Hey all, I shot a Northern NY spike on Halloween and now it's just hitting me about something we did. We always wash out our deer after the gut and drag to rid of the excess blood and dirt, but this time my pops told me to do something different. We have a spring fed pond behind the house up there and Dad told me to go get a bucket and use the pond water to clean it out instead of the clean water inside the house. And now I can only think of bacteria. The water was freezing cold and I guess it doesn't really hit any meat because it just touched hide and of course the ribcage. I guess I can think that the cooking process kills bacteria anyway. I may be paranoid but it's just what's crossing through my mind now a days cause I have nothing better to worry about