Salvaging a stomach shot deer?

[Erik Hamburger]

Uncanny, it's almost like you were there when I (gut) shot my fifth Muntjac.

I only then knew about engine room shots but hadn't realised how the chest-down-arse-up stance of a Muntjac might easily lead to a gut shot. And so it did.

I did try to salvage some of it but made a right old mess. I hosed it out (which turned the meat pale) then tried to dab it dry with blue roll which left me with a pale carcass dotted with bits of blue paper and a lingering whiff of green and blood. After an hour of faffing I dropped it into a bin bag, hauled it out onto the fields and hung it from a tree near a Red Kite nest.

It wasn't a complete loss. I learned about shot placement on Muntjac (I'm now more inclined to sacrifice the fore legs) and also how to go about salvaging such a beast although I've not had to do it yet. To be honest I would probably only bother with something larger, fallow round here, and would leave a Muntjac to the scavengers.

Agree. I would rather shoot a Muntjac quite far forwards, and know I will loose the shoulders/front legs/neck, than try to place a shot in the h/l area and on recovering the carcass find that the animal was in fact slightly quartered towards you and your exit wound is too far back, and you find yourself with a ruptured Rumen, or worse.

(The more you get towards the end of the digestive track, the higher the risk of E-Coli etc. - the Rumen is actually quit acid and doesn't have that many pathogens).

It is fair to say that most Muntjac I now skin and butcher is treated the same: I will skin the haunches and main body, but will not bother with skinning the shoulders, front legs and neck. So I cut off the fore-quarters -also skinning time is a factor- and put that out to the wolves. Once you have the two haunches and two Loins you have recovered 75% ish of the venison anyway.

I sometimes wonder if Game-dealers / Butchers would be able to add value to Muntjac if they just focussed on butchering the two haunches and two loins? I still sell those for around £50 for a typical Muntjac. If Muntjac becomes commercially interesting, more Stalkers would shoot them, and that will benefit conservation and woodland health.

 

[timbrayford]

Bin it!
Not worth the risk,you do not know if any green has attached itself to bone fragments or lead fragments..
Had one last week that was shot fair and square but the hydraulic effect ruptured the stomach and separated the rib cage bones form the spine and filled it full of green soup.

Remember E.Coli is a killer..

Its killed by cooking!

 

[South West Stalkers]

Its killed by cooking!

Toxins?

 

[nick.308]

toxins ? surely you only get these from days of bacterial growth. I just wash it and cook it well and it kills the bacteria.

I once went into a larder with around 100 deer. They had been hanging for days to weeks. What I found most fascinating was looking how clean they were inside. Those that has no gut spillage had no bacterial growth in the body cavity. Those that had gut spillage had loads of bacterial growth. It was so obvious they were like agar dishes. Now thats why I cook my meat. Simples

 

[South West Stalkers]

toxins ? surely you only get these from days of bacterial growth.

Well, I just wanted to point out if conditions were ok for toxins being produced during the carcass handling and processing, then just don't forget cooking doesn't really help.
Of course, certain amount of toxins/bacteria needs ingested to cause symptoms.

 

[bogtrotter]

Difficult to wash of stomach contents washing tends to spread bacteria over a larger area far better to cut out the contaminated area and bin it , if it's really bad then just remove parts where there is no contamination of the carcass that
is not contaminated and bin the rest.

 

[User00025]

Several times I have scraped blue mould off well hung haunches, cut off a steak and cooked it medium to rare. Ain't died yet.

 

[Scotty99]

You could have gralloched, skinned & quartered it on the spot and possibly saved the haunches and shoulders and maybe the back straps depending on the extent of the contamination. Hunters in the US who hunt the back country do this all the time as a matter of course (even for cleanly shot animals) and make several trips to park out the meat in their back packs. Lots of YouTube videos showing how to do this.

 

[bogtrotter]

Never been so hungry that I have needed to eat contaminated venison, I can always get another beast!

More importantly as stalking is was my job 99% of my beasts went to the Gamedealer ,what you choose to eat is entirely up to you , I would never risk sellng venison that was not 100% even though anything that has been contaminated by stomach contents will almost certainly be identified at the dealers and condemne ( although the food
Poisoning case a few years ago was linked to exactly that meat that had been contaminated by stomach contents or faeces from a Gamedealers premises entering the food chain), in which means you will get nothing for it in any case I personally would not take the even small risk of anything thats been contaminated
entering the food chain.
I will salvage cuts for my own use if I can do so from a lightly contaminated carcass but I can only eat so much venison
so the reality is that badly contaminated carcasses end up being dumped.
As I already said it's up to you what you choose to eat but make sure it's only you thats eating it ,would be extremely
wary of giving it to anyone , it's a bit late worrying about it when the sh@t hits the fan oops.maybe not the best choice of word, when someone comes down with a case of or worse still dies from e -coli.
Someone mentioned the US there have been several outbreaks of e-coli that have been traced back to bad handling
of meat by US hunters.
You will find details on google if you wish to investigate.

 

[Mungo]

Of course if you want to feel REALLY stupid, head shoot a deer, then rush the gralloch, slit the rumen, and dribble green into the body cavity.

I'm (ahem) told that this makes you feel a right t*t...

 

[Kjm041]

Of course if you want to feel REALLY stupid, head shoot a deer, then rush the gralloch, slit the rumen, and dribble green into the body cavity.

I'm (ahem) told that this makes you feel a right t*t...

thankfully i've managed to avoid my own fowl ups when it comes to gralloching. In this case i've been able to blame the bullet

 

[Firefly]

Easiest way to avoid this scenario is watch the breathing pattern. Only shoot on the inbreath of the deer. This pushes the rumen 3 inches further back .

 

[Kjm041]

Easiest way to avoid this scenario is watch the breathing pattern. Only shoot on the inbreath of the deer. This pushes the rumen 3 inches further back .

That sounds like it would be true but with all the other variables I’m not sure one could consistently account for that. However definitely another thing to consider. Head up, breath out and winking at you before pulling the trigger. Just joking on the last bit of course

 

[Chill 123]

Hi All
can I ask a question ? I have eaten plenty of my gut deer over the years ,choosing to not waste edible meat . Never once have I been made ill
after eating it . As said on previous post if you are careful you can save most of the meat ,

Chill

 

[Freeforester]

Fire away!

 

[Freeforester]

That sounds like it would be true but with all the other variables I’m not sure one could consistently account for that. However definitely another thing to consider. Head up, breath out and winking at you before pulling the trigger. Just joking on the last bit of course

We know you squeeze!

 

[Kjm041]

We know you squeeze!

I prefer to jerk at the trigger in an agitated fashion

 

[Mungo]

There is also the issue of prior exposure.

People who grow up eating less hygienic meat, or eat it often, are generally able to eat it without getting sick (hence the classic problems with people getting sick when travelling in less developed countries when all the residents are fine).

What you can eat without getting sick may put someone else kneeling on the bathroom floor for 24 hours!

 

[Edinburgh Rifles]

Just a question for everyone who suggests not to gralloch and just take haunches and backstrap home... without any intention to start a debate or offend anyone... do you guys not worry about any possible disease?
I think some of you might be able to recall a huge debate on a facebook group (giving up the game?) about roadkill and trained hunters tried to educate the not trained people about the importance of checking the internals and lymph nodes even if the animal is for home consumption (the person witnessed the accident so "freshly" killed deer).
Now most of the recommendations are suggesting not to open the carcass...

No one checked lymph nodes 30-40 years ago.
We knew what healthy animals looked and more importantly behaved like before the shot.
My Father was a vet and every gralloch was conducted like a post mortem lecture.
Not once do I recall him looking for lymph nodes


There wasn’t a raft of deaths amongst the stalking community as a result of this gung Ho approach
Meat was well hung and well cooked

The prevalence of e.coli sickness and death is almost exclusively linked to processed food where contaminated meat is minced into the core of a product and not cooked through

You could bathe a haunch in faeces and green
So long as you cook the meat through nothing survives
Mince it and have it medium rare and expect issues

 

[bogtrotter]

No one checked lymph nodes 30-40 years ago.
We knew what healthy animals looked and more importantly behaved like before the shot.
My Father was a vet and every gralloch was conducted like a post mortem lecture.
Not once do I recall him looking for lymph nodes


There wasn’t a raft of deaths amongst the stalking community as a result of this gung Ho approach
Meat was well hung and well cooked

The prevalence of e.coli sickness and death is almost exclusively linked to processed food where contaminated meat is minced into the core of a product and not cooked through

You could bathe a haunch in faeces and green
So long as you cook the meat through nothing survives
Mince it and have it medium rare and expect issues
[/gQUOTE]

I agree the biggest risk is from minced products burgers, meat balls and so on , but if you remember the case a few
years a go of e.coli traced to a gamedealers among the offending products were steaks.
I agree the risk might be small but why even take that small risk e.coli is not just an upset tummy it's a killer,
There is plenty good venison to be had you don't need to eat the crap.