Thread: Overnight meat recovery - thoughts?

Have done it once with a fairly large animal. Shot just on dark and couldn't find it due to windfall trees. Found it at first light the next day. Animal was still pretty warm, particularly on the side resting on the ground. Boned it out and the hind quarters had bad bone taint.

The smell of the meat was unlike anything I had smelt before. It didn't smell rotten, but there was a distinctive odour to it. I was sniffing each portion of muscle as I removed it and you could easily tell which meat was tainted. After a while, sniffing the tainted meat made me feel sick and wanting to throw up.

Like all things meat, let you nose be your guide. If it doesn't smell good, it generally isn't.

As others have said above, I'm old school and meat should be respected and looked after, which means dressing the animal out at the time of the kill.