Washing out your deer

[ItalianHunter5]

I shot a spike on Halloween up in the Northern Zone and call me paranoid but all I can think about is what we did and if the meat is still good. We gutted it nice and easy, put it in the Ranger and headed back to the house, lifted it up with the tractor bucket. Now it came time for when we wash it out with water but this time because it was the first time we took a deer up there, Pops told me to use the pond water to wash it out. I asked him if it's good, he said yes and so on and now all I think is bacteria. It's a spring fed pond and it was freezing cold but it still makes me wonder...

[Catskill Hunter]

Never use water from a pond or stream, if it needs to be cleaned use tap or bottled water when you get it home. Water from a pond contains bacteria.

chances are you wont get sick from it due to cooking the meat but leaving it hang after washing it in a stream can be an issue

Edited November 4, 2014 by Catskill Hunter

[sits in trees]

No need to wash out the body cavity, if it's gut shoot yea.

[NFA-ADK]

Enough said.

[grampy]

We have dragged them through swamp water and across streams and never had a problem. But we did rinse with garden hose when we got home.

Congrats on killing the spike!

[Fletch]

Probably be fine but I would not try it again. Pond water has lots of crap in it. Fortunately you should not be mixing the body cavity with any meat besides the inner loins. I might trim off a touch of the hinds where they meet but that's it.

[fasteddie]

Personally I would never consider washing out a deer's cavity with pond water . Like said above . a lot of crap in the water .

Many ponds are fed from runoff from fiells that have been sprayed with insecticides and had manure spread on them .

[DirtTime]

No need to wash out the body cavity, if it's gut shoot yea.

 

 

Never heard this. I don't agree with that at all. While dragging a deer all sorts of things get in that cavity. We have always rinsed it out, to get rid of the dirt and blood that was in there. I wouldn't use pond water though.

 

 

 

EDIT! This is just my opinion.

I don't want any part of making this yet another pissin' match.

 

 

Congrats on the deer.

Edited November 5, 2014 by JustRob

[ATbuckhunter]

I think that your fine as long as the water looks ok. All water has bacteria but a pond will generally have more then tap water. I use stream water to clean out the deer when I gut it but I always do a rinse down using tap water. 

[nyantler]

I've never rinsed a deer out in my life... never had an issue.

[malesi1]

Shot many deer in my life...only "washed out" a couple....one's that were gut shot.

 

If there is snow on the ground, I will usually put some in after I gut the deer, and remove it when I get to truck...99% of time, no need to rinse out a gutted deer.

[Fletch]

I have read if cavity nice and clean do not rinse as any water can actually promote more bacteria. I rinse any that may have got debris in or nicked something I should not have. And then patted down with paper towels. No issues.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Geno C]

I've never rinsed a deer out in my life... never had an issue.

+1

I was always told never rinse with pond or water from a stream. Not good

[Uncle Nicky]

I'd hesitate to wash the deer out in pond water, but other than that, I ALWAYS rinse out a deer I kill, either with a bottle or 2 of drinking water, garden hose, or snow. You'd be amazed how much meat you can salvage this way. I don't eat anything that has dried, caked blood on it.

[ItalianHunter5]

Thanks for the congrats guys, we put in a lot of work this offseason and it felt great to put something down up there! I disagree with what some say because my family has been washing out the deer for 50 something years to rid of the blood and debris from the drag like JustRob said. Now, I just hope that my pops knows something that I don't about the water in the pond up there and that any possible bacteria will just be cooked away. I sure hope so at least because we got quite a bit of meat out of that deer.

[rotorooter23]

Unless you don't cook your meat, most bacteria will be killed during food prep.

[ItalianHunter5]

Rotorooter, I guess we're lucky that we can't see a piece of venison red and that it has to be cooked completely through.