My friends Moose spoiled In a day????
 

Ok guys this is the story my friend and his group go hunting and the first night out my friend shoots a nice bull at 270 yards. So the moose is down and him and his dad do a not so good job of guting the moose. Meaning they left blood in it and maybe even some fecal matter.
He gets to camp tells everyone to go and get it but they all say its cold enough (-2c or 30)for leaving it till morning.So they get the moose in the morn and it doesnt look that good, its liver has white streaks in it and the meat is soft to the knife. They get it to camp and hang the animal they do not rinse the inside, and do not put pepper in it before they cheese cloth it. So that day it starts to get hot like about 60-65 degrees the flies are on the cheese cloth like theyre on [bleep] and the animal starts to smell a bit,about 24hrs from time of kill. That night the temps stay warm like 45-55 degrees and the next morn they take the animal to the freezers but its smelling pretty bad now, so now after 36-40 hours this anomal smeels bad, they put in freezer for about 3 days and when leaving they go to pick it up, so here is where it gets fun!!! All the guides are saying an animal will not spoil in that time frame cause they have never seen it, so their conclusion was it must have been dead a few days before! And he collected a dead animal. So now part of the group heres this and they are all screaming at each other and calling the guy a liar and freak!!!
So what do you guys think of this story?
Is it possible for the animal to spoil so fast?
Has anyone had an experience wher their animal spoils fast?
thanks
Elmer

I see a few possibilities

a. "not so good a job cleaning" actually means they didn't clean it out at all.

b. the temp estimate was off a good bit.

c. again the temp estimates and now the time estimates are off.

d. I'm inclined to believe the guides although without accurate timeframes they couldn't know.

I'm also not sure on the "not so good a job cleaning". It sounds like they left the liver inside the body cavity? Not much cleaning from what it sounds like. People leave deer overnight before retrieving them without field dressing them quite often in those temperatures, but a moose is a much larger animal and will retain heat much longer. My conclusion would be that the spoiled meat would be directly related to the poor job field dressing or that the temperatures were much higher than 60-65 degrees.

Here is my conclusion as I have heard of moose spoiling in 1 day if not proparly taken care of.

First the not so good cleaning job leaves alot of question marks to me..

Second if laying on the ground the moose's legs are closed causing it to retain body heat better.. Had the legs been held open better it would of stood a better chance as well.

Lastly is letting it hang in those temps could cause it to spoil if the hide was left on it without a doubt in my
mind. The moose is almost all black which will draw heat from the sun and ruin the moose rather quickly.
I know of a few moose that has spoiled because of leaving the hide on as well as not packing it with blocks of ice in hot weather.. I know of a couple of folks that took thier time at the tagging station and had thiers start to spoil by letting people admire it and the like.

So to answer your question if it could spoil so quickly,, Absolutely it can..

I see no mention of skinning it. Moose hide retains heat for days. Remember what it is for....I have killed 3 and have skinned them and cleaned them on the spot. Never an oz. of spoiled meet due to temp. even in the 40s and 50s. Good air circulation is a must. how could they even think of going after such a beautiful animal and not know how to take care of it? That kind of thing gives us all a bad name.

learned this about elk and buffalo....

ice/snow can actually insulate hot meat causing it to spoil sooner

ideally you get the animal gutted and skinned to help cool off more quickly.

A big mass of meat can spoil in the center etc... due to hot spots, also in a cooler with ice etc...I think you need air circulating to cool off meat

Personally I think if you shoot an animal, and know its dead, there's no reason not to start the processing, even if that means working in the dark and til the wee hours.

gut it, skin it, hang it, get it to the processor or wherever you're gonna cut it up. I see no reason to leave an animal simply out of convenience, ie its late, youre tired, unless you're 2nd guessing if you made a kill shot etc...

if all you do is gut an animal, spread it open with some sticks etc....at least, help get air circulating in there.

while elk hunting this year, a guy shot/killed an elk at daybreak, left it there for a good 4 or 5hrs in the sun, waiting for his guide I assume? it bloated up etc...

I say take some pictures and get cuttin!

Bang on! What they had happen was green rot, bone out. Moose and elk are larger then deer therefor your windows are decreased, like mentioned already. They need to be gutted and skinned as soon as poosible. I have spent 7-8 hours packing out several moose but before I/we make the first trip they get dressed, skinned and quartered. Cooling the entire carcass is the key. Water can aid in spoilage, that is why I tell people to use frozen ziplocs or milk jugs to place in coolers/carcasses/etc vs loose ice.

Unfortunately it sounds like your friends didn't do their best to ensure they took care of the meat: Field dressing?? Hanging? Not getting it to a locker plant ASAP? Maybe not prepared for the task??

I butcher on the side BTW and have seen lots of meat wasted due to improper care. I had a moose come in a few years ago that spent the night on a trailer after being shot in the morning. It was field dressed good but they never bothered to skin or hang it. The only thing we could do was fire up the tractor and bury it. Complete waste and these guys had the where with all to deal with it just chose not too. :sad:

regardless of how well they cleaned it out...leaving it hang with just the cheese cloth and no big pillow case to cover the animal will allow all those flys to lay their eggs in the meat..at those temps they are good for hatching the larva and thus the meat will ruin......big mistake not covering any animal with the cheese cloth and a big pillow case so that the fly's cannot get to it.

as mentioned it sounds like they didn't skin it (mistake 1) and didn't gut it all that well.

All that said, if you leave an animal of that size, laying on the ground, even gutted, it won't cool. That hide is built to insulate and hold heat in. Add to that that it's laying on the ground, so air isn't circulating.

Things that big MUST be skinned and quartered and gotten off the ground.

Depending on the state or province in which they killed the moose, they could be prosecuted.