Had something similar on the open hill, my guest had shot a poor hind and calf, had gralloched them and went out to check a likely bit then put my ghillie back to drag them down into the glen than go back for the landie snd shift further up the glen.For preference I don't leave it around for any longer than it takes to get the car, the sheer volume of scavengers around here would rival the Serengeti. You can easily lose a carcass to damage in half an hour, so another reason to keep the incision small.
Flop it over chest down and cover the arse with a hat or a plastic bag, you’ll still lose the eyes to hoodies or ravens but the carcass will be ok For a short while.
True story, I shot and gutted a deer up the hill a bit, dragged it about 300yds and realised I’d left the range finder behind with the guts so stashed it and went back.
When I popped out of the trees a ball of black erupted from the heather and flew off, at least 30 birds, there was nothing left on the site except for some slight blood stains, even the gut contents were gone, all this in less than 20 minutes.
When I got back to the carcass there was already a couple of scouts sitting in the trees, hungry gits.
He was less than an hour from when we had left the deer until he got back to them and there was an eagle on one beast and she had eaten the best part of one shoulder in that time!!



