Wounded animal suitability for table fare

[dk17hmr]

The buck antelope I killed this year was shot in the face a day or two prior to me killing him. I didn't know it at the time I killed him, he was grazing right before my bullet hit him. I only found out after I cleaned his skull and found a good sized hole through his bone. That is honestly the best tasting antelope I have ever killed. We dont eat alot of antelope but when I grill his backstraps there isn't any leftovers.

That said I would have left that pig. No reason to risk getting sick when you have plenty of opportunities. I do the same with rabbits. If they look sick or have livers that don't look right I leave them.... general they aren't there the next day either so I know they aren't going to waste.

[math]

You did the right thing !
Under this years mosse hunt we were unfortunate to shoot (it was very good for the animals as it shortened their suffering) one 10 point bull and one calf that had previous gun shoot wounds that were leaking pus. The bull was shoot just were the ribcage ends and the calf was shoot from the front along the neck.
We had a vet look on the animals and she judged them as unfit for human consumption, not that any off us were interested in eating any off them but we needed her to sign off on them so they would not be deducted from our licens
Math

[dh2]

It was the right thing to put him down, But there is plenty of pigs out there. it is not worth the risk of the health of you and your faimly

[ChristopherO]

Definetly not worth eating it. Don't blame you a bit for letting it lie.
The only head shots I take are on the occassional squirrel in a tree or a trapped coon or hog to butcher. It isn't worth it to blow the jaw off a deer or hog.

[skeettx]

Yes, do not eat infected meat and do not load ammo for others
Mike

[superior]

I don’t know about the pig, but that rifle is a thing of beauty !

[lonewelder]

his blood probably had infection through out the entire body (sepsis). soon organs would start to shut down.he was dead pig walking.

[waksupi]

Sounds like gangrene set in. I'd pass.

[Tripplebeards]

I shot a small doe yesterday with my muzzleloader. Two days prior I shot at one about the same size and it was probably bedded 10 yards away from where this one was. I should’ve waited for a better shot. I took a poke at it while it was standing in some brush ...and I flinched as well. I was aim for the shoulder and figured I missed since I found no blood or hair. The gun is sighted 2” high as well. When I skinned this one last night when I got it home I found a hole in the hide at the top of the shoulders with a fresh scab. I cut the scab off and it was a nice fresh meat underneath so think I got lucky. I remove the back straps and they look beautiful so it was a thin layer of meat above it. It basically got a haircut. I’m sure it’s the same deer I “missed”.

[Petander]

You did the right thing.

I got a roadkill bull moose once, being killed by a truck at 5 am sunday morning, nobody else in our club wanted any of it because we got him out if the woods around noon and it was a warm summer day. "No good for eating anymore!" I thought folks were overly sensitive, I bought and butchered the whole fella by myself,wife helping,then called some friends to come over and get some meat,bones,whatever.

I had to pay €50 for the moose,I'd do the same again any day.

[Idz]

Actually it doesn't take much heat to kill bacteria:
"At 122°F there are no bacteria that are pathogenic (cause illness) to humans that survive." from
https://www.yourdoctorsorders.com/20...althy-cooking/

the FDA guidelines have much higher temperatures because people don't have calibrated thermometers and don't know how to use them so the gov't figures better safe than sorry.

Meat going rancid is another issue mainly of taste.

I always wondered why animals die at 120F but bacteria survived until 165F until I read that article and found out that bacteria are no more rugged than people. Its not necessary to cook meat until it turns to leather.

[Tripplebeards]

I read an article from the depression era. It said In hard times people used to soak old rancid meat in vinegar to remove smells and kill the bacteria and make it Edible... But I still would not eat that pig!

I soaked the “stink” out of some catfish fillets last year for an experiment. They actually tasted really good,almost lemony, reminded me of hush puppies. After a day or so all the “rotting dead shad” smell was gone and the fillets were starting to break down in pieces. I even gave a few pieces to some “guinea pigs” and they both gave me a thumbs up.

[Norske]

I passed on a doe with fawns that had a front leg that would swing over her back as she ran on 3 legs. A neighbor told me years later she had raised at least three sets of twins before she disappeared. Whitetail does can be survivors! Of course, eating in cattle feedlots that are guarded from coyotes by farm dogs helps.

[Thin Man]

The discussions about head shots reminded me about a buck I dropped a few years ago. He came down a hillside in front of me at a fast walk, disappeared into a heavily wooded area to my right, then turned and passed directly in front of me (still at a fast walk) from about 40 yards away. He had good balance and appeared to know where he was going. When I fired he took off running at a normal fast run. My shot hit the chest and the blood trail was very easy to follow. This one made it about 50 yards before he fell over. When I got close enough the examine the body I was surprised to find that the entire back of his skull had been blown out by another hunter. His brains were clearly visible and trying to exit what part of the skull remained. The wound was fresh with blood still seeping out of the head and none of it had dried on the fur. I share this story knowing some other hunter chose to take a (probably) neck shot and missed his mark. This buck would surely have become infected and died a slow and agonizing death if i had not helped him along the way.

[T-Bird]

Part of the risk of heavily contaminated meat is handling and processing it. Bacteria contaminates cuts, scrapes, surfaces etc. Infection causing organisms are not the same as "spoilage" organisms.

[nikonuser]

I read an article from the depression era. It said In hard times people used to soak old rancid meat in vinegar to remove smells and kill the bacteria and make it Edible... But I still would not eat that pig!

I soaked the “stink” out of some catfish fillets last year for an experiment. They actually tasted really good,almost lemony, reminded me of hush puppies. After a day or so all the “rotting dead shad” smell was gone and the fillets were starting to break down in pieces. I even gave a few pieces to some “guinea pigs” and they both gave me a thumbs up.

since the predawn of humanity, vinegar has been used to "destink" bad meat for a short time. VERY common in the middle ages. At the same time, in modern times BLEACH is the preferred method used in stores to make meat look "nicer" when its umm started to turn color and turn to liqioud in the display case. The smell also blends in well in a meat case because bleach smell makes people think it was cleaned rather well.

[M-Tecs]

That why I don't condone heat shots. Most animals when they have a fever head for water to stand or lay in. That mostly likely indicates an massive infection. I would only use it as Coyote bait or coyote food. I have put several deer out of their misery when the lower jaw was shot off.

[grizz41]

You made a good choice by doing what you did. I shot a beautiful 5 point muley in Montana in the 60`s that had been in a fight with another buck and when we butchered him we cut into a golf ball sized lymph node full of pus in the rear quarter. his wounds had healed over, but Montana F&G told us not to eat it and gave us another tag. They said that at the very least it wouldn`t taste good and could possibly make someone sick. a retired guide said he tries a steak or two before he butchers the whole critter, especially bear.

[OldBearHair]

I had a fishing buddy that was a Government Meat Inspector back in 1958. He told me that they only checked the liver and if the liver was healthy, the animal got the blue stamp applied all over. Before that when as a small kid I had the job of killing and cleaning the chicken for dinner(which was the noon meal for us) I was told to not finish the job of cleaning the chicken if the liver looked bad with yellow spots. Even now if meat has been around in the frig for a while, it gets a vinegar/ water mix wipe down.
Once I witnessed a friend bowhunter shoot a doe in the heart. It dropped at twenty yards. We got over to the deer to find that it was covered with a jillion ticks, ribs showing, and not looking good at all. A game manager(?) ---some kind of official anyway, came along as he was about to tag it and told him not to as it was unfit for human consumption,....some of the details are a little fuzzy for me as to what happened in 1965.

[nikonuser]

don't forget, people have changed a lot in the last 120 years. Things someone could eat on a daily basis in 1890 would most likely end up killing you, or at the very least leave you strapped to a toilet for a week or so