Deer in the canal

[MadZ]

while out a walk on saterday, we see a deer in the old canal, we went past the same spot on wednesday and it was not there then, was just wondering if anyone knows or has a basic idea of how long it would last three quarters submerged, head, hind leg and left side of it belly are exposed

its a shame to leave it there to rot out and if people think it would be alright to salvage some bits off of it, i might just go pull it out.

what i was thinking is the tendons for sinew, bones for handles and other crafted items, ribs might make a good starting point for a bow drill, the skull would look nice on my front door, the skin might make some good leather if its not to badly rotted out.

i noticed it by the smell as we past the spot, its all in one piece and looks like it got stuck due to the high banks and become to tired to get it self out, it has not ballooned up yet and i expect it to have been there since wednesday night onwards, it wasnt there at 8pm on the wednesday

if anyone could say weather or not its worth getting ill happily share out what i get from it, expecting the meat to be rancid.

hmm rancid meat.............currying works for rotten meat (the hotter the curry, the more rotten the meat)...............venison curry any one????

cheers for any info that anyone could throw my way about this, just seems a shame to leave it and only just got round to asking about it

nice one MadZ

p.s if this post should be in the wild food section please pm me and ill remove and reposition it to the appropriate place

[roberts]

Am very surprised you've not had any answers yet to this but am sure the body would have started to break down so might be quite squishy not to mention infested

[Silverback]

At the time this was posted three days plus, in 20 deg plus heat isnt a great preservative. The fact the smell drew you to it gives the game away that the putrefaction process is well advanced. Combine this with the fact that any of it is exposed indicates that it has already floated due to decomposition gases.......The exposed parts will be fly blown already, and given the way it died its flesh will have become acidotic due to hypercapnoea so it will more than likely be very, very tough...Like roberts says surprised if it isnt 'squishy'....In my experience bodies pulled from water (of any kind) arent pleasant....Then theres the nasties lurking in the canal like leptrospirosis from rat urine, oils, industrial chemicals, heavy metals et al ...

So what did you do in the end ?

[David_JAFO]

hello,
I'll go along with Sapper's comments, Get a fishing line in there for the lurking Pike :wink:
Regards
David

[MadZ]

cheers guys

I left it there in the end sapper, i'll go grab the skull when its clean of flesh, its a shame that i didn't notice it earlier on as would have been a good free bee, guess ill have to keep checking the area to see if another one falls victim to the steep banks of the canal.

if i find another i'll post back here with what i have to share