Let me start off by saying there wasn't a topic for this so I went with the most general.



Long story short. Saw a decent 7 point get hit by a car and was given legal permission to take it after the police shot it in the heart. Had it home and skinned within two hours of death, quartered and on ice in 3. I'm butchering it and have found a break in both back femurs, which explains why it was just sitting up on the ground in the grass near the road.



Only been hunting 3 years. This is only the second deer I have ever got. First one was a clean bow kill at 15 yards on the ground that I butchered myself. It was really easy and clean in comparison to the mess i have on my hands now. I figured I'd be throwing away some of the meat but tonight I threw away the entire rear quarter after breaking it down and trying to clean it up. It had clotted blood between every muscle, surrounding the muscles, under the membranes and dark blood spots in the thick of the of big muscles. For examples, I sliced the Sirloin in 1/4" slices and there was spotting throughout most of it. The muscles are intact and there are no tears in the muscles themselves on this piece. I pulled out one of the front quarters, which was the best of all 4 quarters and it was in great shape! The entire thing was usable without any question.



Earlier tonight my attitude was, if I need to ask if it's still good, I better throw it out. Now I'm thinking about the other rear and front quarter I'm going to work on tomorrow and figured I'd ask around and see if anyone has any experience with this. These last two pieces look like they have allot of the clotted blood trapped under the membrane like the first rear quarter did. The other rear definitively has a broken femur and the front from the looks of it sustained some damage.



Have any of you out there tried to process a road kill deer? At what point is the meat not any good, in terms of trauma? Like I said, it was pretty fresh by road kill standards (can't believe I'm actually typing this statement). From the outside you would have never known there was any damage. Is it bad when there is allot of blood in and around the meat like I have been describing? I'd like to hear anything you guys have to say but lets keep it serious...I've already heard all the jokes from everyone I know. I really liked the idea of this buck not going to waste. At least the loins and back straps were perfect.