Will the meat spoil?

[Tman]

My oldest daughter shot a nice whitetail doe this evening about 45 min before dark.  The deer jumped and kicked, spun a 180 and ran about 100 yds, then stopped and slowly walked off like nothing happened.  We gave her about a half hour before we pursued. Then, we found a decent blood trail, but lost it due to the darkness.  The blood started bright red and got darker and darker as we went along.  I'm sure the blood keeps going but with the darkness and fog it is impossible to see, its mostly small spots with a few half dollar sized puddles.  I finally made the decision about 10 min ago to back out and resume the search in the morning when we have more light. I'm worried about walking on blood and destroying any chance of finding her we have.  I'm definitely concerned about meat spoilage or predators too.  Temp should be below freezing tonight. What do you guys think??

[buglin4bulls]

As long as the low is below 55 or 50 i think you will be fine till morning. Just my 

[ICEMAN]

The deer may pass in the night. Go back and find the deer. Skin and open up tomorrow. You may lose some of the meat.
 
We have trimmed spoiled meat off elk, and found the underlying meat just fine...
 

[Button Nubbs]

had to leave my bull overnight in sept this year. found him at 930 the next am and it was still good. i think you will be plenty fine! good luck!

[Tman]

I sure hope so..  Will the blood still be easy to spot in the morning or does dried blood dissappear into vegetation.

[Goldeneye]

Blood that hits something like a real dry piece of wood or such will pretty much disappear over night as the dryness kind of acts like a sponge.  Blood on leaves, grasses, ground, or rock should still be easy enough to see.  I've helped find a few animals that were left out over night.  It can be pretty tough going so don't get discouraged.  Remember to do a grid pattern search if you lose the blood trail.  A wounded animal can get into amazingly good hiding spots. 

This is part of the reason I no longer hunt until last shooting light.  Too much can go wrong.

[seth30]

I hope the fog you spoke of, doent put too much moisture on the ground

[wapiti hunter2]

If it is as cold as you say it will be fine if you fine it early.  Get there at first light and look hard.  If it is dry, use toilet paper instead of flagging to mark your spots.  It will disappear after the next rain and won't clutter up the forest.

[Tman]

I flagged the trail I followed tonight, really itching to go back out and look some more but am resistant because i'm not sure where she connected and don't want to bump it.  I've got some reinforcements coming in the morning, hopefully, we'll find her early. 

[high country]

You are going to be fine. I found a deer last year that was killed a day earlier and not found.......I gutted it for the hunter and called him. All was fine.

[sebek556]

where you at maybe i could help look?

[Ellensburg]

I'd be more worried about a coyote eating it... I think you will be fine so long as u find it early enough and then gut it and skin it. Even if it is dead right now, you will be amazed at how fricken warm that hide will keep it.

[CountryslickR]

Should be fine, just get the hide off asap when u find it...I wouldn't eat the heart or liver tho...

[Tman]

Getting ready to head out now, come on sun, give us some light.  Been a restless night.

[demontang]

Man I will pray you find it, I lost my buck this year and still havent found him. Ive looked for 3 days and Im heading back out this week to see if he made it or not. Look under every little thing blade of grass branch leaf etc. I lost and found the blood trail three times and found it by getting down and looking up through the grass and branches.