I usually take them back to camp to dress them. Like others say, I'd rather not have coyotes, fox, crow, etc.......... all over the place the next couple of days. Also, how many times when your're field dressing an animal do you happen to see other deer and ultimately spooking them. Think about you and a couple of buddies hovering around the deer and someone telling the war story and with reason usually excited about it. Just my opinion, but I like to get the heck out of dodge as soon as I can. Take the animal off location and then have at it and relax without disturbing anything else. Fortunately for me it's not too far away to bring them. I don't know the coorelation between how long to wait to field dress them before damaging the meat.