I've never had the opportunity for either situation, always to warm to leave an animal for an extended period of time, but it seems like I've read about this here more than a few times.
Sure glad you're not the local warden.
Don't know if I qualify for celebrity status but the past two elk I killed lay out overnight and were recovered the next day because I felt it prudent not to push a hit that I wasn't confident in. In both cases it was the right call and the elk were quickly recovered in the morning. I did not loose any meat to spoilage and both bulls happened to be some of the best elk meat I've ever had.
Also, given the option, I'd much rather bring a deer back to the house, hang it, skin it, and then gut it. I've always been able to keep the meat much cleaner that way than the times I gut, and bone in the field.
Contrary to some opinions, animals don't automatically spoil just because the guts aren't removed within minutes of the kill. Obviously conditions dictate what you can and can't get by with. Perhaps some of hunters who make that decision are going with their best options at the time. Monday morning quarterbacking and all that stuff ......
On one of those bulls I knew that he was hit too far back. At dark I faced the dilemna, to continue to follow the good blood that I was hoping was coming from the artery under the spine and find a dead bull, or risk jumping a gut shot elk in blow down lodge pole and possibly never finding him. I chose to back out. Turns out my intial thought that I had hit the artery under the spine was correct and I found him less than two hundred yards later. He had died within minutes of the shot. However, He was also hit through the liver and the paunch. If I had not clipped that artery, he would have certainly been alive when I stumbled on him later that evening. One saving factor for me was that the arrow hole in his paunch also vented the gas and he was not bloated.
