Shot a roe doe yesterday morning. Bullet entered a bit high and a bit further back then I’d have liked but I fully believed it was an engine room shot. Within the rib cage area. Bullet did not exit and my belief is that it must have hit bone and fragments went through the intervals including the stomach. I was surprised as it was 6.5 creedmoor eldx and typically the exit is pretty devastating.
The deer ran about 40m and the reaction was not great but it fell and died. If it had been purely gut shot I would think a follow up shot would have been necessary.
it smelt strong from outside the deer with only one small entry wound. Opening it up was messy (stomach contents all over) and I took the decision to condemn the deer for fear of contamination.
would you have done the same or does anyone take an measures to salvage any of the meat? It does feel such a waste to leave it all behind but ill admit I was out of my comfort zone to do anything other than dispose of it.
thoughts?
Not all 'contamination' is the same! The contamination you talk of, is it the grass/verbage it has just eaten some minutes or seconds ago, or is it smashed up faeces? By your description I am guessing the former, ie a rumen and blood soup, possibly with liver mash, judging by the blood colour in the pic.
Cast your mind back to when you shot it with your 6.5 CM ('high' velocity) round -I'm unaware of ELDX's USP or its great 'advantage' but judging by what you say about its 'typically devastating' exit characteristics I'm sure you/someone can advise me! There's slugs for killing purposes, and there's also others for designed for eating the slain quarry.
Did you get the beast immediately more or less, and/or had it expired via a bang to the liver? If the beast died more than fifteen seconds or so after the shot, the contamination aspect becomes more apparent. You say about 40m, dying a bit like 'Gladiator' I imagine, him having been stabbed in the liver. Was the liver intact, shredded or halved?
For sure not fit for entering in the 'for sale' fridge, but as for the rest? Depending on where the bullet entered, you say it did not exit (it must therefore still be 'in there', or in the rumen, it cannot disappear totally) then there is only one point (the bullet entry point) within the carcass where the green can seep back in between inner ribcage and outer; you say highish and back in the ribcage - only bone there is the rib bones themselves, so possibly having broken one on its way in, but not presumably damaging the spine, given it ran 40m - the loins should have been more or less fine and untainted (unless ribs were broken where loins meet ribcage, see tip/explanation below), as well as everything else which hasn't been more than plastered in the red-green soup. Almost the whole of the carcass, haunches, gullet, tenderloins, even the ribcage meat has a very fine parchment covering, which keeps the worst excesses of the 'soup' off the meat. I'm not sure that dragging carcasses post gralloching is a great idea, especially for eating - I took one in the other day which the stalker had cleverly dragged along a dirt track, by the haunches - I took more than a tablespoonful of gravel rash stones from under the dragpoint ( not the bullet hole), as I 'gently reminded' (Gaelic translation available, lol) the 'provider' that, as venison dealer/butcher, my intended final use for the animal was (insert more Gaelic as required here,)
human consumption - his response was that he'd still not got himself a roesack - yet/still!
Ask yourself: did you drag it head first, front legs first or back legs first ( the latter at least allows gravity to help keep the snot off the haunches, but is a distant runner behind getting it lifted straight into the tray in the truck or into a roe sack once completely emptied of all organs from anus to tongue tip.
Clean and gently spray wash out the soup, sorry but in this scenario the preferable gentle wipe-down with clean kitchen paper or equivalent results in rather more of a 'wipe-in', and not improving an already 'problematic' situation; cut away asap any obviously green-damaged actual meat, but see how it looks and SMELLS after you've done this and it has set and is cold.
A tip - cast your mind back to the shot - was its head up, or was it head down and feeding???
The latter scenario induces far more of the type of damage as you describe,
and is unnecessary, given they aren't running away when they are busy feeding; if relatively close by, just bide your time, and wait until it does put its head up; if further away, you can tap yer stick to get it to lift its head once square on, waiting until the head and neck are up helps put the rumen back into the belly cavity, as opposed to it pushing against the diaphragm, which leads to the spilling of the soup as you describe. If however it was standing with head up, then I think your bullet was going a bit too fast for the best ensuing culinary experience... I've no real info about 6,5CM, but generally speaking, the faster the bullet the less inclined I am personally and professionally to be interested in the carcass for eating, but that's just my personal take on matters, and no offence meant, if culling deer is your no.1 priority then all is fine, my own particular priority is producing presentable carcases and top quality venison, and as such the speed of the bullet is important, inasmuch as it should not be too high. You can always load a tad less hot, or shorten the barrel if it concerns you!
Finally, don't beat yourself up too much, but do try to learn from this unfortunate event, and consider the various action:reaction aspects. Your next one will surely be better.
