Best way to handle dead bears?

[Mroz4k]

1 hour ago, omoon66 said:

The only problem with bears are on Stalker and interloper. Carnivore (I.e, wolf and bear) meat gives you a risk of intestinal parasites. I haven't had them yet, but they do not sound fun (considering it's a multi-day treatment).

Which is why you race to get your cooking level to 5 as soon as possible in those modes. Once you get those, you will never get either food poisoning or parasites. After that, eating both spoiled, raw and parasite infested meat or other foods without any issues.

[WanderingPalm]

After having just killed another bear on Voyageur, it looks like it takes about three days for the bear to become unharvestable. At least, mine did. I removed about 2/3 of the meat immediately, then the rest of the meat the next morning (didn't want to mess with Aurora wolves overnight), followed by the hide (which I ripped off by hand, because it's hilarious). I ran off to cart my billion pounds of meat to just outside my shelter and that took me another couple of days (during which time I shot and harvested a wolf, and tussled with and stabbed another wolf). Finally getting ready to leave the area, I swung back to the bear carcass to see if I wanted the ten guts, but got the alert that the carcass was too far gone to get anything from it anymore.

So, I don't know if there were any other variables at play here, but my guess is that you have about three days to harvest the materials from a carcass, perhaps only starting the timer once you've begun harvesting anything from it. So don't wait too long for those ten guts.

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, WanderingPalm said:

my guess is that you have about three days to harvest the materials from a carcass

Three days pretty much matches my observations..

1 hour ago, WanderingPalm said:

perhaps only starting the timer once you've begun harvesting anything from it

No.. even if you don't touch it, it will vanish after about 3 days or so.

[Fluxion]

Meat deteriorates within 5 days and then the carcass disappears (I think). And then a bear or wolf in that area will spawn again.

Quartering to save meat is your best option but the weight is about 2x the weight of the meat you will get from harvesting it later. So you harvest from quartered meat in increments, lugging them one or two at a time it to sheltered spaces (ice huts, semi-protected caves). And remember you need tons of firewood. It seems the quartered items don't deteriorate like a carcass does.

Best to keep spots with slowest deterioration: 

1. cooked meat in a container outside. Then
2. cooked meat outside. Then
3. raw meat outside. Then
4. raw meat in container outside.
5. Then cooked meat in container inside. etc. 

Great spots for storing are: Trunks of cars (I think can store 20 kgs), the porch outside the kitchen of the Farmhouse in PV.

PS Don't store clothing in containers outdoors, they will freeze and need thawing afterward)

[JAFO]

4 minutes ago, Fluxion said:

Best to keep spots with slowest deterioration: 

1. cooked meat in a container outside. Then
2. cooked meat outside. Then
3. raw meat outside. Then
4. raw meat in container outside.
5. Then cooked meat in container inside. etc. 

It makes no difference to meat stored outside whether it's in a container or not. The only criteria are; outdoors or indoors. The same applies to all other foods as well.

[Mroz4k]

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

Meat deteriorates within 5 days and then the carcass disappears (I think). And then a bear or wolf in that area will spawn again.

Meat deteorates way before 5 days marker (talking about meat on a carcass, I presume). And on different modes it deteorates quicker. By the day 3, on Voyager all the meat is ruined. I am unsure whether or not you can still harvest it but I believe it just "dissapears" and that carcass will show up 0kg/0kg harvestable meat, because I definitedly saw that happen in the past.

Carcass dissapearing after 5 days is possible, if it has something left in it - harvesting everything out of a carcass makes it dissapear in a few hours, in case of rabbits in your inventory immediatedly.
 

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

Quartering to save meat is your best option but the weight is about 2x the weight of the meat you will get from harvesting it later. So you harvest from quartered meat in increments, lugging them one or two at a time it to sheltered spaces (ice huts, semi-protected caves).

We have already established this is wrong. Because in order to quarter an animal, you need to "process" the hide and all the guts first, then quarter the meat... which takes quite a long time, and during this time, the meat is spoiling. 

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

It seems the quartered items don't deteriorate like a carcass does.

From my experience, it deteorates exactly like a carcass. What is even worse is that you get to harvest it "again" out of the meat bag and all the while the condition of that meat is dropping down. Unless this changed in Wintermute which it could have. 

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

Best to keep spots with slowest deterioration: 

Those facts are wrong, just like JAFO said it makes no difference if you store something in a container or not, it deteorates the same, only thing that matters is if its outside or inside.

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

the porch outside the kitchen of the Farmhouse in PV.

Only because predators cant come in, even if they are around - as far as meat, lying in a snow, it doesnt matter. Predators are only attracted to meat that you are carrying, or drop down when they are already interested in you (as a bait).

2 hours ago, Fluxion said:

PS Don't store clothing in containers outdoors, they will freeze and need thawing afterward)

On top of that, they are being ruined faster. Just like with meat, it doesnt matter how you store em - if it counts as outside, the clothes will get wet and frozen as if thrown outside.

[Mroz4k]

Since we are already talking about slowing down deteorations, it pays to remind people that processed food such as canned food items will lose condition outside much faster then inside, probably due to exposure to snow which corrodes them.

[JAFO]

2 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Since we are already talking about slowing down deteorations, it pays to remind people that processed food such as canned food items will lose condition outside much faster then inside, probably due to exposure to snow which corrodes them.

Errmm.. not really.. several canned items are best stored outdoors.  Specifically, only the following items are best stored indoors:

• Soda (any type)
• Pinnacle Peaches
• Pork & Beans
• Sardines

For all the rest, they are better stored outdoors, although for the following items, it makes no difference:

• Cattails
• Coffee
• Herbal Tea
• Reishi Tea
• Rosehip Tea
• Salty Crackers
• Water

See http://thelongdark.wikia.com/wiki/Decay#Food_and_drink for specific details.

[TROY]

3 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

 

We have already established this is wrong. Because in order to quarter an animal, you need to "process" the hide and all the guts first, then quarter the meat... which takes quite a long time, and during this time, the meat is spoiling. 

 

I'm not sure if it was this way and changed, or if someone simply told you this and you accepted it, but it's not true. Quartering a carcass can be done without first removing hide/guts, and fact also produces the hide and guts for you as part of that 2 hour process. They will be on the ground for you to pick up with the quarter bags. This belief may explain why you see quartering as being such a waste.  

[shade_grey]

My method is pretty much the same as @Mroz4k. The only difference is that I don't necessarily divide the meat into 3 batches (even though it usually gets divided into three batches).

If the bear is near enough to my shelter then I'll take each batch to storage as soon as I harvest. My goal when harvesting is to get all but the last batch of meat harvested ASAP. If a storm moves in before I can take the last batch then that's okay since as far as I'm concerned, the last batch is going on the grill right after being harvested. So as long as the last batch doesn't get below 40 percent condition then it's good since cooking raises the condition of meat by 50 percent.

After I've harvested all the meat, I might want to take the hide and guts. It might be two days after making the kill before I take the hide and guts but that's okay since hide and guts are always at 100 percent condition when harvested.

I little tip: if you have meat near your carcass, don't take smelly items (meat or gut) directly from the carcass to storage. Drop those items first then you can pick them up and take them to storage. After harvesting smelly items from a carcass, as long as you don't drop those items, wolves or bears will visit the carcass before making a beeline to your position. If they find meat near the carcass, they will eat that meat. If you pick up smelly items directly from the ground, wolves or bears, will follow the scent directly to you without stopping by the carcass first.

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, shade_grey said:

I little tip: if you have meat near your carcass, don't take smelly items (meat or gut) directly from the carcass to storage. Drop those items first then you can pick them up and take them to storage. After harvesting smelly items from a carcass, as long as you don't drop those items, wolves or bears will visit the carcass before making a beeline to your position. If they find meat near the carcass, they will eat that meat. If you pick up smelly items directly from the ground, wolves or bears, will follow the scent directly to you without stopping by the carcass first.

This is definitely an interesting point but you lost me a little bit here during your explanation 

Can you elaborate a little more clearly please because this is a great tip I just don't understand what you're saying exactly

Aren't all items 'smelly' from a carcass? I've been told even the hide can attract predators 

So are you saying DO NOT drop anything and the animal will go to the carcass as that was the last location they picked up the scent cus that would be great?

[Mroz4k]

6 hours ago, TROY said:

I'm not sure if it was this way and changed, or if someone simply told you this and you accepted it, but it's not true. Quartering a carcass can be done without first removing hide/guts, and fact also produces the hide and guts for you as part of that 2 hour process. They will be on the ground for you to pick up with the quarter bags. This belief may explain why you see quartering as being such a waste.  

I said it

The fact that you "produce" leather and guts means that you were "harvesting" them out before quartering it. Unless I am wrong, but I believe quartering takes more time then simply "harvesting" the leather and guts first (if it doesnt then I suppose it makes sense to quarter) - but this is a fact:
If you chose to harvest meat first, then once you finish, you are left with meat that you can drop to the ground, and slow its deteoration, and a carcass which still has leather & guts in it. But, if you quarter, it is basically the same as "harvesting the leather and guts first, then taking the entirety of all the meat into a bag with you" - meaning the "meat on the carcass" is spoiling all the while you are "quartering it" by first removing the skin and guts. 

What I want to say is - it makes difference in your meat condition, if you chose to pull the meat out first, then the leather and guts (ideally by 1 kg, then drop it to ground, then repeat - this gives you the BEST quality meat in condition but it takes forever so screw that, no patience for it), but it is virtually same to chose to "pull leather and guts first, then the meat" and "quarter the animal" - with the second option being a bit faster, because quartering gives you the meat in its "carcass" form into your inventory. However, those two options will still give you worse-quality meat because it was spoiling all the while you were processing the leather and guts, or quartering and carrying it around in meat bags.

2 hours ago, shade_grey said:

I little tip: if you have meat near your carcass, don't take smelly items (meat or gut) directly from the carcass to storage. Drop those items first then you can pick them up and take them to storage. After harvesting smelly items from a carcass, as long as you don't drop those items, wolves or bears will visit the carcass before making a beeline to your position. If they find meat near the carcass, they will eat that meat. If you pick up smelly items directly from the ground, wolves or bears, will follow the scent directly to you without stopping by the carcass first.

Strange. Pre-Wintermute I never experienced this. And based on what JAFO said, I dont think he did either - we discussed that the predators never check carcasses already on the ground. If you pick those things up, and they start zoning on your condition, then if you drop the meat afterwards, they will automatically zone-in on the location of last dropped item - it will act like a bait. By picking it up again you are just essentially picking up a bait from the ground.

If I am right, the way it should work is if you dropped items on the ground which smelled, and a predator was coming by, they will only eat the last peace of meat/gut you dropped down, then leave with happy full belly. They wont start eating the carcass, or even the rest of your meats.

[TROY]

53 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

I said it

The fact that you "produce" leather and guts means that you were "harvesting" them out before quartering it. Unless I am wrong, but I believe quartering takes more time then simply "harvesting" the leather and guts first (if it doesnt then I suppose it makes sense to quarter) - but this is a fact:
If you chose to harvest meat first, then once you finish, you are left with meat that you can drop to the ground, and slow its deteoration, and a carcass which still has leather & guts in it. But, if you quarter, it is basically the same as "harvesting the leather and guts first, then taking the entirety of all the meat into a bag with you" - meaning the "meat on the carcass" is spoiling all the while you are "quartering it" by first removing the skin and guts. 

What I want to say is - it makes difference in your meat condition, if you chose to pull the meat out first, then the leather and guts (ideally by 1 kg, then drop it to ground, then repeat - this gives you the BEST quality meat in condition but it takes forever so screw that, no patience for it), but it is virtually same to chose to "pull leather and guts first, then the meat" and "quarter the animal" - with the second option being a bit faster, because quartering gives you the meat in its "carcass" form into your inventory. However, those two options will still give you worse-quality meat because it was spoiling all the while you were processing the leather and guts, or quartering and carrying it around in meat bags.

Strange. Pre-Wintermute I never experienced this. And based on what JAFO said, I dont think he did either - we discussed that the predators never check carcasses already on the ground. If you pick those things up, and they start zoning on your condition, then if you drop the meat afterwards, they will automatically zone-in on the location of last dropped item - it will act like a bait. By picking it up again you are just essentially picking up a bait from the ground.

If I am right, the way it should work is if you dropped items on the ground which smelled, and a predator was coming by, they will only eat the last peace of meat/gut you dropped down, then leave with happy full belly. They wont start eating the carcass, or even the rest of your meats.

ok, I misunderstood what you meant by that.   I can't really say for sure which actually happens first, and I doubt the game keeps track, but on the account of guts/hide first, you are absolutely correct, and I have totally changed how I harvest after reading a couple explanations of the way you do it. As for longer or faster with hide guts, I think quartering is gonna be faster at lower skill levels, especially for bears, because its a fixed 2 hours, and generally the hide/guts portion of a harvest job is at least that alone.  HOWEVER, there is no disputing that your method of taking the meat, and only the meat first, and getting it dealt with gives one the freshest meat possible, and leaving the hide/guts for last, or after the meat is cooked, or for another day even is just a really smart way to do it.

[Mroz4k]

6 minutes ago, TROY said:

ok, I misunderstood what you meant by that.   I can't really say for sure which actually happens first, and I doubt the game keeps track, but on the account of guts/hide first, you are absolutely correct, and I have totally changed how I harvest after reading a couple explanations of the way you do it. As for longer or faster with hide guts, I think quartering is gonna be faster at lower skill levels, especially for bears, because its a fixed 2 hours, and generally the hide/guts portion of a harvest job is at least that alone.  HOWEVER, there is no disputing that your method of taking the meat, and only the meat first, and getting it dealt with gives one the freshest meat possible, and leaving the hide/guts for last, or after the meat is cooked, or for another day even is just a really smart way to do it.

I have never quartered a bear. If quartering is fixed to be 2 hours for a bear, then I would argue best way to process a bear is through quartering. At expense of some lower quality meat, of course... because if we talk just pulling out guts out of a fully frozen bear, its about 15-30 minutes per guts (I think its 30 minutes per guts with no tool, at least).

Question: Is it still possible to quarter an animal if almost all meat was pulled out? Because if yes, I can totally see a benefit in taking two batches of meat out of a bear, and have the last 6 or so kilos of meat be quartered out, along with a hide and guts. This could totally bypass that horribly long gut harvesting period for a bear, and the last batch of meat (which goes on a grill immidiatedly) would be in a bags, which you can now cut open as well - but you would save a lot of time on harvesting the hide and guts, because only the hide itself takes like hour and half of harvesting to pull down.

[shade_grey]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Aren't all items 'smelly' from a carcass? I've been told even the hide can attract predators 

I've never had any problem with hides. I've carried up to 5 raw rabbit hides from Jackrabbit Island back to the Quonset in stalker difficulty, crossing wolves along the way. Got about as close as 10 meters before shooting some, no behaviour change. Never had any wolves turn my direction and start trotting.

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

So are you saying DO NOT drop anything and the animal will go to the carcass as that was the last location they picked up the scent cus that would be great?

 

2 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Strange. Pre-Wintermute I never experienced this. And based on what JAFO said, I dont think he did either - we discussed that the predators never check carcasses already on the ground. If you pick those things up, and they start zoning on your condition, then if you drop the meat afterwards, they will automatically zone-in on the location of last dropped item - it will act like a bait. By picking it up again you are just essentially picking up a bait from the ground.

If I am right, the way it should work is if you dropped items on the ground which smelled, and a predator was coming by, they will only eat the last peace of meat/gut you dropped down, then leave with happy full belly. They wont start eating the carcass, or even the rest of your meats.

Basically there are two separate mechanics involved:

1. If the player is carrying smelly items that were directly obtained by harvesting a carcass, the wolf (or bear) will visit the carcass before following the player. If the player drops all smelly items before the wolf reaches the carcass, it will stop and resume regular behaviour. If the player picks up smelly items directly from the ground, the wolf will follow the scent directly to the player.

2. If a wolf (or bear) encounters a decoy item while following a scent, it will eat the decoy item, be distracted for a few seconds, then resume following the scent. If a wolf encounters a decoy item during regular behaviour, it will not eat the decoy item.

It's basically an interaction between these two mechanics. Lets say that the player harvests smelly items from a carcass, moves 100 meters away from the carcass, and a wolf has detected the scent. Any decoy items in between the wolf's starting position and the carcass, at the carcass, and/or in between the carcass and the player will be eaten by the wolf as long as the player doesn't drop all their smelly items and either doesn't change position or continues along the previously traveled direction.

A wolf will not eat out of a carcass it didn't kill.

[Frosty]

22 minutes ago, shade_grey said:

If the player drops all smelly items before the wolf reaches the carcass, it will stop and resume regular behaviour.

I usually harvest 3kg at a time and drop it immediately because I always assume a predator is on the scent trail

I didn't know they visit the carcass at all so I'll be sure to watch for that 

Cheers! 

[TROY]

18 minutes ago, shade_grey said:

 

2. SNIPPED........If a wolf encounters a decoy item during regular behaviour, it will not eat the decoy item.

 

I have to agree with some others: your first statement made no sense whatsoever. It actually contradicted itself, for someone who didnt already fully understand what you were trying to say. Myself included.  

The above statement, that I've quoted, is not, or rather, was not, true.  It may have changed, and I havent tested recently to know for sure, but wolves will eat things that are dropped on the ground if they encounter them during regular behavior.  I had about 100kg of cooked fish eaten by a wolf once. They were on the ice right beside the fishing hut on crystal lake.  I could hear him chowing down on the other side of the shack as I approached, and thought at fist he had killed a deer there, and snuck around to chase him off. After I killed his thieving ass, I counted my fish, and at least 50 were missing. They had only been there about 4 days, so I know it was the wolf.  I used this technique for cheap and easy wolf pelts for a long time afterwards, so I got my moneys worth out of those missing whitefish.  Now, if it HAS been changed, and I'm simply unaware of it, thats a good thing, because it made something that should be feared easily exploitable. 

[Thrasador]

10 hours ago, TROY said:

I'm not sure if it was this way and changed, or if someone simply told you this and you accepted it, but it's not true. Quartering a carcass can be done without first removing hide/guts, and fact also produces the hide and guts for you as part of that 2 hour process. They will be on the ground for you to pick up with the quarter bags. This belief may explain why you see quartering as being such a waste.  

I already tried to tell him this in a another thread that was also about harvesting bears or quartering them....I'm not sure why he constantly spreads so much false information without even checking if it's right by trying it in the game first....

"Unless I am wrong, but I believe quartering takes more time then simply "harvesting" the leather and guts first (if it doesnt then I suppose it makes sense to quarter)"

You ARE wrong....

It would take at least 2 hours or more to harvest the bear hide and 10 guts....AND it would take ANOTHER 2-3 hours to harvest all 30-40 kilos of meat....

If you quarter it you get all the meat in bags, and the hide and guts are automatically harvested and lying on the ground for you to pick up in just about 2 hours total....

The only condition you lose would be like 10 condition on the first hour's worth of meat if you harvested it first and separately, and then harvested the rest without quartering. The meat in meat bags from a freshly killed bear is typically 70 condition or higher.....which is plenty of condition above 50 condition to get it back to 100 with cooking.... 

If the bear or whatever animal is still pretty fresh, the two hours are worth the tradeoff to get everything off the animal at once and in two hours.

The meat bags decay at a rate of 10 condition per 24 hours,  or at least twice as slow as leaving meat on the bear carcass, giving you much more time to harvest the meat bags, than if you left the meat on the bear to rot.

I ALREADY explained ALL of this to you in the other thread a couple days ago.

[AZHockeyNut]

Depends on where the bear is and your weather. If you can build a long lasting fire harvest all the meat and cook it even at low skill that amount of cooking boosts you up skillwise but it's tough to do it in the open and given weather issues. 

[Simone Else]

what i do is harvest all the meat,  and drop it on the ground right there, and pick it up over the next days