Got a good spot to hunt turkey that's about a 2.5 hour drive. Looking for advice on how to properly care for it post harvest for a 2.5 hour drive. I'll be out with my wife and hoping to get a couple. Say we harvest one early and want to stay till noon or so to get another one (2 hunters) what's the best game care plan if I want to pluck the whole bird? FYI I already know that if one of us takes a bird in order to keep hunting together the one that tagged a bird has to continue to stay with the other hunter with no gun.
If I leave it whole with guts intact in a cooler would that spoil if I didn't get to my house till late afternoon till I get back to the house to gut and pluck it? I don't want to just breast it out like I've done in the past would like to process the whole bird(s) this year. If I pluck it and process it in the woods is that legal as long as I keep the beard to prove it was a male? Or would the meat be ok in a big cooler if I left the bird whole and ungutted if I was on the road till say 3pm? According to the abstract I have to keep the tag on the carcass and keep the bird intact until I register it......would I be legal to report the harvest online with my phone and then pluck and gut it on site and pack it in the cooler for transport keeping the beard in my possession for the drive?
Thoughts?
If I leave it whole with guts intact in a cooler would that spoil if I didn't get to my house till late afternoon till I get back to the house to gut and pluck it? I don't want to just breast it out like I've done in the past would like to process the whole bird(s) this year. If I pluck it and process it in the woods is that legal as long as I keep the beard to prove it was a male? Or would the meat be ok in a big cooler if I left the bird whole and ungutted if I was on the road till say 3pm? According to the abstract I have to keep the tag on the carcass and keep the bird intact until I register it......would I be legal to report the harvest online with my phone and then pluck and gut it on site and pack it in the cooler for transport keeping the beard in my possession for the drive?
Thoughts?
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