Coolers Buyer Guide – Top 10 Coolers for Hunters
AllOutdoor Staff 12.16.19
There’s a lot of gear you need if you want to be a hunter: a hunting rifle, proper ammunition, good hiking boots, warm clothing, survival items – and a cooler,
Once you’ve bagged your deer or elk, you’ll need a cooler that can be used to store your meat and keep the game cool until you get it to the butchers. That being said, the cooler that you use to store your game meat should not necessarily be the same cooler that you use for your family vacations or everyday use.
That’s because your hunting cooler needs to be able to hand field conditions, be large enough to actually store all of your meat when you quarter the animal, have extra thick insulation, a truly airtight seal, and be able to retain ice for at least one week.
With that said, here are the top ten coolers for hunters, presented in alphabetical order:
Coleman Xtreme
The Coleman XTreme Cooler is a simple cooler design that does exactly what you need it to do. Even though it’s not a premium cooler, it still offers superior insulation to other types of coolers that are in the same price range, and is also very lightweight. Despite this, it also has a large capacity of seventy quarts.
Coleman Optimaxx XP H20 Marine Cooler
Another cooler from Coleman that will be suitable for hunting is the Colemann Optimaxx XP H20 Marine Cooler. This cooler is even larger than the Xtreme model at 200 quartz. It features durable stainless steel hardware with reinforced corners, so it will be more than up to handling rugged hunting trips.
Engel 65
If you’re looking for a moderately priced cooler that is comparable in performance, the Engel 65 should absolutely be on your shortlist of options. This is a rotomolded constructed cooler that features an airtight gasket and an interlocking hinge. Not only are these the kinds of features that you would expect on a higher end cooler, they are also the kind of features that will help keep animals such as bears out of your cooler.
Grizzly Coolers Hunting Cooler
Here’s a cooler that isn’t just suitable for hunting, but that was designed specifically for the task: the Grizzly Coolers Hunting Cooler. This camouflaged ice cooler is a sixty quart cooler with a two inch drain hole to help keep everything clean on the inside. It also features non-skid rubber feet so it will not move around in the back of your pickup truck. It also comes with a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer, and is built here in the USA.
Igloo BMX 25
The Igloo BMX 25 is an icebox that has such good ice retention properties, it will literally keep your ice frozen for five days straight if you were to leave it out in the beach. Managing to be lightweight while still having a high capacity, the BMX 25 is small enough that it can be lashed to the tailgate of your pickup truck.
Igloo RealTree Gripper Cooler Bag
A lighterweight and more compact option for a hunting cooler from Igloo is the Igloo RealTree Gripper Cooler Bag. This cooler bag has a camouflaged coloring and a rubberized grip handle with a bottom that has been reinforced. It features two storage areas on the inside, and pockets on the outside for storing items that you do not need to keep cool (such as a knife for skinning your game). It also has a mesh panel for holding an ice pack.
RovR RollR 60
If you want a cooler that will be a good choice for rolling around, the RovR RollR 60 cooler is by far the best option. For one thing, this is the only cooler on this list that features actual tires instead of plastic wheels (and yes, the tires can be pumped up just as you would for the tires on a car or bicycle). It also features higher ground clearance so you can roll it along across rougher terrain, and has a rubberized grip for superior comfort.
Rubbermaid Marine Cooler
The Rubbermaid Cooler is a hundred and two quart marine cooler that will be capable of storing over a hundred and seventy pounds of wild game meat, along with over thirty pounds of ice. It’s marketed by the manufacturer as being able to keep ice frozen for five days under ninety degree Fahrenheit temperatures, which is more than suitable for hunting purposes.
Rubbermaid Mossy Oak Ice Chest
The Rubbermaid Mossy Oak Ice Chest is available in a wide variety of different sizes, each of which will keep your game meat cold for eat least a week. The Mossy Oak Ice Chest also comes with neat features such as rubberized grip handles and an odor and stain resistant finish applied to the inside.
Yeti is one of the most popular cooler brands used by hunters, and their Tundra 75 model is large enough to hold an entire quartered deer, and yet is small enough to be highly portable. It has over two inches of wall insulation, so it can be kept outside at hunting camp for many days on end before you will need to worry about the meat going bad.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a cooler to store your game meat on your next hunting trip, the ten models that we have covered here today represent your very best options.
