Cleaning and Butchering a roadkill deer

[yakimanoob]

Apologies if this isn't quite the right place to ask this. 

My question stems from a failed attempt at salvaging a roadkill doe last night.  I picked it up super-fresh about an hour from my house, and rigor had just barely started by the time I started working on her.  However, I was totally unprepared for the mess on the inside (she looked intact from the outside except for some damage near her rump).  As I started to skin in a few areas, gut material started spewing out of places it shouldn't (like the backstrap...) and it became clear to me I didn't have the facility to get the meat clean enough within a reasonable timeframe in the 70-degree weather. 

Do people on here have any experience harvesting roadkill?  It makes me sad every time I pass one to think of the wasted meat, but I got a hard lesson last night on why many of them get left.  Just curious to hear other's experiences on what to look for when assessing a deer/elk for salvage, and how you handle the job of cleaning an often-scrambled animal. 

Thank for your time!

[Timberstalker]

Some are gonna be worse than others, obviously.  I suspect you got a bad one so to speak.

Others may chime in

@ NOCK NOCK has done a few I think.

[ghosthunter]

I know a Game Agent who use to try to save any road kill he came across and get it to some where.

He told me after a couple dozen over the years he decided it just was not worth it. They were so destroyed inside.

Not saying I would not try it, But I would be very picky. 

[DOUBLELUNG]

The systemic trauma caused by hydrostatic shock when an intact living animal is struck by a vehicle seems to escalate exponentially with the speed of the collision.  An intact deer that is hit broadside at highway speeds can look perfect externally but have every muscle jellied from trauma and literally no salvageable meat.  At a bit lower speed, and/or collision with only 1/2 of the animal, the distal half may be salvageable while the proximal is ruined by trauma. 

The very best candidates for salvage have been struck in the head by a bumper and often are as salvageable as a gunshot deer.  Next are those that have been hit in residential and/or low speed areas.  Any animal that did not expire from the impact and needs to be put down by (or with permission from) an LEO is a likely candidate for some salvageable meat.  Similarly, roadkill from residential 25-35mph zones are likely to be salvageable.  Finally, the larger the animal, the more likely it has some salvageable meat.

Your hands are your best tool for assessing what may be salvageable.  Muscle that has been jellied by shock will feel spongy, crackly or bubbly when you press down on the hide.  Intact muscle has a firm, solid feel and while it may be somewhat flexible under pressure, retains it's shape.  It seems counterintuitive, but an animal leaking gut contents may actually have more salvageable than one that is intact, where all of the energy was held within the hide and thus absorbed by the tissues.  I would assess the intact carcass at the site by palpating by hand to determine if there is potentially salvageable meat; if so, I would only take the legs and/or backstraps that seem salvageable, quasi-gutless method, and dispose of the rest (in my case, where I live I could load the carcass and quickly take it off to public ground away from paved roads).  The exception being the head clipped by a bumper, in which case you may want to gut just to get more transport time to work it up. 

What ghosthunter relayed is pretty consistent with my own and other game agency employees' experience - a roadkill animal often has far more extensive trauma than a gunshot one.  When I worked in Wyoming, we had a deal with a decoy manufacturing company, they would provide one "robodeer" in exchange for 12 full mount hides.  Usually we resorted to our own harvested animals and those the wardens seized, roadkill bucks usually had too much trauma beneath the skin to mess with.

[nwwanderer]

Ditto doublelung and the time factor in this weather quickly takes what trauma does not

[yakimanoob]

Thanks gents!  Lots of great advice. 

My main lesson learned last night was not to bother with the task unless I have weather and time on my side.  Although in retrospect, I could have gone to some nearby public and done a quick hide-on quartering job and at least walked away with SOME meat. 

[OutHouse]

If its guts burst but there is salvageable meat then you get out the old hose and just get your hands dirty errr I mean nasty. No hose then you're in trouble. I've gut shot a deer and once you get the gut matter out of the body cavity let the hose do the work. Open the cavity all the way up the neck, rip out the esophagus, cram a stick in the cavity sideways to hold it open, then hose away. Even meat that has been in contact with the gut matter can be saved by lots of running water. It all tasted fine, but again, I hosed the stuff out of it.

[DoubleJ]

If its guts burst but there is salvageable meat then you get out the old hose and just get your hands dirty errr I mean nasty. No hose then you're in trouble. I've gut shot a deer and once you get the gut matter out of the body cavity let the hose do the work. Open the cavity all the way up the neck, rip out the esophagus, cram a stick in the cavity sideways to hold it open, then hose away. Even meat that has been in contact with the gut matter can be saved by lots of running water. It all tasted fine, but again, I hosed the stuff out of it.

This

Any road kill I've salvaged has always gotten this treatment.  Hose it out best you can.  Then butcher outside, not in the garage or kitchen (smell).  Once cut into primal pieces, I rub down with warm clarified bacon grease (I seem to always have this on hand) and then rinse in the sink with a scrub brush.  I've had roadkill completely destroyed inside, guts everywhere.  None of them haven't been salvageable using this method.  Only thing that gets tossed is the severely bloodshot meat.  Even the meat with a little blood in it just gets chopped loosely and rinsed well and put in the burger pile.  Regardless of roadkill damage, I still probably get 75% or more of the available meat put in the freezer

[Jpmiller]

I picked up a fawn off hwy 20 and once I started to process it I realized it was a loss. All the meat was destroyed and guys were everywhere. I did save the spotted hide but I won't pick a deer off a hwy again.

[NOCK NOCK]

Agree with most of the above.
You have to be really picky at the site to determine whether or not time invested is worth the amount of useable meat you'll gain. Like DOUBLELUNG said feel it all over for damaged areas/broken bones.
Personally, I wont use any meat that has come into contact with gut material...
I have found that if it was a broad side hit I can usually save the opposite side, sometimes you may only get 1 useable quarter.  Of the several I have picked up, all of them had good BS's, 1- I salvaged the entire deer, 2 - I salvaged 70+ percent, and one small doe only got BS's and a front quarter, Hearts from all were saved.

By salvaged, I mean table fare meat that I would eat. I have a Labrador that has severe allergies and venison is about the only red meat she does good with.  I can utilize most of the other meat for her food.