Leaving over night

[Sailfish_WC]

When people shoot a deer and are unsure if the shot was fatal and they leave it over night.........if they do find the deer, do they recover the meat?

Just wonder if there is a certain air temp that is "ok" and such.

[Rich M]

You want to assume it - some forums get a ton of posts about "is the meat still good?". So I'd say most folks have that intention.

The guys on the videos - this is where I'll drop back to the Public Land Challenge and the bad shot last year where the long haired dude stayed on that buck all night. As opposed to someone saying, we're backing out and will be back tomorrow after breakfast.

I've had FL venison where the deer got processed about 5 hours in the 90 degree heat after being shot (never gutted) and it was fine. That and antelope meat that didn't see ice for about 10 hours (hung in game bag in shade) which was fine. These are extremes, but I'm saying that for most folks in cooler areas, leaving a deer overnight isn't gonna ruin the meat.

[PK_]

I would hope that it is always the plan to recover the meat. It takes a lot to lose the meat IMO, more than most think.

[Stretch]

I would hope that it is always the plan to recover the meat. It takes a lot to lose the meat IMO, more than most think.

I agree

[WV Bowhunter]

We left one overnight a couple weeks back. It was mid 70’s at dark and dropped into the 50’s that night. Recovery was just after daylight and skinned and on ice by noon. I had to trim about 1/2” of meat from the inner side of the hind quarters that looked and smelled a little questionable. So far what I’ve cooked from him was delicious.

[KRONIIK]

Too many guys will open one up, get of whiff of guts and declare that the meat went bad.

Duh-the guts NEVER smell good even on a fresh kill, and some increase in gut odors on a deer left overnight doesn't mean that the MEAT is necessarily bad.

[bigbuckhunter88]

Here in Iowa there isn't many season where leaving one over night the majority of bow season and the deer is fine. This year it's been unseasonably warm so maybe more spoilage. My train of thought is usually if it's a marginal hit the deer is actually alive for most of that time period. One that I did have sour on me on an unseasonably warm day was one that I shot early afternoon and it was definitely guts. Turns out it clipped that artery that runs along the gut line and the deer was probably dead within 15 seconds and I left it sit for 4 hours of daylight and 14 hours overnight.

[Hookslinger]

You ever see what happens when you take a deer to a real busy processor? If you think they get your deer hanging in a cooler even remotely fast your probably mistaken. Of course sitting ungutted in a hot forest is a little different, but I'd say it takes a lot longer to spoil the meat than most people think. The beef you buy at the grocery store is probably more suspect. That being said, of course the goal is to get it taken care of as soon as possible.

[A5BLASTER]

Heck if I worried about that here in Louisiana, I would never shoot a deer.

[Ol Split ( ) Toes]

I would hope that it is always the plan to recover the meat. It takes a lot to lose the meat IMO, more than most think.

I also agree with this, sad to think how many deer get wasted when the meat is actually fine.