How would you prep this - stupid newbie question

[On Our own]

We had a deer killed by MVA on the edge of our property last night.

We had the timing of the hit so we knew it had been dead less than an hour when we found it. It is very cold here now and we're expecting serious snow tomorrow, I thought we could prep it (gut it) and hang it in the barn until DH could get to it. He will be gone for the next four days.

He said no that he had to leave in the morning (this morning) and was afraid since it died of the hit and could have had internal ruptures he didn't want to start a project unless he was going to be around to clean it better in the daylight.

It was late and it was cold and he had to get up at 4AM so I am not blaming him, but could we have done anything else? Seems like a dang waste of enough meat to have held us the winter!





Not to worry too much, there will be another! People never heed the deer crossing signs here nor the 30 mile an hour speed limit. We found the deer and a good chink of someone's front end in our driveway!

 

[modern_pioneer]

Yummy...road kill...... What? It still taste good, just harder to work with...

If it was hit in the rear end than yes some still can be used even if the insides are nasty. Neck roast, and front quarters perhaps.

Don't wait for hubby, get your butcher knife and hack saw and go on out and get you some good eats. So in 4 days when he returns, have him a neck roast ready for dinner.

 

[pioneergirl]

I know my neighbor will skin his, do a rough quartering, throw it in garbage bags in the freezer and get to it when he can. As long as its bled out (hung) and its not hot, you should be ok. Hanging is hard unless you've got a good pully system, that dead weight it heavy! haha Currently I'm cutting up meat thats been froze for about a year, and its fine.

I think as long as nothing inside really ruptured (bladder, intestines) then it didn't contaminate the meat. You should be good to go!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I agree, field dress it, remove the guts & let it hang if it's cold, right around freezing. Or quarter it out & stick it in the freezer. It will be very apparent if any of the guts ruptured, when you take the sack out, or even as soon as you open the belly hide.

I see nothing at all wrong with using meat & hide that is fresh road kill. It would otherwise go to waste or draw carrion eaters.

 

[miss_thenorth]

If you can, just gut it and leave it till he comes home. being this cold it will be fine, but it needs to be gutted. If you need step by steps, just ask here, many of us have done it, ( and am going to be doing it again in about 20 minutes--hubby just came home with a doe--yay!)

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Sweeeet!

 

[SKR8PN]

Gut it and hang it for the night. Skin it and quarter it the next day, put the meat in the freezer until you can process it later. Nothing at all wrong with fresh road kill. Don't let it go to waste.

 

[sylvie]

ExDH and I used to pick up roadkill all the time. Mainly raccoons for the pelts. Made quite a nice supplemental income.
The guy who bought took them whole because he didn't like the way some skinned. Fine with me. It paid a little less, but it was free money to begin with. Winter was a good time because everything was frozen- some people were storing the roadkill in the freezer during summer so they had a load to take at once. The guy had a buyer for the meat.

We have a friend who lives next to an interstate, gets loads of deer roadkill and hasn't had to hunt in years!