Deer killed at 5:30 PM 20 degrees, 12 deg over-night, found at 10 AM - 20 deg.

High double lung shot, pass through from a 125 gr. .308 moving up toward the hot end. Deer was almost froze solid this morning. Some sloshing still heard inside body cavity when moved around this morning. Is the meat still good?
How long can the guts stay in a deer in this kind of conditions and still be safe to make jerky out of?
Thanks!!

Deer should be fine if it was that cold.

Your good with this cold.

I'm always a skeptic of dead things with guts in them that long. I'd probably stay away from anything in contact with the internal cavity.

Thanks Everyone!!
Not my deer and my brother forgot to take pics when he found him this morning.
I wasn't out there with him and was just inquiring for him.
I'm sure the meat is fine but he will get skinned and cut up in the non-gutted method and leave leave the body cavity in tact. Nothing close to guts will be kept and since the meat is about froze solid, I can't imagine there being anything wrong with it at these temps.
Thanks again!!

Thanks Everyone!!
Not my deer and my brother forgot to take pics when he found him this morning.
I wasn't out there with him and was just inquiring for him.
I'm sure the meat is fine but he will get skinned and cut up in the non-gutted method and leave leave the body cavity in tact. Nothing close to guts will be kept and since the meat is about froze solid, I can't imagine there being anything wrong with it at these temps.
Thanks again!!

Congrats on the find!

The cool part was we got to call off the guy who was coming with the tracking dog before he headed out and drove all the way over here. All worked out fine. Thanks!

If he hadn't have run 50 yds and made a U turn as soon as he was behind a cedar bush, we'd have found him last night.
Wasn't any blood trail at all just some spots 10' from where he was knocked down. I guess all that blood was draining down into his chest cavity. He probably piled up less than 60 seconds after he was shot and bled out. Most of the blood that was frozen into the dirt was still glued to his nose. Great ending for what started out last night to be not looking so good.

I bet it wasn't any fun gutting that deer with cold guts this morning. Glad you guys found it.

Only concern would be side of deer that was on the ground. If that meat was cold, you’ll be OK.

should be fine with these temperatures

No way I would eat it.

Will the meat be taken to a processor or will he/you process yourself?

Eat and enjoy. I’ve killed a buck I knew I hit high and got liver. It was very cold and I could see him laying there and knew he could not get up. I didn’t want to stress him and left him overnight. He was there the next morning and tasted great.

Meat smells fine.
We'll let the guy with the bird dog nose give it a whiff and if that passes, we'll slice a few pieces of back strap and give it a taste taste!
Thanks everyone.

Didn't gut him - didn't want to disturb the body cavity. He got sliced down the center of his back from neck to tail and peeled the hide off both sides. Turns out a rib on the entrance side apparently deflected bullet/bone pieces angling across to the off side back near the front of a hind quarter. There was no exit. The bullet probably was coming apart till there wasn't a piece big enough to get out. I imagine one lung and the liver was jello but no internal autopsy was performed. We didn't want none of that mess touching the knives even. Left all the guts still inside him. The Coyotes can feast on that stuff or a possum can crawl up inside it after it warms up some!

Hopefully it's not freezer burnt!

That was probably the biggest problem, Harrier. I smelled the first backstrap to come off, smelled fine to me. Second strap, fine.
First hind qtr, fine. Even the last one which was on the ground and closest to the most juice didn't smell bad to me, That was the side that was down.

Shoulders seemed ok. Wrapped in paper and put in the garage fridge. And apparently my smeller doesn't work good outdoors in open spaces or something. SIL came home and opened that door and said WHAT is that SMELL in the fridge? Ruh Roh! We now have 2 roasting pans full of charcoal and about 4 boxes of baking soda in there trying to soak up that smell - seems to be working pretty well.

The bottom side of that deer on the ground wasn't froze at all through and through. Hell, the top side wasn't even froze solid as originally reported.

The deer was apparently probably somewhat turned which caused the shot to be not at 90 degrees, but more at a quartering direction. I don't think it actually deflected because those kind don't hold together well enough at those speeds. I think it probably did start coming apart after that rib was hit. Entrance was behind the shoulder , up high, but below the back straps several inches.

That devastating bullet seems to have probably tore up the liver and top half of the guts and probably the top of the stomach. HAving seen that load in action many times I'm certain the entering side lung was jello and probably liver too. The stomach and guts was likely cut up by rib fragments and pieces of jacket material. I guess a closed up animal like that, well insulated with hair and with no drain on the side that's on the ground just collects all that blood and gut juice till it fills up.

The entrance hole was straight at the top with the deer laying on its side.

If it had been a straight pass through lung shot as first reported, things may well have turned out better.
Explains the lack of any blood trail. It was all draining down into the body cavity.
Hate that the meat was wasted but we're not starving for deer meat. Just hate to see it go to waste.
Still hate how it turned out though. The good news was we didn't have to worry and wonder about a leg shot deer stumbling around wounded and crippled. That was a relief to know he died very quickly.

As always, proper shot placement is #1 and trumps all others no matter what your shooting and it helps hugely if you can stay out of the guts no matter what vital organs were destroyed before it got to them. Also helps to gut them quickly and not wait till the next day. He could have easily been salvaged if got to quick and opened up to drain and cool. We probably walked by him twice with flashlights but somehow missed seeing him.