Neck / head shot ... blood within carcass

[sauer]

Hi folks

Was asked to butcher up a cracking red hind that neck shot by a friend .
Carcass was in great looking condition and well handled

Once I started breaking down the carcass found a lot of “bloody fluid “ along all the muscles seams

Example when opening up haunch into its muscle groups it was quite apparent

It wiped of folk with hand roll tissue and meat was clean.

I’ve never done much in way of head or neck myself as I don’t think I shoot regular enough to do it.

I’ve never seen fluid in tissue like that in an engine room shot beast.


Is it just fluid / blood draining from the muscles themselves ?

Does a head / neck shot beast take longer to drain than an obvious heart / engine room shot ?

Curious

Paul

 

[hendrix's rifle]

In my experience (not massive but I've shot a good number) headshooting doesnt bleed them, I always fine a knife through the heart just after death gives a clean carcass. Have it so the head is facing down hill, put knife just above the chest plate and twist It a bit, pump the chest a few times and its usually pretty spotless by the time your done. Just my experience

 

[sauer]

Yes this was done I’m told ..... and shot on a highland estate and professional stalkers
...

Had one myself in the rut under the chin and yes I did as you describe and plenty run out

I do this with all my beasts head or chest .

I’m talking about a watery / watered down bloody fluid and in all the muscle seams

In the haunch it’s as far away as you can get from any trauma area ( neck )

And I don’t usually see this when breaking down a carcass unless it’s close to or fairly close to shot area


Paul

 

[lochty]

Did it drop to the shot, or fall down a banking or similar? Although the heart would have stopped, that would account for blood which would normally cause bruising, but hadn't. Happy to be corrected though. ATB Dave

 

[Freeforester]

Think you're referring to blood plasma? Pretty normal, often found where you say, Paul. After a while in a well vacuumised pouch this seeps out of the joint or steak but remains in the pack, looking a bit pinky red (despite the correct bleeding of the animal at death), which is an amalgamation of the plasma and remnant intramuscular fluids which are present throughout all the carcass.

Not to be confused with old injury/bruised white blood cells/bodily fluid that has done its bit in repairing an injury.

Save it for making the gravy, it's a good thing, not a bad thing!

Edit: You'll often seem to see this more around this time of year, I call it 'rude health' juice;

Blood plasma - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Happy Christmas

 

[shakey jake]

how long was it hung for? ive found fresh carcasses are alot wetter than week old, not sure what causes the liquid between muscle groups, only red ive shot was very wet game dealer said i didnt bleed it quickly enough

 

[sauer]

Steve that “ plasma” sounds / describes it fine!
Like a watered down blood and in the seams of muscles etc not in the muscles themselves when you cut into them.

Definitely not bruising or shot trauma associated I think ....

Only seen it couple times now in 20yrs or so and both times were head / neck shot

As for hanging times I don’t know in this case but was in a chiller .

Preferably I’d love to hang em for at least 10 days or so but as an amateur and work etc it’s not often possible


Cheers for all replies guys

Merry Xmas to abody

Paul

 

[kieran222]

Shoot mostly high neck and never had anything like you described.

 

[ejg]

Some German game dealers don't take head/neck shot animals for that reason. Head /neck for me is perfectly ok but only if I can get to the animal quick. Lost two animals so far due to blood not drained. One I took at longer range while having our coffee after the first stalk thinking I had a body shot. Shot went through the lower neck and avoided blood vessels. Animal was ruined until coffee was finished and we made it up the bank. Later my son and his friend dropped two deer. Until they had the first cleaned out and ready to move the second was ruined or at least only dog meat. They should have cleaned the neck shot hind first and might have had a chance.
edi

 

[Roestalker39]

Shoot majority of my beasts in head or neck and never had any bother just bleed we’ll and suspend for a few mins before I start the gralloch

 

[75]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what the fuss is about about draining blood from head shot beasts. I know that flies in the face of best practice and there'll be a load of people telling me, as edi has above, about animals they've had to bin etc but I started shooting deer with an old gamekeeper pal who'd shot a lot of deer (we worked out one night that it'd be well over 10,000). He head shot everything he could (including all the park deer) and I never once saw him bleed a beast prior to gralloching it - and they weren't always gralloched immediately if we had a couple of deer down etc. Never had a complaint from the dealers, friends, family, local restaurants, farm shops that he supplied.

I do bleed head shot stuff myself now, but I never used to and haven't really noticed any difference.

 

[sauer]

Read above

Beast was bleed on shot and gralloched

As usual

And STILL had “watery blood fluid” in muscle group seams


Nobody said beast hadn’t been bled



Paul

 

[Primate]

Read above

Beast was bleed on shot and gralloched

As usual

And STILL had “watery blood fluid” in muscle group seams


Nobody said beast hadn’t been bled



Paul

Did it taste a bit like Star anise, very watery and a bit venisony?
Could it have been a "Chinese Water Deer"

 

[75]

Read above

Beast was bleed on shot and gralloched

As usual

And STILL had “watery blood fluid” in muscle group seams


Nobody said beast hadn’t been bled



Paul

Not questioning the OP but the conversation had taken a turn towards bleeding head shot deer.

 

[Dunwaters]

I’d say the fluid is perfectly normal, this time of the year there won’t be much fat so the meat tends to stay a bit sloppy anyway.
cant say I agree that head shots don’t bleed out properly, the heart is still pumping after all and the brain has a really rich supply so it tends to end up on the ground.
Neck shots generally need a bit of help from the knife but you need to get there fast while there’s still a pulse.

 

[Dunwaters]

Some German game dealers don't take head/neck shot animals for that reason. Head /neck for me is perfectly ok but only if I can get to the animal quick. Lost two animals so far due to blood not drained. One I took at longer range while having our coffee after the first stalk thinking I had a body shot. Shot went through the lower neck and avoided blood vessels. Animal was ruined until coffee was finished and we made it up the bank. Later my son and his friend dropped two deer. Until they had the first cleaned out and ready to move the second was ruined or at least only dog meat. They should have cleaned the neck shot hind first and might have had a chance.
edi

How was it ruined?
Unless maybe the coffee took a really long time?

 

[ejg]

How was it ruined?
Unless maybe the coffee took a really long time?

Took us a bit to scramble up the bank to get to the deer, was a long shot.
Meat never lost any blood, was saturated and did not hang well. I did not want to eat any of it. Bleeding is important, think we all know that.
edi

 

[Dunwaters]

Ok, that makes sense,

 

[Dunwaters]

Just back from a trip to Finland, over there they don’t bleed or remove the innards until they get back to the larder, and that took a good few hours. They get €5 a kilo for the meat with lots of takers

 

[Dunwaters]

Sorry for the fractured response, I’m still travelling, I’m not a great stickler for bleeding if I can I will but I’m not going to stress about it A chest shot or head shot shouldn’t really need it, a neck shot probably will, I am a stickler for getting the guts out ASAP particularly if there’s any chance they’ve been punctured
The Fins were happy to leave the animals intact for several hours, I’ve seen the same thing in other countries and it causes them no problems, maybe it comes down to choice, I was told at a recent meat handling course that there was no problem leaving the carcass intact for several hours, this was from someone trying to push the suspended gralloch back at the larder as the only way to go.
It’s all very confusing...