I shot a great big doe a couple weekends ago. The shot was perfect and I knew she wouldnt go far so I stayed in the stand until dark which was about an hour. I got down at quiting time trailed her and found her but coyotes had already chewed up part of the back hams and right in front of the hams and all around my entrance hole. My question is. Would you salvage what meat you could, or would you refuse to eatleftovers andlet the coyotes finish up?

Well, since the meat isn't spoiled, and it's illegal to kill and leave game lay.........

I guess its kinda a catch 22. Just like if you shoot a deer and it goes on the neibors, its illegal to let it lay but you cant trespass to retreive it.

I would try and salvage as much as I could depending how bad they "chewed" on the deer. I had the same thing happen opening day. I killed a Doe, took my stand down and walked back to the truck. I was back at the deer within a 45 minutes and couldn't believe how much they ate! I was pretty bummed. I called the GW, he came out assessed the situation and told me not to tag it! I had no problem tagging it but the deer was a mess, guts everywhere. They ate most of the deer. We have to take the deer in to be registered at a station and this deer was not pretty! I came back the next day and the deer was gone!


To answer your question..... What would I do...... I would start Coyote hunting, I'll be out in the morning calling my brains out!

Yes, but in this case...you wouldn't be trespassing. The only thing illegal here is leaving it lie.

Yea i agree. Salvage what you can. Backstraps and the tenderloins are my favorites so if those are ok I would at least get those.