Getting Deer to the Processor in a timely manner

[JayBird]

I shot a very old, very mature doe the other night and did not make it to the processor before they closed. So I took her in the next morning. The processor took the doe without any problems. Later in the week they called and said the meat had gone bad and she was a waste. Now I did not field dress or skin this deer, and here in SC its was pretty warm. But I was wondering what kind of time frame I'm looking at before the meat will spoil, and not be any good, even to take to a processor? I guess the heat here would be the major factor. Just wondering.

[Woods Walker]

You didn't gut the deer??? Why not?

What you do in the first 5 to 10 minutes of when you get to the deer you've killed will determine the quality of the meat that comes from it.

RULE #1. Gut the deer ASAP to begin the process of the dissapation of the body heat. Once they cool down they can handle warmer temperatures for while without spoiling.

Hopefully you learned from this wasted animal.

[JayBird]

What if the recovery is not made until the next day? These deer are all wasted?

[Woods Walker]

Possibly. It depends on the temperatures, the location of the wound, and the length of time between when the deer actually died and when you find it.

For example, a gut shot deer will die, but it may take 12 or more hours. If you hit one in the gut at 4 pm and you find it at 9 am the next day, it may only have been dead for a few hours.

I don't know what the temps were in the case of your deer, but you can rest assured that if you had gutted it, opened up the body cavity so that the body heat could escape and packed the body cavity with ice bags overnight you would not have had the animal spoil.

[JayBird]

It was warm for sure. Its been hot and dry in low country of South Carolina. Im so upset the doe was wasted, and I don't have a lot of hunting days to get meat. I think I've been watching too many hunting shows where they leave the deer over night and come back in the morning and make a recovery. I was at my hunt club and could have easily cleaned the deer myself, but I wanted to get home and just drop the deer off since it was sunday evening. When the processor was closed I figured a few more hours wouldn't hurt. Boy was I worng. Thanks so much for the discussion though.

[Woods Walker]

If you are hunting in an area with warm temps, always have a source of ice lined up and bring a big cooler to transport and store it with when you kill a deer.

[Ifishandhunt]

To add to what Woods Walker says, in my opinion if you hunt you should already know what to do with the animal you kill and how to preserve the meat so it does not get wasted. I am always mindful of not allowing the meat to spoil. That is always my main concern once I kill an animal. As a hunter I believe it is our obligation. I understand there are times where it is out of your control such as not finding or recovering the animal in a timely manner after shooting it. When I hunt, I have a plan on my mind if I were to kill a deer. If I hunt in the morning and kill a deer, I know that I will try to recover it quickly, gut it right away and stick a short 2x4 in the rib cage to hold it open (keeps the cavity open and allows for quicker cooling) and get it to the processor. They will then hang it in a refrigerated case for a couple days before butchering it. If I kill a deer in the evening, I know that the processor closes at 9:00pm. I will know if I can make it there in time. If not, I am at the local convenient store picking up bags of ice to put in and on the deer. I used to butcher my own but got lazy the last two years and have a processor handle it. However if I were in a situation where they were closed, I would think nothing of quartering the animal and refrigerating it or keep it on ice and start carving steaks... and the wife and son would help so we get it done quickly. Of course that is if it were early season and temps were high. In the winter with temps in the 30's or low 40's I will not worry about holding the deer overnight. It is a non-issue because it's cool enough to preserve the meat and help with the aging process.

[luvhuntin]

The only thing I could add is to get the hide off as soon as possible after transport home or to the locker i shot a buck on the 7th of November at 4:45 It was home hanging in the garage by 6;45 and the outside temp had dropped to 38* the rear quarters were still well within spoiling temp at 7:30 when i got them skinned but they cooled quickly after that and the meat is some of the best tasting stuff i have ever brought home in the back of my pickup.

I bought a book called gut it cut it cook it`s a great book to have on your butcher table as you go along the first few times you do it or as a refresher before season starts every year. it i think it`s available in the D&DH store. most lockers do a great job with any deer you drop off but especially after this last deer i`m glad i do my own. but the hunt is not over until the meat is in the freezer.

if you eat alot of deer you will notice the difference the first steak you cook. most who turn their nose up at the thought of wild meat say it has no "gamey" taste at all.

[Ohio farms]

There was a discussion here a few years ago on when to field dress a deer. At first I thought that we would all agree on the answer to that question, but many didn't field dress right away. After shot placement, field dressing and cooling down the meat are the most important thing to ensure good tasting venison. I'd throw aging in there too, but if you don't cool the carcass down, all the aging in the world will not help. Once the deer is down, as they say, now the work begins, so you have to have a plan.
I'm sure that you had the best intentions Jaybird, but when the processor was closed, you needed a better plan "B". It's a shame you lost the meat.

[Everyday Hunter]

WW has given some good answers. Take them to the bank.

I don't understand why a hunter would not field dress a deer immediately. Could there be legitimate reasons? None that I know of. I can think of reasons not to field dress a deer at the kill site, but not to deliver a deer to the processor that hasn't been field dressed.

A butcher about 2 miles from my house told me last year that occasionally someone brings a deer in without field dressing it, and he refuses to take them. He also told me 90% of the hunters don't field dress their deer properly. I had a hard time believing that so I stopped by his shop one Saturday last year. True -- butchers (this one, at least) rarely see a good field dressing job. As people brought their deer in, he had me explaining to them how to properly field dress their deer.

In the 20 minutes I was there, I didn't see any ungutted deer, but I saw several deer with their organs inside the rib cage still intact; several deer with the sex organs still in the pelvis, and one deer with his hip joints exposed clear to the ball and socket, allowing dirt to contaminate the meat.

Field dressing isn't that hard, and I think it's easier and cleaner (and even less bloody) to do a good job than to do a bad job. You don't need hatchets, saws, or anything else other than a good sharp knife.

Steve.