Delayed gralloch
- Thread starter Ross1980
- Start date
Check and make sure the carcass is not fired. Sepsis.
Utectok
Well-Known Member
So I shot a stag this winter -7 overnight picked it up in the morning. Was fine but I hung it for a normal time (6days) and some meat was spoiled. I go with 40 degree days and if the carcass doesn’t cool quickly a good chunk of that is lost. Roe deer not so bad as body mass is less. In short it will be fine but butcher in a couple of days.
Very often a carcass recovered after a period like this will appear to be OK but.when hung you will notice in a day.or so it is fired..
Fired?
Pellet Pinger
Well-Known Member
If you have a ditch nearby, give it a swill 
Yes.
Deer carcass with one abscess in mesenteric,or signs of lung worm,or pleurisy .Bin it possibly suspect TB. Nobody wants to eat that. Carcass full of shi7e wash it off, wipe it off,then trim it off. Should be okay for the family to eat , but not through a game dealer( they don't pay enough).
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The reason why game dealers don't pay much is precisely because they are expected to take carcasses just as you describe.Deer carcass with one abscess in mesenteric,or signs of lung worm,or pleurisy .Bin it possibly suspect TB. Nobody wants to eat that. Carcass full of shi7e wash it off, wipe it off,then trim it off. Should be okay for the family to eat , but not through a game dealer( they don't pay enough).
baguio
Well-Known Member
Is that a serious reply (to the wrong thread) or is that really how you treat your carcasses/food?Deer carcass with one abscess in mesenteric,or signs of lung worm,or pleurisy .Bin it possibly suspect TB. Nobody wants to eat that. Carcass full of shi7e wash it off, wipe it off,then trim it off. Should be okay for the family to eat , but not through a game dealer( they don't pay enough).
Shot game can be referred to as "Fired" when the meat has turned due to residual heat retained as it lies for longer than recommended, piling shot game together into a too small vehicle can also do it.
I had a similar situation recently. 3 deer to extract (only muntjac, thankfully, but good ones). Neck shot, so carcases mostly sealed. Well over an hour up a steep grassy hill to relay all 3 to the collection point. It was gralloch now and carry up (roe sack), or drag up (harness but no sled) and gralloch later. Ambient temperature at time of shooting was about 9 degrees, dropping to around 6 degrees with the onset of night. I chose to gralloch first -faster cooling, lighter carcasses- but the triple carry-up was still brutal. And yes, I could have stopped at deer #1, but #2 and #3 were just up the ride and I "underestimated" (a.k.a. ignored) the consequences! Experience (especially the kind that makes you reflect on your choices) is a great teacher.
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
Thats hard to believe as no matter the temperature the warmth of the deer and stomach contents produce gas,20 mins is all it takes for a deer to float if shot in river or lake.
What are the signs of a fired carcass?
And what sort of time does it take?
I’ve several times taken a few hours to gralloch, for a variety of reasons. Never noticed much difference beyond the stomach being much expanded.
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Never seen it but believe it is the dark red meat with a slimy like layer on top. Read there would be no riga mortis either. Longest i have left until gralloched is 3-4 hours and it was 5°c. This was due to it being a runner and hard to find.
A timely thread as I'm writing a teaching session on food borne diseases and am mentioning the importance of rapid evisceration. However, finding hard evidence isn't easy. It is generally accepted and logical that delayed evisceration will lead to spoilage, but I have seen some work suggesting that even within 24 hours, no bacteria get into the carcass!
However, delayed gralloch will keep the carcass temperature higher than ideal and this is probably critical to spoilage. There's a condition called "Green Moose" seen in Norway where spoilage occurred within hours of shooting. It was investigated and thought to be clostridia - similar to the diseases of Blackleg and Black disease in cattle and sheep respectively
So, gut it, being really careful of penetration - look for any obvious discoloured areas on the inside of the abdominal cavity - they are high risk. Smell it, hang it. IF it doesn't set - bin. If it smells within 24 hr - bin. Check very carefully during boning out to the areas nearest the bone - any discolouration or small - bin.
However, delayed gralloch will keep the carcass temperature higher than ideal and this is probably critical to spoilage. There's a condition called "Green Moose" seen in Norway where spoilage occurred within hours of shooting. It was investigated and thought to be clostridia - similar to the diseases of Blackleg and Black disease in cattle and sheep respectively
So, gut it, being really careful of penetration - look for any obvious discoloured areas on the inside of the abdominal cavity - they are high risk. Smell it, hang it. IF it doesn't set - bin. If it smells within 24 hr - bin. Check very carefully during boning out to the areas nearest the bone - any discolouration or small - bin.
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