RE: Should I have kept the meat?
Temp 60, already bloated and gutshot?? Dicey at best IMHO. Perhaps some of the meat could be saved in a situation like this but I truly have my doubts. Bacteria, especially e-coli spreads very rapidly and is deadly....with a deer that has been gut shot this process will happen even more quickly.
Its not what you harvest...
Its what you learn...
Christine