Hello I was wondering what the maximum out side temp would have to be to let the deer go overnight before recovering. And how many hours before it would spoil. And if it did start to go would any of the cuts of meat still be good

Thanks Bill

I have been told by butchers a deer or any game in above freezing temps will go about 6 hours(post death) without adequate cooling of the meat. I thought this seemed a little quick but they say the meat will green rot from the bones out very quickly and there for it is essential to cool it as quickly as possible. (this includes remove guts and hide!!) I hunt elk with 3 butchers and they all echo the same sentiments, when an elk gets hit they go into over drive and almost chant " gotta cool that meat, lets go" Easiest way to tell is smell, meat should not smell(while wild meat and blood does have a particular odour it should not be strong or alarming). I would say your outside rounds, flanks would be the ones if the meat spoiled slightly that would be still edible, anything that is direct contact with a bone would be suspect. Personally I have never had this situation arise so I am only talking from a meat cutters perspective, I assume they know what they are talking about considering it is there speciality/life.

I bet T R would be able to answer this one...Personally I wouldn' t let a deer go overnight if it was over 55-60 degrees

According to my log I shot one last Oct 5th( a Sat.). just before dark. I didn' t recover it till the next day.The check station opened at 11.30(Sun 6th) I went hunting on the 7th and 10th so I must hav butchered it the 8th maybe 9th. It was Oct. so the temp here must have been in the 40' s at night and the only part of the deer that was wasted was a hind leg where I had to share some with a bear.[:@]It was shot at 6:45 and when I found it an hour before sunrise it was only 60 - 75 yds from where I shot.The bear dragged it about 3 yds. I think I still have some in one of those vacum bags. It all depends on the shot and conditions I guess. If it had been shot in the gut I' m sure ther would have been a lot more waste.

Ditto to what Skeeter said. Green rot does happen and I have seen it some as I do some processing for people. -- CDH

Just a tid-bit. The trachea is the first to go. You gotta make sure you get up in the neck as far as you can and get that out.

I had to let last years buck set overnight. The temps were 45-50 degrees, the shot was an angled one, catching back in the ribs up into the opposite shoulder. I lost the shoulder that the broadhead was buried in, but the rest of the meat looked, smelled and ate fine. That shoulder I tossed was just nasty looking and I wasn' t taking any chances, didn' t smell, but was discolored.