I have only lost 1 deer to spoilage in the several dozens I have killed. That deer was bow shot during early season and didn't get found until the next day. Coyotes hadn't found it yet but after I butchered the meat I couldn't get past that taste of tainted meat. Unless it is very very cold guts left in an animal will spoil it after several hours especially if the stomach was punctured by the shot as it was in this case. In bigger animals like moose or elk it is even more important. They gas up much sooner. reminds me of my first elk kill before we learned the finer art of the gutless method of field dressing. My 2 hunting buddies and I were all seasoned whitetail hunters but first time elk hunters. We had exceptional luck and got into a herd and we had 2 cows and a decent bull down. We were all spread out about 1/2 mile apart and I got the first cow then Rob dropped another as they ran past him and finally Dave smoked the bull about a mile from me. We all decided by radio that Rob and I would deal with my cow first then move on to his. Dave would try to get his gutted and moved to a shady spot then he would join us for getting our elk back to the truck. Dave started his gutting after a little while and his animal was right out in the sun. I gutted mine and it was already starting to get gassed up. After I got it done I radioed Dave and told him to watch out for the green explosion. His answer was.... too late. That was a long day and at around 4 pm we were sitting on the tailgate with 12 game bags and a rack in the back of the truck. We took them all out to the road quartered using our pack frames. Later on we learned about the gutless method and often boned them in the field when they were far back.