A number of years ago, both my buddie and I shot bucks at the same time --6pm. We saw his fall and recovered it, but could not find the trail we needed to get out of the woods! It was 11pm by the time we got his deer out -- and I had to work the next day. It rained hard all night (the temps were in the low 70's) and we weren't able to look for my deer until 4:00pm the day after it was shot. We found him quickly and he didn't smell too good because I had hit a bit too far back as well. I field dressed him anyway and took him to a butcher. She examined the meat closely and found it to be perfectly safe. I butchered the deer that evening and it remains the best meat we ever had.