Question. How long after a deer expires does the venison go bad?

When it was 100 some nights hunting this season I was wondering this myself, I bought a bunch of ice and I have a large chest freezer, my only idea was to gut and pack ice in it and put the entire deer in freezer till I could get it to the processor the next morning.
 
One good advantage to owning flower shops...shh don't tell anyone I'm a florist lol. We have walk in coolers at both of our shops and believe me they will see deer carcasses if it is warm when we put something on the ground.
 
That article is a good one, but has me a little paranoid. We used to get the hose out and spray the inside out of each deer THOROUGHLY every time, even on well hit deer. I guess it doesn't make sense: as long as their are no gut particles, you're just washing out blood which is not a big deal.

The take away from this article is that there is not a set cutoff where the deer is now officially "spoiled", but rather it's a continuum. Aging meat is just a controlled degradation and the cooler the temperature, the less rapid and more easily controlled that process can be.
 
I tested this...

I shot one of my target bucks with my bow at a bit past 7:00 last night and I backed out and recovered him this morning. He died when it was mid 60's and it got into the 50's over night. I found him exactly 12 hours later and gutted him immediately. I did exit through the guts with my arrow. I was concerned about the meat and I took it to the processors that I got to a little after 11:00 am. I skinned the deer while I was there and had them check it and they said it was fine...

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I never have to deal with those temps. But on the gutting discussion, I as long as I have hands on my deer in the next hour or two, I leave the guts in till it's skun out. Hoist it up on the winch, skin it and then put the loader bucket underneath and open it up. I think it makes way cleaner of a job. Not near the hair on the meat. I also like to let them hang for at least 2-3 days before boning too.
 
OkieKubota said:
I tested this...

I shot one of my target bucks with my bow at a bit past 7:00 last night and I backed out and recovered him this morning. He died when it was mid 60's and it got into the 50's over night. I found him exactly 12 hours later and gutted him immediately. I did exit through the guts with my arrow. I was concerned about the meat and I took it to the processors that I got to a little after 11:00 am. I skinned the deer while I was there and had them check it and they said it was fine...

9e418b0698ded27e1d2aa5999b3fe9c1.jpg


19a660d31f637b538670f1794e258c1f.jpg


039ba49dc27353ae2f69452fa8c14a9b.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

With an exit shot through the guts, he might not have died right away, so that may have saved/helped you.
 
g squared 23 said:
With an exit shot through the guts, he might not have died right away, so that may have saved/helped you.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure he died right away. :look at that pile of blood in the found picture. I was 15 yards from him that night when I was looking and I wasn't being quiet and he only made it 40 yards from the tree so if he was alive he would have been crashing out of there. He was dead within seconds of the hit...
 
In 90degree Temps, 2-3 hours would be pushing it for me, before gutting. When it's colder, like in november(30-50degrees) I would be OK on pushing the limit to 4-6, maybe even later if it close to freezing that night. However, I always work to recover the deer shortly after a shot, and gut with 5-10min once found. It goes in a cooler with ice for the next day or so, and then I process in my garage, and vacuum seal.
 
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