Leaving game overnight

eelgrass

eelgrass

Long Time Member
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I've seen a few TV shows lately where an animal (usually whitetails or elk) are shot right at dusk. The hunter decides not to "push" the animal in hopes that it will die close by. The decision is made to leave the area and return the next morning.

The question I have is, if an animal dies and lays all night, is the meat spoiled? I've always heard to get it gutted and cooled out ASAP. I suppose a lot has to do with the outside temperature and where the animal was hit?

Has this happened to any of you before? (I've never been in that situation, myself). I totally understand how this could happen, and would like some insite. Thanks!

Steve
 
steve

I BELIEVE IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE ANIMAL & THE WEATHER!!!

I'VE HELPED BOW HUNTERS THAT WE DECIDED NO TO PUSH THE ANIMAL AFTER A HIT RIGHT BEFORE DARK!!!

I'VE NEVER LOST A DEER OR BEEN INVOLVED IN LOSING A DEER DUE TO SPOILAGE!!!

EVEN IF THEY LAYED THERE ALL NIGHT WITH THE GUTS IN THEM!!!

NOW ELK & MOOSE ARE A DIFFERENT STORY!!!

THE NECK ON AN ELK IS HARD TO COOL,ESPECIALLY IF NOT GUTTED & SKINNED!!!

I'VE SEEN QUITE A FEW GUY'S LOSE ELK BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T GET THEM COOLED OUT PROPERLY!!!

ELK & MOOSE ARE A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THEM COOLED OUT!!!

MORE THAN LIKELY (DEPENDING ON TEMPRATURES)WITH A DEER YOU'D BE O.K.,THE GUTS WILL STINK A LITTLE MORE THAN NORMAL BUT THATS NORMAL!!!

THE ONLY bobcat THINKING THE EVENING IS THE BEST TIME TO COOL AN ELK AS LONG AS YOU GET IT TAKEN CARE OF QUICK,LETTING AN ELK SIT ALL NIGHT WITHOUT BEING GUTTED OR SKINNED YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE!!!
 
It really does depend on the weather and the time period. If it's cold enough outside and remains that way, then there's a pretty good chance that the meat will not spoil. Ofcourse here in Arizona, I'd be more worried about coyotes or bobcats getting to the animal than I would be about it spoiling. Personally, I will never wait till the next morning anyway. I have no problem going out at night with a spotlight to recover my animal.

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IMHO, I can taste if an animal was allowed to cool with the guts in. That being said, I will make every effort to recover an animal and take proper care of the meat and yes, I have recovered by flashlight before, I dropped an elk at dusk one time and didnt get her out of the field until 11 at night.

Mike
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I would advocate trying to get the animal taken care of that night, after an appropriate amount of time. If you think the shot was marginal, give it several hours. I had one elk I did not recover until 15 hours after the shot. A small amount of meat along the bone in one hind quarter was a bit off. That was probably the exception. I'm in mountain country and it gets cold at night. I'd still want to get it out the night it was shot. I've seen several other hunters try to track animals in the dark and ended up pushing them out of beds. Animals are easily lost that way.
 
I THINK BESS IS RIGHT ABOUT ELK & MOOSE, WEATHER AND SUCH. YOU MIGHT GET BY WITH IT ON OTHER ANIMALS DEPENDING ON TEMPERATURE. BUT I PREFER TO GET THEM GUTTED IF POSSIBLE/ OR I WOULD BE UP ALL NIGHT THINKING ABOUT IT. I LOVE TO GUT THEM AND PACK THE CHEST CAVITY WITH SNOW IF AVAILABLE. YD.
 
" I PREFER TO GET THEM GUTTED IF POSSIBLE"

Yes! And if not quartered, at least get the pelvis split and those hind quarters spread apart, and pull the front quarters away from the rib cage.
 
Thanks everyone. With elk and moose being so much bigger, I can see where it would be more critical to get them cooled as rapidly as possible. I've never hunted elk or moose, but I sure would love to some time.

I'm with you. I think I would do everything possible to not leave one overnight. Sometimes that's not possible though. You can't gut what you can't find!

Steve
 
I shot an elk right before dark a few years ago. It layed out all night. The meat was fine except where a griz chewed on one hind quarter. I cut that part off the next morning and left it for the bear while my buddy stood over me with a short barrel Rem 1100...
 
I HAD TO LEAVE A MOOSE OVER NIGHT IN ALASKA UNGUTTED IN 1996. HE DROPPED AT DARK, IN 2.5 FEET OF WATER/WITH BEARS EVERWHERE IN OUR AREA. CAME BACK NEXT AM AND PROCESSED HIM, HE WAS SOME OF THE BEST EATING TO BE HAD. THIS WAS SEPT. 3RD/ TEMPS. 40 DEGREES AT NIGHT/ THE WATER HELPED. SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE/ LIFES NOT PERFECT. YD.
 
I have always heard that with an elk that if you didn't recover it until the next morning it would be spoiled, even with snow on the ground due to the tremendous amount of heat their hide and muscles retain.

I have also seen lots of hunts on video and/or the Outdoor Channel where the animal is not pushed and is not recovered until the next day, especially when the hit is marginal or bad (i.e. gut shot). It makes perfect sense to me to not push an already bad situation, and to let the animal lie down and die without pushing it out of the area never to be recovered. Of course they never talk about the condition of meat because most of the focus is on the horns which has often left me wondering if it was spoiled or not.

Some posters on here have stated they have recovered an elk or moose the next morning and there was no problem with the meat. I have wondered if this has something to do with the time the animal actually dies. For example, maybe an elk that the hunter thought to be marginally shot (say 5 PM) was actually an immediately fatal shot, and the animal died minutes after being hit but was not recovered until the next day (say 6 AM) vs. another elk that was shot (5 PM) and did not die until 7 hours later (12 AM) so the time to recovery from death was say 13 hours with the first elk and 6 hours to the second.

Does anyone have any opinion on whether time of death makes any difference as it would seem that spoiling would not start until the animal actually dies but maybe it depends on the wound location (like in the case of a gut shot animal)?

Also, if it is true that an elk will not make it overnight without spoiling, what do you do? If you try and recover the animal too soon it may never be recovered and be completely wasted. If you wait to have the best chance to recover the animal, you recover it but the meat is spoiled but you end up with the horns. Luckily, I have not personally been in this situation but have thought often about this and have wondered what to do if you know your elk will be spoiled the next morning.

Horniac
 
You won't lose all of the elk with an overnight wait, maybe some and you can deal with that. It is also true that overnight can be a pretty short time if you are on the sign at the first figment of light. Get the animal quartered and skinned and separated so if some has turned some will also be saved. Stuff like this happens and all you can do is make the most of it.
 
i've never seen an elk go overnight with the hide on that didn't sour in shoulders, where the neck connects. i'd never leave a deer overnight without skinning it. if you're in subzero weather and they freeze solid quickly, you might be ok, but i'd never leave it up to fate if i could keep from it. main reason most folks say deer and elk taste "gamey" is because they did such a rotten job taking care of it. the sooner you skin an elk, the better it will taste. the rule of thumb i've always used is 6-8 hours. if i can't get it to a skinnin' pole by then, i skin it where it fell. there are exceptions to everything, but i wouldn't leave it to that.
 
I shot an elk with a muzzleloader a few years ago right at dusk, and watched it run off into the timber. It was in November, and was quite cold that night. I elected to not pursue it, as I didn't have a light, and was a couple of miles from the truck anyway.
The next morning when I found the bull, he was swelled up like an elephant, and stunk real bad. I gutted him, and hung the meat in the meat locker. The guys at the processing plant called me and asked me to come get the elk out of there because it was making the other animals in there smell bad as well.
I can guarantee I'll never leave another elk on the ground over night with the guts inside if I can help it.
 
Larry D. Jones has an old video out, where he sticks a meat therm. in an elk's neck. He said it got down to 32 that night, and the temp was 90 degrees!
 
Unfortunatley, I left a bull out overnight a few years ago. It was a bowhunt here in Az and I shot him right at dark. I found him just before the sun came up the next morning and had him gutted and skined out by 8:00 am. Had him at the meet locker by 1:00 pm. When we tried to cook some of the meat it stunk up the whole house something fierce. I ended up donating all the meat to the adobe wildlife center.

I will never leave an animal out over night if I can help it. I don't care how late it gets. If I'm by myself I'll make sure I get it gutted and skinned where it lays. I learned my lesson.

John
 
I left an ungutted elk out overnight last year - never again. Even with cold night temps, had quite a bit of meat that had to go to the raptor rehab center.

Have left one out gutted - that was OK - but I'm not going to leave one out (gutted or not) again. Two flashlights in my pack (and extra batteries as always) from now on
 
I left a gutted deer overnight in the snow. The meat was fine, just ask the cougars. They only ate a little of the hind end. I left a cow elk over nite that I shot close to dark but 1st I gutted, skinned, & propped her open. If you can get that wind pipe out to cool the neck off faster. but the hide really holds the heat in.
 
LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-05 AT 12:27PM (MST)[p]ahhh the green color is a sign, the bloated cavity is a sigh, the rotten stench is a sigh, Maggots are a sign!
Personally I would never ever leave an deer,elk,bear,fowl with hide,hair,feathers on over night!!!
As far as the gutting and guts will thats just common sense.I just like gutting my game(Hell-Iraq is lucky I am over their,I would not mine gutting some of them bastards! I could do that easy and I would not have any "bad nightmares" ever after the fact).
RACKMASTER
 
I've had to leave game (elk) overnight several times. I've always gutted the animal, spliting the pelvis, chest cavity and opening the neck and taking out the windpipe. I always prop the body off the ground, using logs, rocks, etc, so that the wind can blow around and under the animal. I do this even tho there is snow on the ground, as snow is an insulator. I use snow to wash out the cavity, but never leave it in the cavity. I've never had bad tasting meat done this way. Semper Fi.
 
>LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-05
>AT 12:27?PM (MST)
>
>ahhh the green color is a
>sign, the bloated cavity is
>a sigh, the rotten stench
>is a sigh, Maggots are
>a sign!
>Personally I would never ever leave
>an deer,elk,bear,fowl with hide,hair,feathers on
>over night!!!
>As far as the gutting and
>guts will thats just common
>sense.I just like gutting my
>game(Hell-Iraq is lucky I am
>over their,I would not mine
>gutting some of them bastards!
>I could do that easy
>and I would not have
>any "bad nightmares" ever after
>the fact).
>RACKMASTER

Well i know that, but some guys seem to think that meat is spoiled just because it was left for a certain time. What i am getting at is if the meat is not green, could a guy get sick from eating it? botulism? How do we really know for sure if it has sat too long?
 
I'm a complete fanatic when it comes to my elk meat and taking care of it. I mainly rifle hunt elk and have never had to wait one out. Every elk I've taken had to be quartered and packed out. I believe in dressing the animal and getting the hide off as soon as possible, quartering/boning everything out and hanging it or setting it out to cool. The faster you get them cooled out the better that meat tastes - tried and true fact!
 
It is always the right idea to dress an animal near, at, or after dark, so as to cool off the animal, and prevent gas buildup which can spread thru the meat. My side story though is this fall when guided by Cree Indians on Moose in Manitoba I shot a nice bull moose at 7:30 P.M., in a pond, half an hour of light and a hour back across a large lake to the lodge. My guides left the bull in the pond, and said they had done that before, and the water being as cool as it is (actually a river) keeps the meat cool. The next morning I could smell that bull as we approached, yet not one ounce of meat was wasted, and the bull tasted wonderful. Our situation of getting back to the lodge and not traversing Big Sand Lake at night in the dark by small boat was the right decision, yet my first in not dressing an animal immediately.


I guess I lie. I left a boar Grizzly in Alaska in the Chilligan RIver overnight, shot at dusk, this time 9:00 P.M. on opening day in September. I guess you may all know though Grizzly meat is not edible though, while Black Bear meat is. The next morning I drug/pulled/whatever that 18 1/2 yr. Grizz over to shallow water and 4 hours later he was skinned.
 
I decided after a couple hours of crawling around on my hands and knees following a Blood trail that It was cool enough to just wait 6 more hours until daylight and get some sleep.
I found my Buck around 7:30, but a pack of Coyotes found it first.
I spooked them at the Kill site feasting on my Buck.
The Deer was a waste and the Yotes even ate the Velvet Antlers down to nubs as well as the ears.
What meat was left I did not feel comfortable using as it was covered with Guts and Blood.
This was my first Bowkilled Buck and I sure would have liked to have some Meat and a Trophy Mount.
 
I've wondered the same thing about those guys on the tv shows, but I wonder if they really care if the meat is spoiled or not. They probably turn it all into burger and then donate it.

My brother shot a buck this year that we had to leave behind overnight. He got him with about 1 hour of shoot time left. I was able to gut him and clean him out pretty good and we got him halfway to the truck, but at about 10PM we decided we better mark the bushes with surveyors flagging and come back and get him at first light. I have not noticed a spoiled taste.

fowl
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-17-05 AT 08:24AM (MST)[p]If a deer was gut shot and left overnight, there is no way you could feed me any of it! A gut shot animal needs to be taken care of right away and in my opinion the rib meat would be considered done for. However if the shot was clean leaving a deer overnight shouldn't be a problem....but then with a clean shot you shouldn't have to leave the deer overnight!!?? Leaving an elk is another question. I've had to leave elk overnight before but that was only after they were gutted and the neck area skinned so that the meat can cool down. In my experience an elk carcass can retain heat much longer than a deer....heat = spoilage.
 

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