The willingness of a person to leave a deer in the woods overnight seems proportional to the size of said deer's antlers. "Well, I didn't want to take a chance bumping a buck that big and losing him, so I left him overnight." It's a common claim, and it brings up a very interesting point of ethics. After all, we're not just trying to kill big deer but also to produce meat for the table. It has to be that way. The two should be (and definitely can be) mutually agreeable. How and when you make the recovery has a huge effect on table quality.

The decision of when to begin your recovery efforts for the animal you've shot should not depend on the size of its antlers but on the likelihood that the meat may spoil if left too long.

There is plenty to debate on the subject of recovery time, so I'm going to take it on here point by point. Some of this is not particularly savory--to say the least--but I'm not going to pull any punches or mince words. You need to know the truth if you're going to make good decisions.

When It Doesn't Work
I've had bad experiences with bucks I've left overnight, to the point where I'm very hesitant to do it now. One buck in particular still causes my nose hair to curl. I accidentally shot that buck in the paunch and left him until the next morning. My reasoning was sound enough: It's a mistake to push a deer thusly hit after dark because you run the risk of sending him right out of your hunting area to die elsewhere.

Left undisturbed, he'll die close by, making recovery much easier the next morning. Well, anyway, it seemed like good logic. I left and came back for him the next morning. He must have died quicker than I thought, because he was stiff as a fence post and his cavity, once opened, filled the air with a noxious fog.

I was determined to do my duty as a hunter and eat that buck. I took it to a butcher shop and had most of it made into burger, which I struggled mightily to eat. When my wife, Pam, began to fry it up for chili or casserole, it made the whole house smell. I did eat it without getting sick, but that buck sure cured me of leaving deer in the field a moment longer than necessary.

When It Works
Maybe you've heard someone on television (or a friend in camp) say, "It was a cold evening, so I left him out overnight and went for him in the morning." That brings up a very interesting question. What exactly is "cold enough" to leave a deer out overnight before removing its entrails?

I always figured it had to be in the 20s to make that work, but I wasn't sure, so I called a local meat locker that handles hundreds of deer here in southern Iowa each year. Randy Burrell at Burrell's Locker feels that if the temperature is in the low 30s, the deer will be fine even if you leave it out overnight before you recover and field dress it. It's just a judgment call on his part, but Randy has had personal experience in this matter. "I've done this myself and the meat was fine," he said.