always glad to help
 

my neighbor bow dropped a very nice buck last evening at dusk between our properties.. could not find it all morning until his wife got home and walked down the hill and found it. he called n asked if i could help get it back up our hill... was all to glad to help out with the grizzz...

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Nice Buck! That calls for a backstrap or maybe a few pounds of sausage!

So it was dead all night and you are still going to eat it? Looks like rigger mortise has set in…

I'm no expert or hunter but it would not be uncommon to not be able to locate a buck taken at dusk until the next day. it was out for about 18 hours before recovered under tree canopy and with it being in the low 40's at night I would not expect a problem with the meat.

there are guys that go in up here by horseback for a week or more w/o refrigeration and take deer. as i understand it the most important factor is to get is gutted as soon as possible to keep the innards from spoiling the meat. have seen photos of these sort of hunt camps with 3-4 deer up in trees hanging so bear do not get to them at night.

maybe a more experienced hunter can share more facts. Rigor had not set in in this case.

Rigor mortis - Maybe it had come and gone, or maybe the cold slowed it way down?

This is how it works in people.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549867/