Shaman,
Do the deer processors up there not gut them for you or is it an extra cost or something?
I ask because here they do. Guys just load up their deer as it fell and take it to the processor. The one my friends use is about 30 minutes away and they have no issues with spoilage or bad meat in our warm temps. As cool as it is where you are, I can't see you having any issues and the time you spend hanging and gutting could be used to transport the deer and get there before the processors fill up.
Not saying you are wrong or anything, just asking??
It used to be no one would take a deer that wasn't gutted. Now a few of them will do it and charge you, but it's expensive. The thing I would worry about is how long after drop-off does the deer get gutted? The processor can get backed up with the carcasses stacked like cordwood.
For us, I figure gutting adds maybe 30 minutes to the process. Also, we usually take our pictures at this point.
I will also say that getting closed out at the processor has become largely a thing of the past. The overall volume has gone down as well as more processors have opened up. Our chief worry is in the evening. Sundown is at 1730 or thereabouts. The processor closes at 2000. I've had one instance in 10 years where I had a big buck down and I was hunting alone, I gutted it in place and then wrestled it into the back of the truck. I got to the processor just after he locked up. It was a warm evening. I had to go home, winch the deer into the freezer and then winch it back out in the AM. That was before I started improving the process.
Last year, we shot two within 15 minutes of each other right at sundown. I was already tagged out and sitting back at camp. I had the deer wagon rolling towards the first when the second went down. Spit-spot, two pickups, two hunters, two deer, and we were back home sipping scotch a half hour before the processor closed.
