Not gutting them right away seems like a Southern thing which given the warmer temperatures down there, seems just the opposite of what most think is the best meat handling practice. Innards weigh 21-23% of the deer’s live weight and I don’t want to drag out any more weight than I need to.
I wish that I’d kept a piece that a friend of mine sent me on amateur wild game processing. According to the piece, these guys took a beef cow out in the woods, shot it back in the swamp, dragged it through the dirt, hung it it the sun, cut it into hunks on the garage floor with some well meaning friends, let the dog lick it and freezer burned it. The conclusion was that yes, venison tastes just like beef.
