Incredible buck recovery - must read!

[JHbowhunter]

This is the miracle of all recoveries!

On 10/9, I posted a live hunt with Swedishunter, tyring to put him on his first archery deer. He hit a 5 pt, and long story short we determined it was backstrap shot and deer should be ok. Only found a few droplets of blood. Link to that hunt below.

https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/topic/8981-109-live-from-dmz-5/page-1

My cousin lives 1/2 mile away from me near entrance to my woods. Today he calls me around 9:30 and said there is a dead 5pt buck in his field no sign of hit by car, no blood, and it wasn't there before dark last night because he mowed there and can also see out his window. He saw the white belly this morning. I was going over to see if backstraps still good and drag it away from view of the house with my quad - and was thinking in back of my mind "could it be" ?

Well it was. I flipped the buck over and saw the 3 blade hole center of body up in the backstrap. No exit hole. The location was about over very back tip of lung or liver.
Count 6 vertebrae back on this picture, and that's the hole which appeared to be right on spine. Buck was stiff in legs and neck but not fill rigor yet. Body still felt warm.
​Called Swedishhunter and explained situation - I said meat might be salvageable but he was committed to tagging it either way. That's good ethics right there - kill a buck, punch your tag. I gutted it and it was still warm inside, but blood was not the usual bright red, it was much lighter in color and a bit cloudy. The wound had a very small amount of yellow around it but not oozing puss. There was no bloat, no odor at all. In fact best smelling deer I ever gutted. He had not fed - stomach empty. I got his tag info, and confirmation number and made a transportation tag and ran it over to butcher and left it in chiller with instructions to call me because I am not sure the meat is safe to eat.

I would like opinions on the safety of eating this buck - again no foul odor, the buck definitely expired around sunrise based on the warmth and body condition so in any other situation I would think the meat is ok considering I got it to chiller. It was 50 degrees.

Also the broadhead did penetrate just UNDER the spine, and I think missed that big artery (obviously) but nicked the top of liver or very last part of lung. It did not penetrate to other side of body cavity. So talk about close call, somehow missed full paralysis and artery, and unfortunately lived for a week which I feel bad about but at least we have closure and actually a chance of the full recovery.

I am only concerned about the blood coloration, as he probably bled internally with poor liver function for a week - would appreciate your opinions.

Edited October 16, 2016 by JHbowhunter

[Buck154]

That good but bad. Good that he got to recovery it but bad it took a week. It looks like it would be fine to eat, fresh looking. Congrats to him and for tagging it too.

[smoking gun]

took the buck a week to die fromantic he injury he sustained since it nicked the liver my money is that he did a fatal shot to deer although it took long to recover...like I've said Bowhunting is a game of inches 1 or 2 more inches that deer would have been dead the day he shot em...good post and congrats to the hunter

[dlist777]

I dont believe meat starts going bad until the animal dies. Seems like death was recent. I would butcher it. Cooking should kill any problems.

 

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[Hitemnasty]

IMO the meat will be perfectly edible if he wasn't even fully stiff and cavity was still warm. The quality however may be lacking from all the stress it was put through. I've started to notice deer that run father or take longer to expire aren't as tasty as quick clean kills.

[smoking gun]

lactic acid buildup

[not on the rug]

I don't know if I would eat it.  Deer probably died on an infection.  I'm pretty picky about the food I eat, and I don't think that I could get my head around eating that meat.  If he hadn't fed, it means that he was not well.  I just don't think I would eat it

[JHbowhunter]

Jorge just called me and said meat and deer looks fine...    Game of inches - you aint' kidding SG. An inch higher would have dropped in it's tracks with spinal cord, and an inch lower would have gotten femoral artery.

[beaverman]

Was the broadhead still in the deer or did the arrow fall back out the entrance hole when it was shot?

[LPJR]

That's awesome, congrats to your friend and you for recovering it.

 

I was going to say it should be fine but let Jorge decide and you beat me to it. 

 

Good job all around 

[JHbowhunter]

Was the broadhead still in the deer or did the arrow fall back out the entrance hole when it was shot?

 

Beaverman - we never found arrow, and the deer got it out somehow.  No BH in the deer. It only penetrated a few inches.   I actually think it just nicked the back of one lung, not liver.  Liver looked fine you can even see it in the picture.

[beaverman]

Thats what I was wondering.  It probably collapsed one lung, and then the other had reduced function.  The lighter blood color is most likely due to the fact that the lungs were not oxygenating the blood properly.  It probably died of hypoxia.  

[Zipper]

I don't know if I would eat it.  Deer probably died on an infection.  I'm pretty picky about the food I eat, and I don't think that I could get my head around eating that meat.  If he hadn't fed, it means that he was not well.  I just don't think I would eat it

If definitely wouldn't eat it. Get it butchered and give it away to your friends. JK. Sounds like the meat is fine. The nose knows.

[Haskell]

I personally wouldn't eat it ,u gotta remember that infected blood been feeding them muscles for a week .

[JHbowhunter]

I personally wouldn't eat it ,u gotta remember that infected blood been feeding them muscles for a week .

 

I saw no signs of infection.  No odor - if it had a funk to it, it would have fed mother nature for sure. Either way Rick was tagging it though  - right thing to do.