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Post by meateater on Aug 28, 2023 10:05:17 GMT -5
whats your time limit on finding a deer after you have shot it in 87 plus degree heat and still consider it being good to eat. at what point are you just searching for the rack.
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Post by tampaspicer on Aug 28, 2023 10:17:57 GMT -5
4 hours
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Post by One Man Gang on Aug 28, 2023 11:04:52 GMT -5
Case by case basis for me, Meat. That deer may have been alive all along and being bumped as you searched for it. Of course if I suspect it has been spoiling away in the heat for a few hours, I'm giving up on it.
If anything I kill doesn't pass the sniff and visual tests, I leave it. That goes for everything, even a neck shot doe that drops in its tracks. Emaciated... leave it. Smells like dog shit without it being gut shot... leave it. Smells like dog shit when I open it up... discard it.
Hell, I don't even cut off the rack most times from any deer I kill anymore. I do have a few 8 points scattered around the yard for the dogs to play with though. Racks are for googans to brag about... just not my thing. I'd rather open my freezer if I wanted to brag to someone.
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Post by Crkr 23 on Aug 28, 2023 11:07:16 GMT -5
We shot a nice buck one afternoon and did not recover it until around 1pm the next day and it was fine. We were a little apprehensive because of the hot weather, but took a small piece and put it in a hot skillet and it tasted fine. On another hunt in Illinois, we shot a buck and recovered it the next morning and everything on the inside of the hams was soured. This occured with the temperature in the high 40's. I guess you just need to use your nose and check case by case.
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Post by richm on Aug 28, 2023 11:46:27 GMT -5
Yup - case by case basis.
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Post by joekat46 on Aug 28, 2023 13:33:35 GMT -5
Always glad to see these opinions for hunting in this heat. More power to those that do it. In my up north days we often recovered deer the next morning after an evening bow hunt that were fine. Coyotes more of a problem than heat.
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Post by swampdog on Aug 28, 2023 16:53:49 GMT -5
My lifetime of hunting has dictated this. With a gun, if I know the shot placement was good, I’ll follow up 15 minutes going very slowly. If I have help, one of us tracks and one is ready for a quick shot if needed.
With a bow same thing I don’t mind slow hunting a hit critter to recover it.
If I make a poor shot (gut shot) I definitely give it a couple of hours if the weather is cool. Hot weather I try to recover as quickly as possible.
I try to take shots within my wheelhouse, and no long shots.
I’m a hunter and not a long range tactical sniper. If you like long range go for it, it’s just not where I am at this stage of the pursuit. In this heat if we wait too long, the meat will spoil for sure.
Have fun out there folks.
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Post by tngladesman on Aug 29, 2023 6:34:11 GMT -5
the old glades hunters would ride around for half a day with gutted dead deer stacked on the deck of their buggies.when i was working the check station out there i even saw a few brought in ungutted that were stiff as roadkill. guys would tell me thats the way they always did it and the meat was always fine. an ungutted deer laying on an aluminum deck with a 500 caddy engine under it grinding all day in 80 degree temps doesn't sound too appealing to me.there was a Palm Beach guy that hunted Dinner Island a lot, i believe him name was Bob. Loved to kill hogs. he would leave em ungutted all day long. said it pulled the stink out of em....
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Post by meateater on Aug 29, 2023 9:57:50 GMT -5
guess everyone is different, 35 years ago i would drive around the glades most of the day with the deer on back of the 3 wheeler making sure everyone seen it, today i go the total opposite and try to get it gutted asap, within minutes of finding the deer im gutting it , quartering it up and getting it in the cooler as fast as possible. nothing matters more to me these days then taking care of the meat. yea cold weather its another story but 5,6,7 or 8 hours in 90 degree heat cant be good for anything.
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Post by cyclist on Aug 29, 2023 10:56:20 GMT -5
guess everyone is different, 35 years ago i would drive around the glades most of the day with the deer on back of the 3 wheeler making sure everyone seen it, today i go the total opposite and try to get it gutted asap, within minutes of finding the deer im gutting it , quartering it up and getting it in the cooler as fast as possible. nothing matters more to me these days then taking care of the meat. yea cold weather its another story but 5,6,7 or 8 hours in 90 degree heat cant be good for anything. Love it meateater...never understood those who spend countless hours and $$$ to get a prime animal and then treat it like shit. And you know there is a taste difference. Check out this site. honest-food.net/ |
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Post by JS84 on Aug 29, 2023 15:38:10 GMT -5
Funny, I follow Hank but didn't know about his site. Thank you for sharing Peter
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Post by cyclist on Aug 29, 2023 16:21:26 GMT -5
Funny, I follow Hank but didn't know about his site. Thank you for sharing Peter He's good. I've done his picnic ham 2x and it turned out great. And a macceoto? But it was dry...my fault. |
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Post by bullfrog on Sept 1, 2023 16:04:32 GMT -5
I just check the animal. If it looks fine and smells fine, I recover the meat. No set time limit.
Worst case scenario, dogs gotta eat too. In fact I’d rather give a smelly old buck to the dogs or make heavily cured jerky out of him anyhow. Does and young bucks are where its at for eating.
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Post by 4ward on Sept 1, 2023 18:59:42 GMT -5
I just check the animal. If it looks fine and smells fine, I recover the meat. No set time limit. Worst case scenario, dogs gotta eat too. In fact I’d rather give a smelly old buck to the dogs or make heavily cured jerky out of him anyhow. Does and young bucks are where its at for eating. Another smell checker here. Younger days got spent driving a deer around to show it off, all day. I think it’s funny now. Sure didn’t kill any of us though. |
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Post by One Man Gang on Sept 1, 2023 19:37:14 GMT -5
Ah yes, the days of showing off...
Once upon a time when I was a younger lad, traveling the world and killing swordfish and tunas for the bourgeoisie among you to dine on, we took refuge from a blistering set of North Atlantic storms in a little French protectorate called Saint Pierre. As it so happened, this was during the month of September which coincided with their deer season. Now mind you, to my knowledge there was no hunting on Saint Pierre itself but there must have been some outstanding hunting on its neighboring island, Miquelon.
I can vividly remember staggering out one morning from the Hotel Robert after a night of twisting up the sheets with a hot Newfie gal who thought I would make good teddy bear, and seeing a landing craft of sorts arrive with about 200 hunters, their deer, and their tiny vehicles. Those Frenchmen were strutting around, proud as a peacock with their deer draped over their hoods for the better part of the day looking like what might resemble a little Hyundai today. Those chaps even dressed the part of a Michigan or Maine deer camp, wearing red plaids and funny hats.
That sight went on for about two days and I'm pretty sure I saw the same deer on some of those little cars during that period. That being said, the mornings up there at the time were about 40°F, so it wasn't like they were dealing with 95° like here in FL, but still... nobody here can beat a Frenchman showing off his deer, IMHO.
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