Some Things Learned From Studies in Salvaging Meat From Large Game (somewhat graphic)

[Mistwalker]

I haven't gone hunting personally in over 10 years. I have friends who do a good bit of it who share, so there hasn't been a need for me to because I'm just not into killing anything for now reason. But two days ago while holding a firecraft workshop with some of our local Wildlife Management Officers I was asked by one who had been out overseeing a managed hunt if I was interested in trying to salvage what meat I could from an 8 pointer he had found left laying beside the road.

I say salvage because it had been gut shot, and was most likely left laying because the best cuts of meat had been ruined and they didn't want to waste a punch on their big game stamp for what was left. And because I had about 45 minutes of daylight to do it in, with no headlamp to work by or cooler to store it in other than my lunch box, and the temp was in the upper 60s.

I decided to go for it, and then just drop the meat off with some friends who live at the bottom of the mountain, who are struggling even worse than I am financially at the moment. I could smell what was going on in the cavity from the entry and exit wounds, so I wanted to work fast and tried to not go into the cavity. I thought it would also be a good way to get a feel for how the Chris Reeve Green Beret 5.5 would perform with bloody and slick hands, I picked it up a few months back and hadn't done a lot with it yet.

It isn't a hunting or game processing knife, so i didn't try to use it as such. I just quickly removed the shoulders and the one ham that wasn't tainted. But there was a good bit of meat in those to be salvaged.

One good thing about the running out of light was that flies, bees, wasps, and hornets don't fly after dark. I did wish i could have been better prepared for this and could have had more time to get check the backstrap. I know the tinderloin was ruined from the smell.

I am glad I was given the opportunity to keep the animal from having died in vain , and glad i could help some friends in a rough patch. And also glad I was able to see how the knife handled versus hide and flesh and with slick hands. It cut extremely well, shows no noticeable damage from hitting bones a few times with the edge during the separation of the shoulders, ham, and head (the lower legs were removed with a machete), and even with very slick hands I never had any concerns about the security of the purchase on the handle. I'm very pleased with the purchase, I'm glad i was able to get it when i did.

 

[heresthedeal]

First, glad you got the meat, glad you have it someone who needed it.

Second sentence, is my issue.

I understand if you don't want to kill something, but eating what you kill or giving it to someone else to eat it doesn't seem like no reason.
Seems like 2 perfectly good reasons to kill something or hunt.

Gut shot deer will travel a long way, possible the hunter who shot it just lost the trail, it happens, I've helped more than a few people track a bad hit. The worst was over a mile and a half, in the woods, lost blood five or six times, got lucky and finally found it bout an hour after dark.
Animal goes down hill, bleeds into the upper chest cavity, and not out, you lose blood trail.
Not sure where you are but in a not flat world it happens, more than you think.
I will agree, it's possible that it was just some asshole that shot it in the stomach, saw where it was hit left it lay. Because as you say didn't want to take a punch on their big game card, or they were a completely ethical hunter who made a bad hit or got a bad hit, and just lost blood trail, you said it was that afternoon that evening, they might have shot that thing in the morning and tracked it all day.

Anybody thats hunted more than once or twice knows this can happen. Spent most of my life hunting I think ethically, may just be me but I usually try to er on the side of hunters aren't assholes who just shoot stuff and leave it lay. I am not saying you are, just saying that the second sentence kind of put it out there as you just don't feel like killing things and people that do are doing it for no reason despite the fact that they're eating it or giving it to somebody else to eat.
Maybe you just misspoke or miss typed, I could be completely off base, but more than a few hunters on here, guessing all of them has lost an animal at least once.
It is hunting season after all.

 

[Mistwalker]

First, glad you got the meat, glad you have it someone who needed it.

Second sentence, is my issue.

I understand if you don't want to kill something, but eating what you kill or giving it to someone else to eat it doesn't seem like no reason.
Seems like 2 perfectly good reasons to kill something or hunt.

Gut shot deer will travel a long way, possible the hunter who shot it just lost the trail, it happens, I've helped more than a few people track a bad hit. The worst was over a mile and a half, in the woods, lost blood five or six times, got lucky and finally found it bout an hour after dark.
Animal goes down hill, bleeds into the upper chest cavity, and not out, you lose blood trail.
Not sure where you are but in a not flat world it happens, more than you think.
I will agree, it's possible that it was just some asshole that shot it in the stomach, saw where it was hit left it lay. Because as you say didn't want to take a punch on their big game card, or they were a completely ethical hunter who made a bad hit or got a bad hit, and just lost blood trail, you said it was that afternoon that evening, they might have shot that thing in the morning and tracked it all day.

Anybody thats hunted more than once or twice knows this can happen. Spent most of my life hunting I think ethically, may just be me but I usually try to er on the side of hunters aren't assholes who just shoot stuff and leave it lay. I am not saying you are, just saying that the second sentence kind of put it out there as you just don't feel like killing things and people that do are doing it for no reason despite the fact that they're eating it or giving it to somebody else to eat.
Maybe you just misspoke or miss typed, I could be completely off base, but more than a few hunters on here, guessing all of them has lost an animal at least once.
It is hunting season after all.

No offense sir, but I didn't misspeak or mistype. It's just a simple case of me not providing you with enough information to suit you, and your not being familiar enough with me (I haven't posted here as much lately as I once did) to know who I am or how I think.

I agree, I try to error on the side that most people aren't assholes. I was in no way trying to imply all that all hunters are assholes, just like I never try to imply all forum members are assholes, but we all know there are some around. This was just a thread on salvaging meat from a questionable source, that i took the time to put together to share some info in a survival forum. It was never meant to be a dissertation on the ethics, morals, and scruples of hunting or a lack there of. Just some useful information. You might have noticed it isn't in the hunting forum no?

I grew up hunting, and trapping and fishing commercially. I think it's clear I know a little something about it just from how clean the ham and shoulder were after being salvaged, with me having no water source to wash it with. I've seen a lot of blood in my life, not all of it was from animals, and some of it was from people I knew and loved. I don't enjoy hunting as much as I once did, and I never saw it as a sport. And while I will kill to feed my children or myself with no thoughts or hesitation, being a single dad trying to survive this geopolitical BS we're dealing with right now with no financial help from an ex, and trying to regroup on my income in a city with a mayor bent on disrupting and destroying the local economy as much as he can right now. And having a sizeable network of friends who own small farms, and several friends who do hunt and whom I trade out favors with for various foods, I would see me taking a day off from my work and struggles to go out and kill something solely for the purpose of giving the food to someone else who hasn't asked for my help as a very poor allocation of my time.

Even more poor than me wasting what little of it I am wasting now to tell the rest of this story which is utterly irrelevant to the subject at hand. But luckily I type for a living and this won't take too much time...

As I said at the end of the very first sentence, the deer was found "left laying beside the road". There were foot print prints and tire marks by the deer in question, and there were drag marks of the deer's body. So we are quite certain it was left laying where it was found by someone. And from the looks of the scene, most likely someone felt the best cuts were ruined, and who didn't want to risk a punch on their big game stamp over what was left. We just don't know if it was the person who shot it or someone who found it. So I was just leaving that part out rather than risking coming across like a judgmental asshole...

 

[heresthedeal]

After reading that, twice just to see if my reaction changed the second time, it didn't.
Thanks, I'll know next time to not even open it, and you are right, it is in wilderness and survival after all, not hunting.

 

[22-rimfire]

Meat looks just fine to me. I would have field dressed it to get a better idea of the status of the meat for human consumption.

 

[Mistwalker]

Meat looks just fine to me. I would have field dressed it to get a better idea of the status of the meat for human consumption.

The meat was fine I guess. It smelled and looked fine to me once I got it away from the rest of the carcass I kept smelling. The friends I gave it to are still fine, and I ate some of the barbecue they made of the shoulder Thursday with no issues.

Had I more time to work with, and been better prepared I would have done a few things differently. As it was I was just too pressed for time in multiple ways, and I was totally unprepared for the unexpected gift. Had I not talked to those friends the day before and knew how lean times were for them I would have likely told my other friend thanks but no thanks I just don't have time for this. But I knew even what little meat I could manage to salvage in the 45 minutes I had to spare would be helpful to them, so I went for it.

 

[Mistwalker]

I would have field dressed it to get a better idea of the status of the meat for human consumption.

I accidently opened the chest cavity cutting the hide lose from the second shoulder. There was no way I was cutting into the cavity on purpose lol. The smell from the small hole was plenty for me...

 

[Joezilla]

I quartered a smaller buck this year without gutting it to see how it would be. I didn't mind it too much. I still felt like I left a little meat in, and the sweet meat was a little tricky but it was a fun experience. I watched a youtube video about it so I could figure out how to get them out. It was tricky and fun for a knife related skillset. I'm glad I tried it once.