I am not a sky is falling guy but the CDC does not recommend eating cwd diseased deer. Based on diseases deer can get I am not eating brain, or the spine of deer.
Couldn’t agree more about the tongue being one of the best parts. If you have never tried it you owe it to yourself as a hunter to give it a shot, you won’t regret it. Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
Last year we started using a gambrel to hoist the deer in the field. Gut, skin and then cut the meat off and place in ziplock bags. Once done the meat goes into a cooler and then home for final processing. It is so much easier to skin a deer while it is warm. And no eyeballs for me please. That reminds me of Chevy Chase eating lamb testicles in a movie one time and no I am not eating deer testicles or as we refer to such things "mountain oysters"
I drag out with a homemade cart. It gets dirty when I lay on their stomach to drain out the half gallon of blood in there. I guess I can just hold it up best I can and not let touch the ground. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
That's a cool device. I can't process at my vehicle though. Not a good look to the neighbors (lower New York here)
I agree that much of an animal is wasted. I think eyeballs are where I draw the line though. If I was starving to death, yea I’d give em a go. But for my normal meals I like to set the bar a little higher. Lol. I’ve always just rinsed cavity out with water then blot completely dry with clean rag or paper towels. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
This is where a lot of people differ, but water/moisture promotes bacterial growth. So you want to cool the meat down to say 40 degrees, but while it's cooling you are also increasing the risk of bacterial growth if the meat is wet. A suggestion would be to use frozen water bottles or those frozen ice packs instead if you are using the cooler method. I typically don't shoot a lot of early season deer because I don't have a great way of processing the meat at high temps. Later in the year we gut in the field, hang it, skin it an let it hang for a couple days before we butcher it up. I will usually just end up taking an early season kill to a processor because they have the coolers to get that meat cooled down without any complications from the outside heat.
I just remember my wife's grandmother boiling beef tongue in their basement kitchen the day before rifle season. I slept down in that basement all weekend while hunting and I'm pretty sure my hunting suffered because I smelled like boiled beef tongue. Pretty sure the basement smelled like it for a couple weeks following too.
Fortunate enough to have a big walk in beer cooler at my golf course. I'll either skin and quarter them and leave them in there until the next day or hang them in there to get to them the next day or two. As far as eyeballs, tongue, boiling bones etc.... Uh, I'm very anal about every ounce of meat, but no thanks on all that. If I ever did have to survive I'm sure I could do just fine on deer meat, rabbit, fish, turkey, squirrel etc.... I don't think it would ever come down to deer eyes. And I certainly wouldn't do it just because. But hey to each their own. As long as it works for you.
Just a little tidbit about meat and temps. At 70 degrees meat will start to rot in about 18 hours Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
It may not be rotting but it would be spoiled much faster than that. Spoilage bacteria doubles about every 20 minutes at 70 degrees. If it’s humid or wet it makes that worse. To really be safe it needs to be under 40.
