to avoid contamination of the meat with intestinal bacteria. If intestinal contents come into contact with the meat, immediately remove them with clean towels.

Dennis note: After we have a deer down, it is gutted as soon as possible. It is taken to the shop area where it is skinned and washed with a water hose.

Clean your hunting knife and other utensils often with clean water and soap.

Dennis note: This doesn't happen in the field.

Use clean towels and clean water to wipe out excess blood from the gutted cavity, then dry as completely as possible with clean towels.

Dennis note: This is why we wash the carcass and then hang it to dry.

Cooling wild game to less than 40 degrees F as quickly as possible will slow the growth of bacteria and keep the meat from spoiling. Ideally this is accomplished by taking the carcass to a cooler on the day of the kill. If this is not possible, the following should be considered:

If ambient temperatures are above freezing, it is important to remove the skin from larger animals such as elk and moose to facilitate cooling. Because of their heavy coats and abundant fat, it is especially important to remove the skin from bears as soon as possible. On warm days, it may be necessary to pack the body cavity with bags of ice.

Dennis note: OK to all of the cooling information, but it is not always possible to quickly get the animal into a cooler. Example: Last year my elk was downed at about 11 a.m. It was gutted immediately. The gutted cavity was propped open to allow the animal to cool.

My hunting partner and I cut the carcass into seven pieces, sizes we could handle. The skin was left on at this point, to keep the meat clean. We used a blue tarp to pull the pieces down the hill to the Ram.

This process of gutting, cutting and dragging to the truck took us four hours. Then we skinned the pieces at the truck, until the entire hide was removed. It took us another 90 minutes to travel from the hunt area to the walk-in cooler.

None of the meat spoiled or was wasted, yet a friend told of a hunting buddy shooting a bear and having the meat spoil because he couldn't get the hide off fast enough.

Next week: Continuation of care of wild game in the field.