If you choose not to field dress a deer but to dress it at home, how much time do you have between the kill and when you dress it, if you want to make sure the meat doesn't spoil?

we take ours to a buddies house and gut it out on the edge of his field for coyote bait, 1-2 hours or so after killing. never had a problem

allot of times i keep hunting after the shot.i have waited 3 to 4 hrs. i do not gut my deer i think people are overly anal about this subject. are the guts really going to spoil the hams and shoulders and backstraps? i dont think so.....

ever shot a deer in the evening and left it until the next morning when it was cold outside? there ya go

Why would you want to drag a deer with the guts still in it? It is much heavier.

I don't know anyone in the South, but me (and I learned to hunt in New England) that actually guts their deer. Its real weird to me. But they all hunt stands and drive their truck up close to the deer and load it in.

All the butchers around here gut the deer for you.

In our club, we always gut the deer right after killing it. Usually wait till dark to bring it down as to not disturb other hunters. We hunt 650 acres with 25 guys during rifle season. Don't need all that movement on the first couple of days. We'll gut em right where they fall and it's usually within shooting range if any coy's come around the next few days. Downside, the crows will announce to the whole damn county you got one. Man, I'd love to have a plinkin rifle with me when their around.
My first deer back in 68, second day I ever hunted, shot em at 7:00am. My dad said he'd come back if he heard shots. Never came back till 3:30 and we had some spoilage on the one side. It wasn't really that warm, bout 55 or so, and it seemed strange that it would go bad so fast.

I gut them when I get to them. No sense in lugging around all that extra weight and heat, especially if you're dragging a long ways. Even if you can drive right to it, you might as well get it taken care of.

When any organism expires, it starts to decompose, and bacteria immediately starts breaking it down. My friend bow shot one in ohio last year shortly before dark, and he went back the next morning for it. he dressed it and it had a green slime inside it. he dismissed it and claimed/tagged the deer anyway. When he got home his butcher friend told him it was bad.

The longer you let that animal lie there with its innards intact, the faster it will start to break down, even on a fairly cool day, you will be surprised how fast that process can damage that meat.

We owe it to the animal to utilize it, and taking care of it should begin immediately. I would imagine most slaughter houses don't kill a bunch of cows, and come back 5-6-8 hours later to process them.

Im taking a buddy on his first deer hunt opening day of rifle season. I am also going to sit in the stand until 11 am regardless of whether his gun goes off, because I have seen a couple big bucks during archery season that I am really hoping to see during rifle season.

Preferably you'd gut them within 2 hours, but I don't think it will hurt anything to let it go for a few more hours. I wouldn't want to eat one that had been laying on the ground for more than 6 hours unless it had been very dry and very cold.

i dont have to drag them far