how long is too long.

Case by case basis for me, Meat. That deer may have been alive all along and being bumped as you searched for it. Of course if I suspect it has been spoiling away in the heat for a few hours, I'm giving up on it.

If anything I kill doesn't pass the sniff and visual tests, I leave it. That goes for everything, even a neck shot doe that drops in its tracks. Emaciated... leave it. Smells like dog shit without it being gut shot... leave it. Smells like dog shit when I open it up... discard it.

Hell, I don't even cut off the rack most times from any deer I kill anymore. I do have a few 8 points scattered around the yard for the dogs to play with though. Racks are for googans to brag about... just not my thing. I'd rather open my freezer if I wanted to brag to someone.

Yup - case by case basis.

My lifetime of hunting has dictated this. With a gun, if I know the shot placement was good, I’ll follow up 15 minutes going very slowly. If I have help, one of us tracks and one is ready for a quick shot if needed.
With a bow same thing I don’t mind slow hunting a hit critter to recover it.
If I make a poor shot (gut shot) I definitely give it a couple of hours if the weather is cool. Hot weather I try to recover as quickly as possible.
I try to take shots within my wheelhouse, and no long shots.
I’m a hunter and not a long range tactical sniper. If you like long range go for it, it’s just not where I am at this stage of the pursuit. In this heat if we wait too long, the meat will spoil for sure.
Have fun out there folks.

guess everyone is different, 35 years ago i would drive around the glades most of the day with the deer on back of the 3 wheeler making sure everyone seen it, today i go the total opposite and try to get it gutted asap, within minutes of finding the deer im gutting it , quartering it up and getting it in the cooler as fast as possible. nothing matters more to me these days then taking care of the meat. yea cold weather its another story but 5,6,7 or 8 hours in 90 degree heat cant be good for anything.

Funny, I follow Hank but didn't know about his site. Thank you for sharing Peter

I just check the animal. If it looks fine and smells fine, I recover the meat. No set time limit.

Worst case scenario, dogs gotta eat too. In fact I’d rather give a smelly old buck to the dogs or make heavily cured jerky out of him anyhow. Does and young bucks are where its at for eating.

Ah yes, the days of showing off...

Once upon a time when I was a younger lad, traveling the world and killing swordfish and tunas for the bourgeoisie among you to dine on, we took refuge from a blistering set of North Atlantic storms in a little French protectorate called Saint Pierre. As it so happened, this was during the month of September which coincided with their deer season. Now mind you, to my knowledge there was no hunting on Saint Pierre itself but there must have been some outstanding hunting on its neighboring island, Miquelon.

I can vividly remember staggering out one morning from the Hotel Robert after a night of twisting up the sheets with a hot Newfie gal who thought I would make good teddy bear, and seeing a landing craft of sorts arrive with about 200 hunters, their deer, and their tiny vehicles. Those Frenchmen were strutting around, proud as a peacock with their deer draped over their hoods for the better part of the day looking like what might resemble a little Hyundai today. Those chaps even dressed the part of a Michigan or Maine deer camp, wearing red plaids and funny hats.

That sight went on for about two days and I'm pretty sure I saw the same deer on some of those little cars during that period. That being said, the mornings up there at the time were about 40°F, so it wasn't like they were dealing with 95° like here in FL, but still... nobody here can beat a Frenchman showing off his deer, IMHO.

Don't be a douche. A doe that drops in her tracks and she appears to be sick or on bad health, you eat her. I won't.

Don't be an asshole who assumes to know everything, because trust me you know nothing about me. I was on the forum before and your lack of ability to put two and two together makes you assume too much and flap your lips.

I have always respected your input in deer hunting, even though you are a among the braggards when you do kill one, but you're way off base this time.

Now you're just another whining horn hunter with no experience hunting the glades,so go ahead and spout off that which you know nothing about.

i was skinning a hog at kicco few years ago that had a softball size lump on its back ham near the top, when i pressed knife against the lump maggots and puss oozed out , i just cut off that ham and kept the rest. just kidding left everything right there. only had 1 deer in over 40 years that i left in the field it was a skinny doe that had puss in its eyes, 2 hooves rotting , 1000 ticks and really stunk bad . felt bad about it but that thing was gross.

One last thing, you must have a diseased population in the "glades" with all of the rotten/sick deer you mention. In 40 years of hunting I have never killed one that was bad unless I didn't find it within time before spoiling and that is very few.

Again good luck

What was your screen name on FS?

Haven't done too much bragging at all really, haven't killed a deer by choice in 3-4 years and didn't brag on that one.

CWD heard and 3+ hrs from me?? OK. You must know of more that the one deer that was confirmed. If not, I'd say you are assuming. We all know where that gets us.

I may not be the sharpest person but far from ignorant. Your mouth proves you to be pretty smart though.

By the way, I've got several generations of family from the "glades". Immokalee to be exact.

I’ve only ever left boar hogs I didn’t feel like putting forth the effort in cleaning in case they had the taint. I never shot a deer that seemed unhealthy on the ground.

I did regularly see a buck one season that had a bunch of stab wounds from fighting. He had lumps all over his body and limped bad. Nice buck, but one point under club rules. I watched him heal has he visited a feeder every evening and filled up on corn. He was gnarly enough that had he been a club-legal buck, I might have shot him for the antlers and left the rest. But I was a lot younger then and hunting for pleasure. Now I mostly hunt for meat, and any enjoyment I get is secondary.