# leaving a deer overnight



## 89montero

I have never left a deer overnight in my 35 some years of deer hunting. I have killed close to 200 deer never had more then a few even run far.

I have however tracked a few a couple hundred yards after dark. I notice a lot of hunting shows where they leave a deer till the next day. Is this more so they can find and film a deer in good light??

And how cold does it have to be for deer to OK to eat if left overnight? I know that decomposition starts soon after death. And if the deer is not gutted soon the meat can sour. 
I know one thing there isn't much any more gross then gutting a cold stiff deer. I helped a buddy do one years ago in Upson County.

So how cool is OK ? And how warm is too warm??  So how many of you have left deer over night? Have you ever found one too late and yotes or buzzards found it first?


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## kbotta

I've heard anything less than 45 degrees is ok to let the deer sit overnight.
Last year, I lost my 1st one overnight.  I was suspect to the hit so decided to leave it as the blood ran out after 60 yrds. thought I'd go and get it (Illinois) after 10am. Got a pelt, and 2 hooves. Fed the yotes. ggrrrr!!
On other hand, I've also had them lay down and die 20 yrds from where the blood runs out, and scooped them up in the morning.
(yeah, cold stiff deer suck...)
Kev


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## merc123

My buddy and I left a doe for about 1.5 hours in 74* heat.  She was stiff when we found her and it took about 20 minutes to drag her to the truck.  She smelled terrible but the meat was still good.


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## Larry Rooks

So far, I have not had to do that, but a buddy called me last season, his daughter had shot her FIRST deer that afternoon.  He had trailed it a while and had a hard time. 
He called me AFTER dark to help.  Off I went, never to turn
down trying to locate the girls first deer.  It was cold too, probably low 40's at time of shot.  I got the call two hours afterwards.  Anyway, I trailed the deer to within 20 yards of a public road and lost all blood.  The flashlights were getting dim too as it was now close to midnight and temp was in the upper 30's.  We were back at 8:00 am this next morning and started where I left off the night before.  50 yards later I had her deer.  She hit a tad far back (260 Rem) but not that bad.  Temps this morning were lower 30's and a frost on the ground.  The deer smelled funky too, as the shot had hit at an angle and passed thru where we do not like to see em hit,  YUK.  Anyway, he carried the deer to a processor to let em check the meat.  Had it not been gut shot, the meat would have been OK but it
had been messed up by the green stuff leaking out all over the place.  If the shot is good and it's close to freezing and NOT gut shot, meat OK.  During bow season, HECK NO


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## Robbie101

Im in the food bizz, and it is regulated by the state to keep all foods to be kept in a fridge or walk in fridge to be within 41 to 33 degrees, so anything under 41 should be fine...... And id say 45 as long as it dont sit more then 4 or 5 hours or so


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## kevincox

On the property that I hunt the coyotes will find a dead within hours and leave you with bones the next morning!


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## potsticker

kevincox said:


> On the property that I hunt the coyotes will find a dead within hours and leave you with bones the next morning!


Most of those videos are captured in the midwest, am. temps can fall 30 degrees at night. I hunted in illinois and the guides never ever, would leave a deer carcass on the ground all night unless the temps fall below freezing.Same here in ga. if i shoot a deer by bow or gun at last light, we go and cook supper and then gather every light we have and go one person at the time on the trail. If we dont find the deer or good sign then we bring in the dog. If its still alive we find it.


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## Public Land Prowler

Well As a rule if it is about 50 or less I wouldn't be scared at all to eat the meat.When I find one that has been left over night the first thing I do is make sure ants or flies haven't gotten to it.Then I push on the stomach to see if it is swollen real bad.If it is,you may want to reconsider.I also look at the eyes to see what shape it is in.You can push on the eye and if it stays solid he should be good.If it dents I would think again.I also pull on the legs to see exactly how stiff he is.

I found my friend JD's spike a few years ago the morning after he shot it,and yote's had destroyed it,but generally I usually find the deer first.I have heard of people having buzzards on their deer as little as 1 1/2 hours after shooting it.


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## Son

Back some years ago, it didn't hurt the meat to leave a deer overnight, even in Sept.
But today, if you leave a deer in the woods around SW Ga. the coyotes will eat well. I've had em devour a deer in less than an hour after the shot. Got to camp for help in tracking in Miller Co or Early Co Ga. When you get to the end of the blood trail, chances are coyotes will already be on it.
I believe coyotes have keyed in on shots meaning something to eat. They downwind the area where the shot was. If they don't smell a hunter, but do smell game, the go for it. It's happened to me twice already.
Now, if a deer runs off, I track soon as possible, find the deer handle it, walk all around, leave a jacket or gloves hanging nearby. Then go for help if needed. Leave your scent on site and  your deer will probably be ok til you get back.


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER

Back home in NY, i left a doe one time in Bow season and the next monring the coyotes made it easy to find her. It was raining when i shot her and i thought i would have found her quick cause she was stumbling when i last saw her...well she dropped not to far from where i saw her last but she piled up in a tree top i suspect.  I must of walked right by her more than three or four times and never saw her...she was strewn for about 20 yards the next morning and the coyotes had her reduced to a hide, ribcage and head with part of the neck attached...

In Ga, i got selected in 2004 for a deer management hunt for Active duty only...I shot a bunch of hogs and a coupleof deer in the morning and had buzzards landing in the trees by 9am.  My guide, Mr Keel showed up at about 10:30 and the one doe i had shot run out of view and the buzzards had her eyes plucked out and had ripped into her mouth...luckily they had not gone straight for the belly like they usually do.


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## jimbo4116

89montero said:


> I have never left a deer overnight in my 35 some years of deer hunting. I have killed close to 200 deer never had more then a few even run far.
> 
> I have however tracked a few a couple hundred yards after dark. I notice a lot of hunting shows where they leave a deer till the next day. Is this more so they can find and film a deer in good light??
> 
> And how cold does it have to be for deer to OK to eat if left overnight? I know that decomposition starts soon after death. And if the deer is not gutted soon the meat can sour.
> I know one thing there isn't much any more gross then gutting a cold stiff deer. I helped a buddy do one years ago in Upson County.
> 
> So how cool is OK ? And how warm is too warm??  So how many of you have left deer over night? Have you ever found one too late and yotes or buzzards found it first?



I have been unable to find a deer and went back the next day.   If the night has been around 40 degrees I don't think you have any problems.  But it would be okay at even warmer tempertures, just nastier to clean. Venison does not contain much fat and that is what spoils. 

We have found deer after after midnight, hung them for the night and cleaned the next day, always of a cold night.
Never had a problem.   Have had the hind quarters gnawed at pretty good.  But the meat was fine.

Meat does not spoil as fast as you think it does.  If this was so we would not be eating venison and beef jerky.  50 years ago quail and doves were hung on the clothes line and left to tenderize for a day.


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## jimbo4116

balvarik said:


> WOW!
> When you speak of letting them "hang",is that after they were first eviscerated?
> 
> 90% of our rifle season has daytime highs of 35-40 and night lows of 15-25,with temps of -25 not unheard of in the past four years.
> 
> Last year was a warm one for us with daytime temps of 45-50 with temps not dropping below freezing on opener weekend.
> 
> Dad's friends grandson shot a 8-point bruiser with his 35 Remington at just over 210yards.
> The bullet went alittle far back and clipped the liver before heading south into the paunch,no exit.
> It was a grey mist at 20 minutes before dark that Saturday.
> Well being Catholic's,they left the deer to "bleed-out" and went back to camp,cleaned up and went to Mass.
> They came back 3-hours later and could not find the trail no matter what and so they gave up till morning.
> They called my farm at 0430(they knew when I milked my girls)to ask if I would mind coming by with buford and beaux.
> They explained what happened and wanted my dog's,me and if I would ask my father to come help.
> I called my dad who busted tail over to my place,he grabbed my older boy's Beagle "Bear",and proceded to chew on me for not checking on the camp last night!
> Bear hit the trail and trailed the buck through a cedar swamp to a small island,where the buck drained out.
> We dumped the guts on site(standard operating procedure up north)and pulled him to where we could get the Argo.
> We peeled the hide and the loins were turned and so were the hams.
> The boy was crushed at the loss of so much meat.
> 
> I've helped others when the temps dipped to -25 and after a night out the deer was solid!
> 
> Mike



When a deer has been dead for 7 hours when you find it a another 5 hanging don't make much different. But no it wasn't gutted and the meat was fine.  Do I make a habit of this, No. But sometimes when two 55 year old men trail a deer for over 5 hours, then tote it for a mile through the woods, you just ain't got it in you to skin a deer.  If it had not been a big 11 point we probably left at 6:30 and came back in the morning.


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## 11P&YBOWHUNTER

Bavarik, first time i gutted a deer in the woods in Ga, the two guys i was with about fell over laughing.  I never did understand why people think toting all the extra weight back home just to put it in a big metal pail type thing then into their truck to dispose of it elsewhere was fun.  

Then i realized that it probably made them feel better about the weight when they weigh their deer...with the guts still inside the deer.


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## jimbo4116

balvarik said:


> I understand.
> I was taught to gut on-site to let the meat cool and when you drag out a 271lb buck(we never have weighed any deer that was not gutted from windpipe to anus)it sure is easier without that extra weight!
> Plus side too is we don't worry about getting the inside full of dirt and leaves as snow makes them slide just fine!
> 
> Mike



To each his own, I have hunted deer since the season was reopened in South Georgia.  Taken quite a few, most times you can pick them up with a vehicle.  A few occasions we couldn't, but I have never field dressed a deer.  No particular reason why not other the just the way we do it.


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## ejs1980

I've never left one overnight but if I did it would be because of a bad hit and the antlers were worth more to me than the meat. In other words if it was a large buck i might risk some meat if it meant finding the deer easily the next day but usually go home eat get some help and go back. You guys with the yote problem could probally camp in the truck with the windows down and run straight to the first yote you hear yappin.


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## Ozzie

Everybody has their own funny hunting stories, but one of the funniest things I have ever seen involved a green horn hunter who shot his first deer on a hot day in October, and his first attempt at field dressing.  He could not find it after the shot, and came back to camp and asked for our help in finding it.  

We eventually got done eating our lunch and went to help him find it, and by the time we located it, it was 3:00 and that bloated swelled up doe had been sitting in the direct sunlight for about 8 hours by then.  Her belly was so big she looked like the Goodyear blimp with legs.  Well, we told the green horn he had to field dress it and that the first cut was the most important and that he had to get his face down really close to the deer to make sure he made the incision properly.  

He took the bait and got his face about a foot from the deers belly, when my buddy stuck his knife in and purposely pierced the membrane.   The greenhorn got a shot of green gut gas right in the face, and staggered back on his heels in his brand new camos and Rocky boots.  We just about died we were laughing so hard as we ran away trying to beat the smell from catching up with us.  So the moral of the story is, it does not take long for the internal decomposition and gasses to start to form if your deer expires where the sun can shine directly on it.


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## potsticker

ejs1980 said:


> I've never left one overnight but if I did it would be because of a bad hit and the antlers were worth more to me than the meat. In other words if it was a large buck i might risk some meat if it meant finding the deer easily the next day but usually go home eat get some help and go back. You guys with the yote problem could probally camp in the truck with the windows down and run straight to the first yote you hear yappin.


The last two deer i took with a bow, left little blood trails. I found one when some crows started squakwing. The other one was tracked by looking for ants. After about an hour the light blood will gather ants like crazy.


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## Dub

kevincox said:


> On the property that I hunt the coyotes will find a dead within hours and leave you with bones the next morning!



Sounds exactly how our old lease was getting.  Yotes were prevalant.


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## hunter_58

we field dress them immedently.
 several years ago a friend shot a doe late one evening.
He thought he missed, next morning he went back found the doe. the temps had dropped into the upper 20s, and frost was on the doe. 
He gutted her took her to the processor, the meat had spoiled overnight.
After that we always investigate a shot, also
we may  wait  a couple hours, but we find them that night.


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## Kawaliga

Unless I can drive right up to them, I gut them where they fall. I have killed bucks the next day near the previous kill site. Just my two cents worth.


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## Son

*leaving overnight*

I started out deer hunting in 48 or 49, can't really remember. But it was in SW Florida, big cypress country of the Everglades. It was common for us to gut the deer on spot to reduce weight. Were not roads and a kill was usually a good piece from camp. Dragging back to camp was always planned to keep it in water when you could, made the drag easier. In camp the deer would be butchered and cooked. A big deer would weigh about 80 to 90 pounds on the hoof. So we cooked the whole thing, and ate off it for days. Really not a lot of meat for a party of 5 to 7 guys. Our hunting trips were usually a week or two long and we stayed in the woods. Even with the South Florida temps, we've left deer overnight field dressed and not, and they were fine the next morning. Always pulled em into a shady area and field dressed em if found right away. Back in those days, if you had meat for the daily meal, you had to shoot something. We ate curlews, rabbits, squirrels, robins, fieldlarks etc..and we called it good.


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## urbaneruralite

I had to do it once b/c the buck was too big to get out of the hole it ran down in by myself. It only got down to about sixty degrees that night. I paid the processor to clean it and asked him not to age it at all. Judging from the look on his face when he started gutting it I got my moneys worth on the cleaning charge.

That old buck was just as tender and tasty as any of the yearlings I've had. As I understand it, aging meat is just controlled, slow decomposition. I think I got about a weeks worth of aging in one night due to the high temperature.


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