Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Leaving an elk overnight. Meat quality?

In warm weather with temps only getting down to the upper 50's as a low, will an elk shot in the evening be salvageable (edible) if not found until the next morning (12 hours later)?

I've never left an elk overnight in warm weather to know how this effects the meat. But had the experience of helping my BIL recover an elk over the weekend and was wondering if anyone can pass on their experience with warm weather and next day recoveries with elk and how it effects the meat.

IMHO, that's warmer than ideal but I think with good air circulation, *skinned quarters* would come out ok. I'd be hauling ass for refrigeration at daybreak though.

However, it sounds like (you said "not found") you're talking about an elk left un-gutted and with the hide on overnight. That would concern me considerably. The hide insulates the meat and keeps it from cooling. It might not be salvageable.

IMHO, if I'm not going to have time to find the animal, get it skinned, and hung up, then no matter what the clock and the law say about it, for me, shooting hours are over.

Tom

I've seen gutted elk, but left with the hide on overnight for a pack out job the next day start to spoil, especially in the neck area. 12 hours with guts in and on the ground is not going to ideal by any means.

Not gutting it really isn't a big problem. Look at how much meat is actually in contact with the gut..a surprisingly small amount. The hide is an entirely different matter. An unskinned elk at 30F is still going to be pretty warm the net morning. At 50F, it'll be pretty touchy.

The first elk I ever shot I lost due to exactly the scenario above. I shot her on opening evening (Aug 30), but didn't find her till about 10:00 the next day. I gutted and skinned her ASAP, got her on the horses and to a cooler within a couple hours.

She was completely spoiled and I had to give her to the local university zoo for the lions to eat. It had that greenish tint to the meat. The butcher said "no way".

It ruined me on hot weather hunting. I don't even mess with things till its cooler out.

I completely disagree.

Not opening up an animal, especially a large animal like an elk, traps all the body heat inside and will accelerate spoiling. When an animal dies, the bacteria, enzymes, and acids in the stomach continue working, and the animal will start bloating. If there are any bullet, arrow, or bone fragment cuts to the digestive tract, those bloated gasses and juices will leave the digestive tract and contaminate everything that they will touch.

True, there is not a lot of meat that is touching the guts, but the guts can weigh 100 plus pounds and are almost a 100 degree heat source inside the animal. There is nothing gained by leaving the guts inside an animal, and the quicker you can get the guts out, the better your meat will be.

About the only time that I skin an animal in the field is if I'm going to have him mounted, then I'll skin out his cape. If it's early season or it's warm outside, then I'll quarter the animal and hang the quarters in a tree to get them off the ground and to allow air circulation. Usually I'm hunting alone, but I'll still do this even if I have to work into the night with a flashlight.

Over the years, I have shot a couple just before sundown that we just could not get out that night. I field dressed them, rolled them over on their backs and propped the body cavity open with the legs tied off to keep the animal spread-eagled on its back. Night-time temperatures were probably in the 30s, although the ambient temps were in the 60s when I left them. The only meat that I lost was a little where the hip joints were open--Magpies helped themselves.

I've recovered two that were shot at dusk but not recovered until first thing the next morning. It was around 30 degrees or maybe a little less at night, and I recovered good meat from both. Maybe I was just lucky but if it happens, don't write off the meat until you cut it up and check it out.

A Elk left overnight in warm weather will be a rancid spoiled wreck!(Unless it took the animal all night to expire or expired in a Icy spring!) You take a huge risk bowhunting at last light in warm weather. Would you buy meat from a beef that was shot left to lay and then butchered after 12 hours? Beef is heavier in weight but elk are much furrier! Do not kid yourself! Skin the beast and get it cool! ( I will often remove the guts only after the skinned quarters are removed, & backstraps taken. I will then gut the animal to get the tenderloins rib and flank meat.) I have even put quarters wrapped in cloth then plastic into the big lost river! (My buddy did not do it to his elk and it spoiled!) Once again please....skin the beast and get it cooled out if you want food that is edible!

With lows in the upper 50's and 12 hours before recovery...
From my experiences I would say if the elk died shortly after dark you would lose a large percentage if not all of the elk.
If on the other hand the elk didn't expire till 3 in the morning you would likely be ok.
I think that is why opinions vary as to the outcome. When the elk actually died is the big unknown.

Many here with much more experience than i on elk, I have always sawed and quartered my elk and hung with ropes and small hoists from my pack to leave hanging overnight.

Did loose a muley buck to bears once doing that though.

Gunner

The butler did it.

I've been there more than a few times. mostly as a guide.

I quickly learned that if an elk is killed in the late afternoon or dusk that gutting, skinning, quartering and separating the quarters (usually by hanging) was essential to keep the meat from souring.

If it was warmins, say 45� or so, I'd cut deep "radiating cuts" in the quarters.

On four occasions, I stayed out all night with the elk carcass ... twice with guided clients (who were pissed).

When you pull the trigger and kill the elk, you absolutely owe it to the animal to use his body in the finest possible way. Otherwise, do not pull the trigger.

Sorry, but that is simply the way it is.

I cringe when watching the stupid archery shows on television. Oh, Hell Yes, we'll slip a pointed stick into a great critter. Then we will spend a "sleepless night" (poor hunter baby-poo) ... and take great photos of the spoiled elk or deer in the morning. What total and absolute bullshit.

It makes me want to puke.

Smell. sight. taste test. I'm guessing not, based on my experience with moose in similar temps. But elk are a bit smaller, so maybe.

Who said he was bow-hunting?

I've long since gone to instant drop CNS shots (I don't bow-hunt)- especially near dark - if I can get 'em. Or pass.

I've lost the meat of two moose due to not finding them in a timely fashion. That's two too many, and never again.

"bone soured"
Years ago shot an elk in the Frank Church. 400 yrds up a "hill" before dark, it was full dark when we climbed up to the spot. Couldn't find the bloodtrail with flashlights,days upper 50s nites were mid 30s. Went back up next morning and found the elk ,packed it to the truck with the horses. Took it to town and processer said "no way it's bone soured". I said ain't no way I'm throwing away a whole elk, iced it down and drove back to camp. That evening the meat was green and smelled like a week old gutpile in July.......damdest thing I've ever seen. That was the first and the last elk I've lost to being "bone soured". If you ever smell it you won't forget it.

For sure that, and then they go back the next day and find it only ran a hundred yards. Stiff as a board they will say the meat is ok because it was cool last night. Its ok because they are going to give the meat away.

I shot a medium sized white tail buck early one cold morning, gutted it and left it laying in the snow to keep hunting. That evening after dinner at camp I skinned it. Steam rose off the hams.

+1000

I would do everything possible to recover that elk as soon as possible and not leave it overnight thinking it would be o.k.

got to cool that meat asap

I've left one elk over night that I hit with an arrow. I didn't know how well I hit him and didn't want to push him. It was fairly cool out (40ish at night and 70is during the day) and I found him pronto the next morning. Got him quartered and skinned ASAP. The meat was fine.

Sometimes you gotta leave them, but only when you suspect a fatal, but not immediately wound.

Getting the skin off ASAP when its even mildly hot (and gut them if you don't go gutless) is the only way to go for me. I've found as long as its been skinned it can be warm out and you'll be fine even if it takes several hours to get them to a cooler.

Best yet is to just hunt them when its well below 50s during the day. No worries then if you have to leave them over night. Just don't dilly fart around the next day when you're looking for him.

Actually, my experience with back-pack caribou, sheep, and moose that take several days to get out is that if promptly gutted, skinned, pieced, you have 3-4 days before processing becomes mandatory, especially if it cools off well at night, even without ice.

Get that hide off, the guts out, and chunked up to where it can lose it's natural body heat (even if only down to 60 degrees or so), it will be fine for a couple days.

One moose killed near dark was gutted , mostly skinned out, the 4 legs whacked off and placed on a log rack just off the ground, and the rest left on his back overnight, propped open, on the skin. We did not get the neck skinned out, and it was green-"bone soured" by the time we got back to it about noon the next day (We siwashed overnight halfway out to the road when it got too dangerous to travel, even by flashlight). About 40 lbs of meat lost.

Had we gotten the skin off the neck up to the base of the head it would have been fine...