How long is too long before it goes bad.

[rayporter]

i am with snyd.

if you want to get it apart fast just start cutting legs off right away and lay them on the ground. they will start to cool right away. i cold add more but would be off topic.

out hunting i routinely run into other camps and without fail we offer help to each other. many times we have never met until then. folks that have camped there before are considered old friends and you feel obligated to help if needed. we dont offer help lightly as we know it will impact us greatly.

 

[Manosteel]

double post...

 

[Manosteel]

I call BS on this one.


I've done about 15+ moose using the gutless method. 4 of them by myself. I butcher and grind my own meat. If you figure an average of 400lbs of meat per animal that's about 6000lbs of moose meat I've dealt with in Sept temps ranging from 30-65. I've NEVER had bad meat or thrown away edible meat while processing. I NEVER have tainted/sour meat resulting from how I handle it.

x2 been hunting moose my whole life (and elk for half my life) and butcher and process my own, other than getting some fancy sasuage made every now and then, and my experience is the same as yours, very little if any meat wasted.

 

[huntin'monkey]

This is a great topic. Personally, I get pretty pissed at the guides on hunting shows that tell their clients to back out after a kill and come back the next day to look for their elk when there is plenty of daylight left. It seems like they could wait for a bit and then go blood trail the kill but they'd rather go back to camp or the lodge and sit on their fat asses. Seems like it anyway, to me. I've even seen a show where the hunter dropped an elk long range on a open slope. There was no question of where it was and it was light enough to film, but they left it even though they had several dudes in their hunting party. They came back the next day and were all pissy that wolves were on the carcass. Serves their lazy asses right, I say. The least they could have done was go quarter it and hump in as much as each dude could carry.

The guy who taught me how to hunt taught me to get to the animal and get its hide off as quick as possible (keeping in mind that if you are archery hunting or hit too far back with your rifle you may need to wait an hour+ before trailing your animal). Cooling the meat is ultra important to how it tastes; we all know that. Dude is in his mid 60s and has killed more game animals that most people will see in a lifetime, so I kind of trust his advice. He said that an elk he left in a snow field overnight with the hide on spoiled to the point where every bite was horrible. So, ever though it sounds like some of you have had better luck, don't think I would want to risk it. Horns are awesome, but I'm hunting to fill the freezer with the best meat on the planet.

Personally, as long as I didn't think my life was at risk, I'd stay out in the field until I found the animal, even if that meant a night in the woods. I carry everything I need just in case, including a fire kit and either a space blanket or an emergency bivvy. Haven't had to do that yet...

 

[Azgutpile]

Another thing to consider is that the their coats are much thinner in the summer time. There is a guide here in Arizona, that feels his chances of recovering and salvaging all of the meat is better during an earlier warmer hunt compared to a later cold hunt, just because of the thickness of the winter coats.

 

[coOverwatch]

Interesting comments. my take away is not to let something sit overnight.
Given the people that were having the discussion; I think they were just trying to justify not dropping over the ridge and crawling around in the Junipers.

Some food for thought with the gasses tainting the meat. I know it is more work to gut the animal but I think you get more meat that way. just might be that I have not perfected the method. this year was the first year I did the gutless method. think I left more meat then if I would have gutted it and then debone.

for Snyd and Manosteel, have you ever had to let a moose sit overnight before finding it and then use the gutless method? any concerns with the bloating?

 

[Snyd]

Interesting comments. my take away is not to let something sit overnight.
Given the people that were having the discussion; I think they were just trying to justify not dropping over the ridge and crawling around in the Junipers.

Some food for thought with the gasses tainting the meat. I know it is more work to gut the animal but I think you get more meat that way. just might be that I have not perfected the method. this year was the first year I did the gutless method. think I left more meat then if I would have gutted it and then debone.

for Snyd and Manosteel, have you ever had to let a moose sit overnight before finding it and then use the gutless method? any concerns with the bloating?

I've never had to leave one overnight. Longest was about 4 hrs once that we had a hard time finding. But, realize that a gutpile from a moose is several hundred pounds of jello... By the time you gut it you can have half of it skinned and the quarters and backstraps off. Unless you've got machines or lots of muscle you can't move the gutpile or carcass away from each other. When you gut it it makes a huge slippery mess that's in your way. I'll never gut another one. I do sheep the same way.

As far as meat loss, it depends on how you do what you do. You can still leave the meat on the ribs and bring them out that way if you want. I don't see how you can lose meat if you do things proper.

 

[dirtytough]

I just killed a bull in Colorado. I shot it a little before dark in a drainage I had never been in. I skinned one side, and got all the meat off that side before dark. I also gutted it after I took all the meat off the one side. I was worried about the hike out in the dark cause I was going to hike out the bottom and didn't know how thick it was going to be. So I left it with half the meat still attached to the carcass.

When I got back the next morning the quarter I had left there was frozen but the meat that was still attached to the carcass with the hide on was cold but not froze. If it would of been warmer I would have deboned the whole thing that night.

 

[Scot E]

I call BS on this one.


I've done about 15+ moose using the gutless method. 4 of them by myself. I butcher and grind my own meat. If you figure an average of 400lbs of meat per animal that's about 6000lbs of moose meat I've dealt with in Sept temps ranging from 30-65. I've NEVER had bad meat or thrown away edible meat while processing. I NEVER have tainted/sour meat resulting from how I handle it.

I probably should have clarified "bad meat" in regards to gutless. I love wild game meat so I am picky on how I handle it. More precise would have been to say that the meat can much more easily get a smell to it and it doesn't taste as good. Again, just my experience but this is fact and based on over 30 elk and countless deer. It is edible just not as good. I have used gutless for years and process my meat as well. This is just my experience. There isn't a gamey taste to deer, elk, or moose when processed correctly. Most guys completely disagree with this and it is because of the way they handle the meat when quartering, etc.

I do stand by my comment about meat around the knuckle being thrown out by processors very often. I have a couple friends that are butchers and they wine about this every year. Heck, I just got some specialty meat back from my butcher and watched 8 guys bring in deer gutted only, no quarters and all the hide on. At least 2 guys I heard talking about how they shot the deer on the weekend. It was Wed. That meat isn't going to be good.

 

[Manosteel]

The elk I shot 4 years ago I was talking about, sat overnight and it was late September, temps were 30-35F that night, When I Found him the next morning at sunrise, it was about 10-11 hours later. I did deboned him like I always do using the gutless method, rib roll etc.. I always take as much meat as possible, neck, rib, sternum meat included. All meat was fine. I believe the taste of wildgame is a depended on how you process the animal. I take off all fat, legiments, silver skin, membrane that covers the muscles etc.. so that I end up with nice clean meat. Like most women, my wife is very picky about the meat she eats and I can honestly say that elk tasted just as good as any other I have harvest of that size, gender and age and field dressed right away.

I can tell you my perfered method is to get working on an animal ASAP. This year both my elk and moose were shot right at dusk and both were cut up in my pack or hanging from a tree that same night. Working on an animal at night sucks (especially with the wolves, bear and coyotes lurking around where I hunt) but its a lot easier nowadays with the great headlamps we can buy.

 

[coOverwatch]

I just killed a bull in Colorado. I shot it a little before dark in a drainage I had never been in. I skinned one side, and got all the meat off that side before dark. I also gutted it after I took all the meat off the one side. I was worried about the hike out in the dark cause I was going to hike out the bottom and didn't know how thick it was going to be. So I left it with half the meat still attached to the carcass.

When I got back the next morning the quarter I had left there was frozen but the meat that was still attached to the carcass with the hide on was cold but not froze. If it would of been warmer I would have deboned the whole thing that night.

Great job! my bull hunt this year was a bust. saw some nice ones but they were on public. Jumped a little spike in the junipers which scarred the hell out of me. I got to about 20 yards then he busted out of there. Never saw him till he took off.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

x2 been hunting moose my whole life (and elk for half my life) and butcher and process my own, other than getting some fancy sasuage made every now and then, and my experience is the same as yours, very little if any meat wasted.

Moose is a bucket list hunt for me...can we talk? I'll PM ya my email address.

 

[Manosteel]

Moose is a bucket list hunt for me...can we talk? I'll PM ya my email address.

pm returned, I would be happy to help if I can.

 

[huntaholic123]

I am all for tracking game the same night but always remember not to push to hard to fast. As much as I enjoy fresh meat, no meat has happened once due to an early track.
I would gladly help a fellow outdoorsman pack out some game. Generosity goes a long ways. Never know, your helping hand could land you some tips on where to find elk.

 

[coOverwatch]

Okay, now for the ethical question. You found your game after letting it sit and you start taking care of business and believe that the meat has spoiled.
Do you finish the job and pack it out or leave it and move on.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Okay, now for the ethical question. You found your game after letting it sit and you start taking care of business and believe that the meat has spoiled.
Do you finish the job and pack it out or leave it and move on.

Finish the job and pack it out, discard as much of the spoiled meat as possible in the field. If it's pretty evident that the entire animal is spoiled I'm a leave it lay for other critters but there's no moving on my tag is still punched. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to just keep hunting once you found a critter that you've shot dead in every state. Most states that I've hunted have laws requiring you to recover as much of the meat as possible but say nothing on a minimum that you should be able to get for your tag.

 

[JPD350]

Ethics and morals come into play when no one is looking, whether it is spoiled or half eaten by coyote's or wolves, either way you should tag it.

Here my notched tag one year, I "carefully" took the hind quarters by peeling the skin back to front and made sure not a speck of goo touched any meat I took, the downside quarter had a little bit of sour which I carefully cut out.
I left her still alive at 10 PM and found her the next morning 1/2 hour after sunrise.
Looks delicious doesn't it!!