Wounds in muscles?
Whitetail Deer
I shot a deer last weekend and we found two spots while quartering where he had blood pools on his quarters, one hind, one front. Tonight when I was processing I found two holes, one small one in his rib meat, and a larger one in his hind quarter that I could bury my index finger to the second knuckle. No visible punctures in the hide. I still have two fronts and a hind to process. It's not damage from my shot, it was a chest shot that took out his lungs and didn't touch either front quarter. I also doubt they were wounds from previous shots.
My only guess is these wounds are antler punctures from fighting, as this buck walked under me and into the field with like he owned the place. Huge swagger, and he was a medium 8 point, maybe 110-120 points. Am I right with my guess, or could it be something else?
I’m having trouble imagining getting a puncture wound into the muscle without breaking the skin...
Also, I’m interpreting your description as cavities as if meat had been removed... you would think that a puncture caused by an antler would just push flesh aside....
Same experience here this week. Shot a buck on Monday that had several deep bruises and a small infection in one, and not a single puncture wound in the hide. His chest had been slit open, I am assuming from a barb wire fence. It was hardened over though.
Deep enough to go to second knuckle
Deep enough to go to second knuckle
Same wound
Same wound
Same wound
Same wound
Small puncture in rib/brisket meat
Small puncture in rib/brisket meat
I can't say 100% that the hide looked perfect, but we didn't notice anything obvious when gutting or skinning. We gutted him right at dark so we could have missed a puncture on the hind end. These wounds seem to be in areas where another buck could have nailed him with antlers, but I don't know what caused them.
Looks more like meat was torn and pushed aside, rather than a chunk of meat missing.
Nothing on the hide? My boy's wt had this and then we found the 2 blades of an old Wasp broadheads in his backstrap.
So give me your thoughts on this - I just found a sac of pus in one of his hind quarters, about 2" diameter and 6 inches long. It was sealed and I just found it because it was an odd looking piece of white meat/fat that isn't normally there. I suspected it was going to be filled with pus and cut into it, sure enough it was.
Would you keep the rest of this hind quarter? From what I can tell all the meat smells fine and this was a completely sealed infection. I'm going to be extra cautious since I'll be feeding the meat to my kiddos.
Personally...I wouldn't mess with it. Toss that section. That's what I would do, wouldn't even think twice.
Cut around it until you get clean meat and your good to go
Shot a mule deer this year and while butchering found a big plug of hair, bullet shaped and the size of a big cherry tomato about four inches deep into the shoulder hump. Pushed in by a thick antler tine by the look and shape of the wad.
I didn't notice a hole in the hide but there must have been a scar, and there was no sign of infection, just a lighter brown streak through the meat. Pretty sure the wound was from last year and there is a good chance I shot the buck that did it. He was a real mean, huge bodied bugger and tolerated no other bucks around for that short rut period.
Animals often put up with a lot of abuse to carry on their genes and the species.
Update on this - I kept the meat and cut a wide berth around the abscess. Everything smelled good.
I asked a physician I know about it, because I found all kinds of bad information on hunting forums and wasn't sure what to do. If it's localized and sealed off like it was in this case it doesn't affect the meat. It's an infection they are fighting off and that pus would eventually be absorbed by their body again. Apparently it's very common and we've all probably eaten animals that had an abscess at some point.
They did say that if it's widespread like I read in the other thread "Really Nasty Infection - Any Ideas" then it's a different story and you shouldn't eat the meat.
Michigan DNR also has a good web page on this:
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26357--,00.html
