This is the first I have heard that the buck was not recovered until the day after shooting it. Unfortunate to have the meat unusable if this is true.
What are you talking about. Just because an animal doesn' t get recovered until the nex day doesn' t mean that the meat is unusable. My dad has killed a couple of deer by making a bad shot(not on purpose). If he new that he made a bad shot, he usually let it go until the next day. He just marked where he hit it and made sure there was a good blood trail to follow and then as long as there should be no bad weather come back in the morning. I remember being with him one time when he did this (both the day of shooting, and the day of recovering). We reovered the deer and took it home, no bad meat spoilage.
Congrats to the person who shot that deer.