Mrs. Sawatzky's first buck, with an infected gunshot...

sawatzky

sawatzky

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
42   0   0
Location
sw ontario
So my wife got her first "real" deer today (we lost her very first deer and didn't find it till morning, after the yotes had picked it clean). It was a nice sized 7, maybe 8 point. When we got to it, it had a gunshot to it's leg, which is infected. Question for you experienced guys, how much do you hack off to be safe?

First my lovely wife with her deer...


Here's the old wound...
 
Is that a muzzle loader round protruding out?
You say it is infected, but no other symptoms of the infection.
Does it smell ?
Does it ooze?
Have you pulled the slug out of the wound?
If not invert it before you so as to allow it to drain and lessen any contamination that may occur.
Have you spoken to a local C/O or biologist, they may shed more light and allow you the chance at another deer ...wishful thinking here , but one never knows until they ask...
Look forward to more experienced members thoughts as well.
Congrats to the wife and hope it works out.
Rob
 
That's not a bullet, it just the wound with yellowish goop in it. The area is swollen, but doesn't smell, my dad suggested cutting it off where I stopped skinning just to be safe, just wondered if some experienced hunters had anything else to add. I doubt I'd get another tag, as the meat loss won't be significant. Funny thing though, this is the second deer I've seen this season with an open gunshot wound.
 
My dad shot a cow moose one time that had a 12 gauge slug in her back leg. He didn't notice it until he got it home and the whole hind leg had gangrene in it. He ended up throwing out the whole works because it was pretty gross. Hopefully yours is a fresh wound and doesn't have problems like that.
 
The hind looks fine. Just cut a generous amount pass the infection. I have worked on infected animals before. Tainted and infected meat is very obvious.
 
I would cut just a bit lower, right where the fur is, (cannot see what is under it) the hind does look good.
Congrats to your wife..
 
Yup, cut at the fur line. Better safe than sorry... Had a similar one in moose, cut about 6 inches away. Checked for signs and smells.
 
I was always taught "when in doubt, throw it out" don't let a little questionable meat ruin the rest. We've always ended up with fantastic venison partially because we a ruthless when cleaning up the meat.
Congratulations on a nice buck!
 
John Y Cannuck said:
I'd cut it just a bit higher than the hide line, set it aside, and when all done go back and dissect it. I think that may be a wound from a coyote, dog, or wolf. It's in the right locaton.
Click to expand...

No, its definitely a gunshot. It hard to see on the pic, but its a very defined entrance and exit. It grazed the opposite front leg as well. It looks to have just missed the bone, and that's how he got away.

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll cut at the fur line just to be safe, asentioned by someone else, don't wanna ruin the whole thing by trying to save a little.
 
Separate the muscle groups in that leg and watch for yellowy greenish snot looking fluid in between the muscle cords. Often it travels along the shiny blueish parts between meat
 
I'd cut it off right below the antlers if SERM won't give me another tag. Coyotes got to eat too, and that would save them the trouble of pulling it down themselves later.

Life's a bit too short to be wondering whether something is fit to eat or not.
 
Cut it at the fur, let your nose and your eyes guide you.
If it looks bad, toss it out. The rest of the leg looks ok to me.

We once had a deer with a clearly injured leg - looked like it had been caught in a barbed wire fence or similar - anyway the one back leg was quite atrophied, so we cut it off but the rest was ok.

Another deer had a bullet wound in the hip - likely from a FMJ bullet as the entrance/exits were hardly noticeable but once we skinned it we saw the wound - anyway same thing, cut off what we didn't think we wanted to eat and it was fine.
 
Dogleg said:
I'd cut it off right below the antlers if SERM won't give me another tag. Coyotes got to eat too, and that would save them the trouble of pulling it down themselves later.

Life's a bit too short to be wondering whether something is fit to eat or not.
Click to expand...

Dogleg has the answer I would follow...an animal with an active festered wound like that will quite possibly be fevered up from end to end even tho visual evidence is hard to spot. The same blood that is trying to heal that wound is coursing thru the whole body and no matter how well it is bled out some still remains...it might not make you sick but on the other hand it very well might make you real sick and by the time you know it's too late.

Do as you wish but I wouldn't put any of that on my plate.
 
some of you guys are wimps. your not eating it raw. A wound in the rear leg is not going to ruin the entire animal. The red line is a good reasonable starting point and like others have said use your eyes/nose if you need to go a little further. Lots of good quality eating there, and would be a shame to waste it. For you wimps, don't ever go to a cattle butcher........you won't like what you see
 
fingers284 said:
...an animal with an active festered wound like that will quite possibly be fevered up from end to end even tho visual evidence is hard to spot.
Click to expand...


Actually the evidence of a "dark cutter" is very easily seen and there is no sign of that on this particular carcass. I would - as mentioned by several others - cut out the damaged section and butcher the rest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom