Know Your Yield

How much cooler space do you need for various hunted animals

By Dominic Trimboli

Once you’ve field dressed and frozen your hunted game you’re going to need coolers to pack it up, keep it cold and get it home. But how much cooler space do you actually need to pack up what you hunted?

Today the crew from MEAT! are taking a few minutes to provide a basic estimate for the amount of space you need to get various game animals home, including deer, elk, bear and turkey.

In this article we’re going to be focused specifically on field dressed, deboned and frozen meat.

For more information on how to freeze your meat for travel, how to field dress your game, or the best ways to get it across country back home, check out the respective articles in this series.

What’s the best cooler size to buy for transporting hunted game meat?

If you’re looking for a good sized cooler for most 4-legged animals, then a 100qt. cooler is the perfect size to start with. It’s large enough to hold most deer in a single cooler, but still manageable for a single person to move around in the bed of a truck.

While you’ll need more than one of these to pack an elk, bear or caribou, two tightly packed coolers will stay frozen much better than a single, larger, loose packed cooler. Larger coolers are also much harder to maneuver and don’t keep cold as well as smaller coolers.

Obviously if you’re hunting turkey or other small game, a 100qt. cooler is far larger than you’ll need. Likely a 20qt. cooler will be more than enough for your needs in that case.

How much cooler space do you need to pack hunted game?

The general rule of thumb for cooler size needed for hunted game is that for every 100lbs of deboned meat, you need at least 60 quarts of cooler space. If you prefer cubic feet, you need at least 2.5ft³ for every 50lbs of meat according to the USDA.

Here’s a list of the average amount of meat you can expect to harvest from each animal, and an estimate of the cooler space needed to bring it home. Keep in mind, these are estimates and the amount of space you actually need will vary from case to case.

Reminder: You also need to fit ice into the coolers with the meat. If you’re not sure how much space you’ll need, it’s better to overestimate than underestimate.

Moose

• Approximately 500 lbs. deboned
• 3 x 150qt. coolers

Elk

• 200–300 lbs. deboned
• 2 × 100qt. coolers

Deer (Whitetail/Mule)

• 60-100 lbs.
• 60-100qt. cooler

Antelope

• 50 lbs.
• 50qt. cooler

Grizzly or Brown Bear

• Upwards of 200lbs. meat
• At least 2 100qt. coolers

Black Bear

• 100-150lbs. meat
• 100–150qt. cooler

Turkey

• 6–10lbs. per bird
• 20qt. for one bird
• 15qt. per bird when packing multiple

Pheasant

• 1.5lbs. per bird
• 5 birds fit in 20qt.

Duck

• 1lbs. per bird.
• 6–8 birds in 20qt. cooler