Deer meat Spoiling

[mev002]

Does anyone know how long it take a deer to spoil after it has been shot? I know it depends on temperature and such, but say around 70 degrees outside how long will it take before the meat is ruined?

The reason i ask is, my future brother in law just called me and said someone on his lease bloodied up a deer earlier and they have tracked it and jumped it up a few times, and now are wanting to leave it be for a few hours or overnight...but they do not want to wait too long so that the meat wont spoil.

so anyone have any idea how long would be Ok for them to wait and track the deer again, and not risk the meat spoiling?

[Skinny]

I can't say that I ever ate any meat from any animal after it sat overnight in 70 degree weather. Not that I did not process the animal, but the smell was always a bit less than fresh.

[mev002]

i figured it probably wouldn't be fresh at that temp.

[Hunting Consult]

I had to leave a nice buck overnight in the rain once. It was 65 deg that night. But by sun up it was already somewhat bloated and it did smell. I am not sure when he died somewhere between 10pm and 7am. But I didnt eat him.

[Snakelover]

Unless the overnight temperature is below 40 degrees, I'm probably not going to eat one left out overnight. If it doesn't smell right, it's not going to taste right either. And then there is the issue of coyotes.

[tkuehn5410]

My wife shot a deer around 6 pm a week ago, and the buck laid down overnight until the next day at 1:00 in the afternoon. The meat was still good and body was not bloated. You need to remember that just because you leave the deer overnight doesn't mean the deer will die right away. If you've jumped it twice it will likely live for anywhere from 2-8 hours. I'd wait 'til first light and go out at that time. As long as the deer isn't bloated then the meat should be ready for consumption.

[dragonsdaddy]

the aggies did a great research project many years ago relating to this subject. i don't remember all the details, but the meat that tasted best was from deer that sat out a little while(aged). i don't know how to find the data, but it was pretty revealing.

[Snakelover]

the aggies did a great research project many years ago relating to this subject. i don't remember all the details, but the meat that tasted best was from deer that sat out a little while(aged). i don't know how to find the data, but it was pretty revealing.

But aging is done in the temperature range of 33 to 40 degrees. That's refrigeration temperatures. If the temps happen to be within that range, then fine. If not, well... life's too short to eat rancid venison.

[WCB]

I can only relate my own story.
We had a company lease (plumbers, AC and suppliers) and my helper shot a doe one morning. He wanted to use his grandfathers single shot shotgun so we loaded him up with buckshot and put him in a ground blind that had a good trail about 30 yds out.
When we picked him up and asked if saw anything he told us he shot at a deer maybe 60 yds away. When asked if buck or doe he asked what the difference was... We should have asked/told him more. He said it had big ears so we laughed and asked if it was a rabbit...
Anyway, we looked for a while and decided to go in for lunch and look again later. It was a warm day and none of us figured he hit a deer at 60 yds with buckshot.
As we searched later that day one of our plumbers hollered out that he found her. 1 pellet broke her front left leg and 1 pellet went through her heart!!
She laid out there dead for 6 or 7 hours and was still good. I ate some of it and no one ever had an issue.
How long is good or bad??? I have no idea...

[Dirtymike]

If it is gut shot things can get nasty quick. If not and it smells fine looks fine I would say it is fine.

[tkuehn5410]

My wife's deer was a gutshot deer that laid out there 16 hours and when cleaning he smelled like any gut shot deer, but was not bloated. It was the first deer in a long while i threw away the tenderloins and the skirt steak.

[mev002]

Thanks for the info guys.

So far they have not recovered the deer. They looked again this morning, they think it was just a bad shot, didnt hit anything vital, so I imagine they will be looking for buzzards in a few days since they lost the blood trail.

[Redneck Archer]

I would say if the temp is above 40-50 degrees dont eat if its been out more than 8 hours.

one nice thing about michigan. by now the over night temps are in the 20-30's...

dont have to worry about meat spoiling...