In reading here on the fire I hear a lot about game meat quality in regards to rigor mortis, mostly in the arguments that erupt over the gutless method. My question is how long after the animal dies does it take before they come out of rigor? If you absolutely have to get to it and bone one out immediately after it hits the ground, IE storm coming, last evening of your trip, is there anything you can do to assure better results?
I ask as a proponent of the gutless method on anything too big to drag and deer too if they’re too far to drag. This year I shot a raghorn bull elk across a canyon in CO. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to work our way around the face to him. But when we got there we did the gutless on him. Hung him in camp the rest of the week in the shade and then in the cooler at home for a few days while I cut a quarter per evening after work. He’s been outstanding eating, very tender and mild. Would he have been in and back out of rigor in the hour it took us to get to him?
My wife killed a 3 year old 10 point whitetail buck this past Monday. I gutted him and we hauled him to my folks’ place. We dallied around having supper for an hour or so before hanging him in the barn. Weather forecast called for 60s the next day so I went ahead and skinned and quartered him and hung everything in the cooler until Friday. I just had some inch thick steaks medium rare off a back strap for lunch and it was quite possibly the best venison I’ve ever eaten, mild and almost fork tender. Was waiting an hour or a little more to quarter him long enough for him to come out of rigor or am I just lucky?
I shot a decent 9 pointer on Friday morning. Gutted and loaded him up and then came on back to town. Temps were in the 40s so I went and drank a couple cups of coffee with my uncles and dad, probably 3 hours before I had him hung in the barn. I skinned and quartered him and stacked everything in the cooler, I guess I’ll find out in a couple days if the third time is the charm.
