RE: How long does it take for an animal to spoil?
most of the time the smell will tell you.even when it even starts to go bad it has a different smell.it I though it was bad,I would not eat it.better safe than sorry.
if the temp is as you say in the 70's it doesnt take long to spoil if not gutted. to me any thing above th mid 40's is a bad temp. to have an ungutted deer in for over a few hrs. (3). thats just me.
in Fla. where I hunt,we get them gutted and on Ica,asap. like you say gut shot,we try to wait a short while and track,if we jump it then we wait again and try all over.some may do different,but in hot weather you can't wait to long, do you got a set of horns and thats all.