ORIGINAL: passin through
Speaking as a former professional chicken killer for Tyson....I learned a bunch about meat and meat spoilage while I was there. We were told/taught it is body cavity that holds the heat, in specific the innards or offal that contain/retain the heat. Bones do retain heat a little longer but more from their being insulated by the meat. The best thing to do with any animal you are going to eat, game animal or not, is get the guts out and the blood out quick then chill the carcass. We had a USDA inspector in all of our areas watching the carcass temps and I talked to and he said the procedure was about the same for beef or swine just not as fast as we were doing the chickens. (128 birds per minute per line)
Mag30079- My experience here in the hot humid bayou state has always been if there is any bloat present at all we don't eat it. I don't know about other areas but here we often don't get cool enough night temps to leave one over night (and still be edible) until December. I will wait as long as instinct tells me to (1-6hrs)and then go see what can be found...if nothing good then we back out and hope for the best at daylight.
I agree with much of this. It is the body cavity that has the primary role in retaining heat. Next to that it is the deers hide itelf. Deer hair is one of natures most efficient insulators as evidenced by us all either seeing deer or viewing photographs of deer with snow piling up on their backs. Not to mention if you hang up a fresh killed deer and pull the hide off in cold weather you can see the steam come off it for several hours.
Ambient temps vs time have much to do with spoilage. The colder it is the longer you have. Bloating is gas production within the rumen which goes unchecked after death. It can be accelerated by heat. A deer recovered in the low to mid 40's the next day wouldn't bother me in the least, bloated or not. But my nose is my ultimate giude once the carcass is field dressed and rinsed out.
An old butchers trick for slightly tainted meat that is on the edge:
Wash the carcass down liberally with a dilute white vinegar/water mix. If not too far gone, it will freshen the meat right back to where it was and no harm done.
