NY Bowhunter

How ironic. I just gutted the worst smelling gut job I have ever done in my life. Took a lot to not puke. This was about 12 hours after we found him (not mine either). Around 3 or 4 in the morning and freezing cold out. Had to cross a creek and went up to my waist at one point. Still kept pushing on to find it though. Then dragged it through hell and back to finally get it back to camp. I guess the easy thing would have been to just let it sit there. I'm beat, wore out, still smell guts after 2 showers. But.......... it's now hanging and I love every minute of it.

UPHunter08

Well said. There isn't a person on this board that hasn't made a mistake at some point while hunting.

WNYhunter

lets all put 2 hands together for ny bowhunter.

In fact I bet most of you guys wouldn't even be looking for a deer 24 hours later.

I was pissed at myself for letting it happen, i found him and tagged him, which I bet most of you wouldn't have done either.

I didn't realize I was in a group with so many professional hunters I thought blackhawk was the only one.

1 deer in 25 years, I am not happy about it but I can live with it.

Now we can let this thread go and fade away like it should or keep it up. I took my lumps....

NY Bowhunter

Whole lot of assumptions there.

Not looking for a pat on the back thanks. If I was I would've made a thread about how superior I am. Which I'm not or never claimed to be. Just telling it like it is. I'm not going to apologize because it bothers me that a deer was left to rot because the guts were too smelly.

But yes... you took your lumps and lesson learned (I hope). So be it.

m.t.hands

did you know you can cut the front shoulders, the back-straps, and the hind quarters w/o even gutting, waste some meat, but on gut shot deer its a good option, i have done it for a lot of people...just for future reference


as far as how long you'll look for a deer, i recovered a buck 10 days after i shot him (yea that meat was bad) i made a marginal shot and it started raining within 10 minutes, i was acutally able to follow a little bit of a blood trail, but the next morning it was gone, i searched all day, and the next, then a week later, then about ten days later just what my work schedule would allow.....had it been a doe i would have probably given up after day two due to air temp and the questionable state/condition of the meat...but i am amazed at how easy some people will give up on a blood trail

good job on the recovery, know what you mean about the two showers and days later part of it though, and i love it also

Flatfoot

Listen I Process deer with a friend of mine and am also a deer hunter myself. I won't go into all the what ifs and suppose this or that, but I will tell you that I have seen MANY deer that have been gut shot, bow and gun and warm or cold weather the meat will be effected by the smell and the fluids that have absorbed into the body. Granted if it's cold weather it may make a little difference but not that much. I'm here to tell you a gut shot deer that lays for 24 hrs. is not going to be prime venison to eat. We've had to call customers and have them come in to decide if they want to pay for process of the deer or not and most don't. We all have the mistakes happen but after seeing what I have over the last 15 years of processing. Some guys don't like to admitt that they had a deer spoil on them because of finding it late but heh, it happens and that's that.

jrfrmn

I say no. The deer need to be opened up to cool down. Call this number and see what they tell you.

Freedom Sausage
815-792-8276

Herklinks

WNYhunter - Try calling the DEC and tell them the situation. If you wound a deer and find it and it is bad they will sometimes give you another tag. Worth a shot anyway, they did it for me once in the southern tier.