My buddy shot a small buck with his bow last night, shot wasn't the greatest and we let him sit overnight and found him this morning. The weather was a little rainy here in SE Wisconsin and about 50 degrees. We would like to butcher him up tonight, just wondering how you think the meat is? Also, after we cut the meat off is there a way we need to rinse or cleanse it before we take it for processing? And advice is appreciated!
Yeah that's a tough one. A dead deer sitting overnight at 50 degrees isn't ideal that's for sure. Its really up to you to use your best judgment. Generally if there are parts that smell bad and look bad (like green) chances are they are bad. That's not to say the whole deer is a waste though. If fact im sure most of it is salvageable.
@ 50F I would think it would be fine. I'd be looking it over really close though, anything that smells foul...like rancid foul is an indicator that obviously it's spoiled. Be sure it's well cooked if it appears okay just to be safe.
Ummm, maybe maybe not. If you get the squirters then you'll know for sure. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
If you're not planning on "processing" the deer yourself, why not just take the entire deer after you've field dressed it to the processor? That'll save you a lot of time, heartache, and it'll get the animal in a cooler much faster. On top of that, if the meat is bad, he'll be able to tell you immediately.
I think you're fine. I butcher all my own deer, 5 so far. I shot a buck at 6:30 pm on our season opener, September 6, and due to a thunderstorm I didn't recover until about 6:30 am the next morning. It was definitely in the fifties over the night, and it was sixties while I processed the deer that morning. The meat has been delicious grilled, made into sausage ( venison chorizo anyone?), and as jerky. No complaints from the dozen or so people who have had some, just complements! Enjoy! Oh, I highly recommend honest-food.net for venison recipes.
I've been a butcher by trade for the past 45+ years and have butchered hundreds of deer. I don't mean to slight or degrade you but your butchering 5 deer hardly qualifies you to make a judgement call on this. There are way too many variables in each situation. I am glad yours turned out ok. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If its like 50 degrees out what I do is hang the deer and I fill the chest cavity up with ice only if I have to leave the deer a day or so not longer then that... but I never had a problem... now if it gets warmer then that ill simple skin it and quarter it and stick the meat in my big cool packed with ice... and come back to it... that works good too... my buddy has a machine he made that just pulls the skin right off like a glove... its too big to fit my shed tho but works great... next time I head over there which will be soon enough im sure ill take a pic of it or if we have a deer ill shoot a video of it in action... but so far it seems to be the fast way to remove the skin as far as im concerned...
