What would you guys do?

[Gordie]

Saturday morning I was sitting in my stand and about 10.am a nice doe gives me 150 yard broad side shot so I take it and I know that it was a good shot but when I get to where she was their was not even a drop of blood so I thought that I missed but in the back of my mind I knew I hit her.No flag as she ran away the stumble and the straight up jump from a heart shot . well I search for an hour looking where she went in the woods and back as far as hundred yards then did the 40yd sweep back, looking for sign and still nothing so I admitted to myself that I missed.The next day It bothered me so I went looking again this time checking for anything I might have missed. and about another 100yds their she was.their was no blood were she layed down either.She was hit low and just tagged the heart and bled inside the bullet never exited it hit the shoulder on the other side. Now the question is the deer has been sitting for 24hrs and the temp was below freezing, the deer was was not bloated at all. do you tag it and hope its good or let it lay.

Well I decided to gut her out and tag it with the colder weather it was 20-25 degrees. thinking that it would be good. the guys at camp had mixed feelings . when I got home that evening I skun her out and found that the belly meat was green on the side that she was down agaist the ground. I basicly am not going to keep this deer but I think I did the right thing by at least tring to keep her. this is the first time that I ever in my 30yrs of hunting came across this situation . I'm not happy about the out come but its a new lesson learned. I shoot a 30.06 with 165 grain boat tails and have never had a problem with this load.

[stretch]

i would suggest calling a butcher shop and asking them. i had the same problem last year when i shot abig 11 pointer. i knew i hit it good but i only found a little bit of blood and also i ran into a swamp so i let stay over night and i found it the next morning just 20 yards in the swamp. the only bad thing was it was in the low 30's and when i gutted it the stomach skin was green and smelled. so i brought it to the local butcher shop to see what he thought about it. he said it looked fine but when they started cutting it up alot of the meat was bad so they threw it. i was bumed big time.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Honestly, I think you did the right thing. You had a shot that, in your experience was a good one, and you took it.

From what I read you did everything possible to try and locate her.

When you did find her, instead of letting it lay in waste you tagged it.

If you believe the meat is bad and you don't plan on using this deer that's your decision but from what I'm reading you know what you're doing. If it were me (it's not but if it were me) I wouldn't have a guilty feeling about anything. Like you said, another lesson learned.

[charliepete2]

That deer will still be good eating. I might toss the tenders as they are sitting against the cavity, but the front and rear quarters and backstraps will still be good eating. Deer don't spoil in one night in cool weather just because they aren't gutted. Take it from a guy who had to let a buck go overnight last year in bow season. It was disgusting to gut, but it tasted great on the table.

[Gordie]

I called a friend that cuts up deer at my home town meat market and said that after you skin it seperate the green belly meat let it hang then smell the meat as you cut it up.

so I'm going to give that a shot. By the way my friend said that they would rather not cut up a deer at the meat market thats had any green or tainted meat on it because of contamination.

[SSSTaxidermy]

It clearly sounds like you made the correct decision all round...and good luck on the outcome of the processing...

However, if I was in your shoes right now, it sounds like you might have great lead in, to a happy ending of this story... For example, I would be telling my significant other that I need a new, "bigger" gun. The "old" 30-06 just isn't doing the trick anymore, even though we all know it is a very qualified caliber. It is worth a try...I know I would be trying? Anyone else? A guy can never have too many guns! Just an idea..

[Zzapp]

Reminds me of opening morning last year - except the weather wasn't cool. One of our party told us at midmorning check-in that he gut-shot a 4 pt buck and tracked if for most of an hour until he came upon a hunter from another party ( ahh, public land) gutting a 4-pointer. Was told it came from where my buddy was tracking, so he assumed it was his and stopped tracking. Overnight didn't get near 40 degrees, I even had an opening afternoon nap in the very warm sun.

The next morning I was still-hunting a marsh edge. At one of my pauses I smelled gut, so I walked around for about 5 minutes until I came upon a nice gut shot 4-pt buck laying in the tall grass in the morning sun. I located my buddy and brought him to it. He did the right thing - gutted, tagged and drug it back to camp.

The next afternoon we decided to start cutting it up. It was all green and stunk worse the more we cut.

At least we tried, but if i hadn't smelled it walking around it would have been wolf/yote chow.

TJ

[Boar]

I commend you on truly following up an giving everything into retreving the deer, sorry to hear the meat did'nt turn out. Later boar

[bearplott]

I would think there would be no problems there with the meat at all. After jumping a few deer that were bow shot the same night they were hit, my family pretty much leaves everything overnight now if it going to get below 35-40 degrees unless we see them drop or without question they are dead very near. We have never had a problem with them spoiling. Yes the stomach contents stink, but the meat is fine.

[wplatehunter]

You did the right thing. I don't like leaving deer in the woods over night, but sometimes it happens. I have never had one go bad over the night. Good Luck

[harvey lee]

I have had to go back in the morning many times for bow killed deer.If the temps were cool,under 35 and it layed for a night<I would process it.I would keep the backstraps and both shoulders and hinds and forget aboput the rib meat and tenderlions.

[MinnesotaMuskie]

I would hope I would handle it as well as you did. Green meat is not worth the risk...if any. I wodul tend to think about it everytime I grilled venison.

[xedge2002]

We had the same thing happen this weekend. My dad shot a buck Saturday night. It jumped like it was hit and ran into the woods. It was a 225 yd shot and he thought no way I hit it. So he walked up to where it was and couldn't find any blood or anything. Since it was getting dark he figured leave it and look in the morning for it(he was pretty sure he missed). The next morning he walked around the area and found it about 20 yards in the brush dead. He had hit it in the rear quarter and it bled out into its leg. He wondered about the meat as well but I figured it had only been there at most 12-13 hours and thought it would be ok since a lot of bowhunters have to leave deer overnight. It also got pretty cold that night, when I got in my truck at 900pm it said the temp was 9. So we tagged it and hung him up. When he gutted him it smelt a little but not really bad, kinda like a gut shot. We cleaned him last night and the meat smelt and looked good. We did end up throwing the one quarter it bled into because it was full of blood and looked pretty bad. We also ate the tenderloins and backstraps last night and they were dang good!!

Here is a pic of the buck:

[Gordie]

Nice follow up on that nice buck glad to here it worked out for you. With mine I was able to save some of the front shoulder and some of the back straps but the hinds just smelt too bad to chance it. I think the biggest problem was the doe bled in side and that made it spoil faster.

Thanks guys for all your input on this subject as I read thru these storys and it put my mind at ease with the feeling of wasting a animal. Good luck to anyone hunting for the rest of the season. I know I'll still try some more.