Advice-would you eat him?

[flying wasp]

Here is the deal. I shot a deer yesterday morning @ 8:15am. I am sorry and embarassed to say it was "a bad shot". I stayed in my stand till 1:30pm and went quietly looking for him. Never found him yesterday,but did find him today around noon. Opened him up and he was cool inside which tells me he had expired some time ago. He very well could have been dead for up to 20-28 hrs. He really does not smell any worse than any other deer I have field dressed. Persistance paid off,he was not even where I would have expected him to be. Any thoughts on this?

[Munsterlndr]

As long as your overnight temps were below 50, he should be fine. I'd get him skinned and processed as soon as possible, though. When meat goes bad, you'll know it, your nose will tell you pretty quickly.

[stinky reinke]

eat him

[atp500]

If he is bad, the meat will have an almost sweet smell at first. If he was gut shot, be very carefull of using meat that was exposed to the contents.
Ken

[Falk]

Should be okay to eat as long as it wasn't a gut shot.

[reflexshooter]

Hang him up and skin him. Let your nose tell you if it is still good. If you don't trust your nose take it to a professional processor and let them tell you their opinion.

[pzman435]

fire up the bbq eat em it was pretty cold out last night get hung and skinned.

[caj33]

It was def cold enough last night, so he should be fine

[KalamazooKid]

I would think he'll be fine!

[flying wasp]

I just hung him up in the barn to finish cleaning. I cu the tenderloins out and they smell kinda funky? It was a terrible gut shot with lotsa stomach content in him when I sliced him open. I would think anything not exposed to the goo would probably be ok? Not sure about these tenders though?

[SNAREMAN]

Loins are probley fine,but you make the call.The rest of the meat will be fine.Good job on not giving-up the search

[buck37]

The backstraps should be ok. The tenderloins (the inside tenders)may not be good. They are exposed to the guts so I would be carefull with those.

[bersh]

Originally Posted by flying wasp

I just hung him up in the barn to finish cleaning. I cu the tenderloins out and they smell kinda funky? It was a terrible gut shot with lotsa stomach content in him when I sliced him open. I would think anything not exposed to the goo would probably be ok? Not sure about these tenders though?

Tenderloins as in the loins inside the cavity? Considering it was gut shot, they are toast, unfortunately. I would think the rest should be fine.

[atp500]

Another test, cut off a piece of the backstraps [loin] and put it in a plastic bag and check in the morning. If the funky smell is still there--don't eat. If you make grinds when you process, I would not on this one. The funky smell is telling you something. I have had that funky smell twice on other peoples deer [I process for my friends] one the owner said it tasted fine the other said they threw it out.
Ken

[Munsterlndr]

The backstraps will be fine, they are not exposed to the stomach contents from a gut shot. Tenderloins and the inside of the hams may be toast. Still should be a lot of good meat on this deer, though.