I did a dumb thing tonight!

[deerminator]

I shot a buck without thinking about the heat. I arrowed him around 7:15 and we found him an hour later. I knew it was a good shot because of the lumenok (started using them this year after getting fed up without being sure of hits in low light conditions). It turned out to be a heart shot. In any case, I got him gutted out fairly quickly and put him on his back in the garage, tying each leg to the side so the body cavity was wide open. Then I put a 20 lb bag of ice over each ham and one in the body cavity. I put each ice bag in two heavy duty garbage bags to avoid water pooling (a hearty thanks to the wife for heading to town while I was field dressing and cleaning out the insides).

I am taking him to the locker first thing in the morning when they open. One of my buddies says the meat is going to spoil with it being in the 50s tonight. The other says there should be no worries so long as I go right away in the morning. I guess I'd be more worried if he'd lay overnight. Thoughts? I'm just more interested in your opinion more than anything. I shot a buck on Columbus Day morning in the high 70s several years ago and couldn't get to the butcher til the evening. And there were no issues there.

[92python]

Should be OK. On warm days I like to get the hide off and quarter them up and cool the quarters and the straps in a cooler with plastic containers willed with water. Heavier milk jugs or orange juice containers filled with water work well and generally don't leak as they thaw. So I guess what I am saying is you should be ok but if you quarter the deer and cool the parts I know you will be OK. It isn't that hard to quarter them up. After they are quartered you might end up just finishing the butchering yourself.

[Archerysniper]

I also shot one tonight and have it all quartered and in the fridge for processing tomorrow. You will be fine with it packed in ice till morning.

[Cheetah]

The meat will be fine.

[CrewJones]

the dumbest thing you did last night was not take pictures and post them !@

[archerystud]

the dumbest thing you did last night was not take pictures and post them !@

Agreed!!!

Meat will be fine. My understanding is that the melting ice will create moisture and give bacteria a little better opportunity to grow. However, I've shot about 10 early season deer and I get them on ice like you did. Typically I pack ice in the cavity and put a bag on each ham and cover the whole thing in an old quilt. I've never had an issue yet. I just get the to the butcher first thing in the morning.

Quartering and getting them in the fridge would be better but my wife would frown on that a bit.

[Bear55]

You are fine but WE NEED PICS!

[deerminator]

Thanks guys. I brought it to the locker this morning and they said np about the meat. The ice was still cold this morning and just condensation more than anything from the ice/garbage bags that I easily wiped out of the inside of the buck.

Not the biggest rack on this guy (my Fred Eichler buck! - That guy rules.) and to tell you the truth, I couldn't really judge it through the buckthorn, but I could tell he was a buck and the body was nice. And I am happy with him and so are the kids who were my very excited hunting partners this year - unfortunately not on this hunt.

I was literally sitting on a bucket in a deadfall just inside some woods waiting for the deer to enter the field. His body came into view through the buckthorn, and then into my narrow shooting lane, and I "baaaad" at him and I threaded it through there. I have to check the vitals in the gutpile today but I believe it at least nicked the heart. He went at a dead run out across the corner of a cornfield that had just been cut that afternoon and fell down a few times before stumbling into the woods on the other side just a few feet before collapsing. I could have probably went to get him immediately if I would have been able to see him.

The deer have been nocturnal lately but I thought the change in landscape might bring them out just a tad earlier. Dang it couldn't have been two nights ago as I had the kids with me that night. That night, my daughter (5) yelled, "there's a deer" right when a big doe came by. lol. Like I said, I am happy with him. He got the kids excited this morning, we'll get a good amount of meat and I'm busier than rooster in an hen house in October with work and wathching the kids.

[96trigger]

Congrats, great looking deer, great story.

[Bambito]

Great deer. To me any deer is a trophy! My wife and I are huge into blackpowder and thats all we do. So to get a deer that time of year is a trophy to us! AND WE LOVE THE STEAKS! Congrats on a hunt well done!

[DonBo]

No shame in that deer at all, and from the ground? Not an easy thing to do. Looks like a great shot too WTG!

[deerminator]

Thx. I actually have not taken a deer from a treestand yet in the past 10 years, though I have sat in them and passed on deer from them many times. All have been from a blind, or sitting in a deadfall or stalking. I really like the just sitting on a bucket approach which can work suprisingly well if you have the right cover and have patterned the travel routes and which way they will be coming from 90 percent of the time. And you have the patience to stay still and listen for any sound that might mean it's go time. I sat in that same spot a few times this year, a couple of times with the kids and deer have been none the wiser.

[sportfish]

The best think you could do is learn to cut up your own deer that way you don't have to worry about the meat going bad. At least learn to skin and quarter, or even better debone . we have shot deer in 80+ degree weather never lost one yet !

[CrewJones]

GREAT job keep up the good work over there

[Rippinlip]

Congrats on a nice deer and from the ground.

Maybe because I am vertically challenged, thats why I like to be up in the trees...

[NWBuck]

Congrats on a great looking deer!!

A number of years ago I spent $125 on a used fridge for my garage, and another $40 or so on a heavy duty gambrel and pulley system. The kids and I routinely fill doe tags in the youth or early season and it only takes about an hour or so once home to hang, skin, quarter and get them in the fridge overnight. Takes away all the worry about an early season deer going bad. Congrats again...

[Boar]

Nice Job!

[DonBo]

I agree with NWBuck. Have an older fridge in my garage as well. Quarter 'em up and lay 'em in there, then take your time butchering.

[Scoot]

Great job on the early season deer!

My $.02 on this-- learn to do the gutless method and all of your problems are solved! It can be done nearly as fast as gutting a deer, takes only a little bit of prep work, and the end result is work that you'll have to do later anyway (at least if you take care of your own meat at all). I gave some basic info about it in one of the posts in the 2012 MT elk/muley hunt thread, but if you search the internet you'll find some excellent videos of it. Corey Jacobson has a very good video telling you all you'll need to know about it. He does it on elk, but the exact same rules apply for dealing with a whitetail.

It's very easy and can be done pretty quickly- then it'll fit in a cooler with ice or a fridge and won't be a concern.