Cooler capacity

I'm looking to buy a cooler for a mule deer hunt in Utah. Can I get by with one cooler? If so, what size cooler would fit a boned-out deer?
Also, which brands do you recommend? An Orion cooler would nice, but I'm now on a tight budget after buying all my other hunting equipment.

Welcome Trekker308, I have some experience with hunting mule deer in Utah and within my tale of a hunt, you might be able to form your own better answer to your questions.

The afternoon before opening day, I had spotted the nice looking basin on Public about 3 miles south of the blacktop road in NW Utah. Having both a valid buck tag and a need to kill some days before the Colorado opener, i parked, got up way early, and was near to the top, in a nice vantage spot, as daylight was just starting to show itself. Within 5 to 10 minutes, all hell broke out with deer running everywhere and not kidding, seemed 15 or 20 guys were emptying there firearms shooting at the running does and the few bucks that like me, had picked the wrong place to be on that particular morning. I had ducked for the rocks because of the flying bullets by me but when the shooting finally stopped, i hauled back around over the ridge i came up and down back to my rig.

The part that might help you out is that i then ran into a father and three sons who were dragging a buck back to the same trailhead that i had spent the night in my camper rig. Proud as can be they were happy to show me the buck "We" had gotten. It was a small forky about 120 pounds i'd guess but it had at least 6 or 7 shots entering or exiting just all over that poor critter. The deer was literally blown to bits and a bag of jelly yet they were happy as can be with their as yet ungutted buck. What may have been left after trimming off the damaged meat, might have come close to filling a good sized shoe box.

Last year on my antelope and muley hunt, we nice enough had almost no waste, ground it all but the very best of both, and i brought it to my freezer cold stacked in two regular medium sized ice chests nothing fancy about them. The guys i hunt with that are Very good shots and hunt out of the way places, they all seem to have the bigger ice chests than what might be needed. Hope that helps!

I would suggest a 150 qt. Igloo. It will not break the bank and is a bit bigger then you will need for now. Next year when you kill that elk and a deer you may need TWO! Good luck.

My 110 works just fine for bone in deer. Bone out I bet you could make a 65 work but on the other hand I'd probably stick with the 110. Orion coolers are great but the issue is they are expensive and someone may steal it if you leave it in a vehicle at the trail head. If you want a nicer cooler but on a semi budget, I'd look into RTIC Coolers.

70-120qt Igloo from Walmart should be well under $100. Both will easily fit a mule deer in them depending on how much you want to cut it up.

I bought a 150 qt igloo on sale at Sams club for 50$, and it worked just fine for my last hunt to Wyoming. I had one mule deer buck and two Antelope does fit fine in it even with some frozen jugs.

Thanks for the recommendations!

I have a few different size/brands.... one thing is 100% the bigger it is, the more you want to put in it and the more it weights.... always think of that also.

I have used RTIC and Coleman Extreme with good success.

I can fit a boned out deer in my 65 qt RTIC. Big coolers are heavy and hard to move if you are by yourself. If you have others it’s not as big of an issue.

JLS said:

I can fit a boned out deer in my 65 qt RTIC. Big coolers are heavy and hard to move if you are by yourself. If you have others it’s not as big of an issue.

Click to expand...

Unloaded a 120qt Igloo stuffed to the brim with meat from the tailgate last year. 'Bout blew an o-ring...

Best cooler I have bought for the money is colman extreem 6. Will hold ice for 5-6 days, you can get them for around $55, they are a 120 quart cooler. I can fit two quartered antelope in there with plenty of ice to keep meat nice and cool.

I do a lot of travel deer hunting. Typically leave hind and front quarters whole, then backstraps, loins and neck meat goes into a bag, typically dispose of the rig cage and spine. Cutting up like this, can fit (2) deer into a 120 quart Coleman cooler with a few frozen milk jugs no problem. Block ice or frozen jugs last much longer than bag ice. Just keep cooler in the shade, keep water drained and you're good for 3-4 days before needing to add more ice. It's typically cool that time of year anyway (evenings at least) so you really don't need one of those high dollar Yeti or similar coolers.

65qt is sufficient for a boned out deer IMO