I was talking to a butcher and he said if the guts or colon got cut, or otherwise spilled when you're gutting an animal that you should just throw all the meat away. I read about an awful lot of guys gut shooting game. What do you do with it? Is it a total loss?

Another question, I've read a story on here a while back where a guy gut shot a deer and said he went out and found it the next day. Does anybody actually eat an animal that was left out overnight without being gutted?

Butcher is FOS. Why waste an entire critter? Recover time and temps mean something. Archery season here, in August, then you better recover quick during the hottest time of year but late season in the mountains overnight is seasoning, or your poor tracking skills on a shot you should have never taken.

I have field dress several gut shot deer and never lost any meat to it.  Its never fun (especially when your brother gut shoots a button buck with a 45-70) but I have never had an issue with it spoiling the meat especially if you recover it quickly and clean thoroughly.  The worst case I have ever personally dealt with was two years ago I hit a doe just behind the diaphragm through the stomach at last light.  She took a step just as my crossbow trigger broke.  I did not recover her until the next morning.  She had double back on her trail and laid up and died in opposite direction I though she had gone.  I did not figure that out until I could read the sign in the full light of the next morning.  Over night temps only got down into the mid 40's.  It was a mess to gut, smelled bad too, but we hosed out the carcass with water and took it to the butcher.  Meat tasted just fine.

You might have to throw some meat away, but hell no, it's not a loss.  It depends on how much of what gets onto the meat, and how quickly you get it washed off.  A shot that goes through the gall bladder and blasts some bile into the bullet channel?  Yeah, you're gonna want to cut that out.  A little stomach juice that gets washed off right away?  No biggie.  If it is a deer or an elk, it should be aged long enough that the butcher is going to cut the surface away anyway.

I cleaned my first gut shot deer this year. Not sure how I managed at 7yds, but could smell it the instant I cut open the abomen. I stopped right there, hung it, butchered it and left the internals in it. Problem solved for me.

I have seen and cleaned a lot of gut shot animals, just wash it off and dispose of any meat that was hit by the trajectory of the bullet.  

Here is an interesting gut shot on a scimitar oryx, the bullet just stopped, it was if I remember right a 150 grain Hornady SST out of a 30-06 at 100 yards.  The second shot dropped him with a heart shot.  It was a factory load that did not have enough powder or some sort of primer ignition problem.
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BS.

Take care gutting the animal. Keep all knives away from gut fluids. Work around damaged areas. Keep everything clean.

I had elk burger from a gut shot cow. The guy probably had not been very diligent about cleanliness and there was a very slight off flavor. Not too bad, just different.

Gut shot doesn't matter when you leave the guts in the animal and take the clean pieces home.  Every hunter should know how to execute the "gutless method" for meat processing.  

Ww did the gutless method on three Bull Elk this past year.  Worked fantastic.  Took some extra effort to get the Tenderloin out, but it was worth it not dealing with the gut pile, leakage, etc.   

Old thread I know but your butcher is an idiot.

I shot a buck a couple years ago that was quartering away heavily.  Arrow went through the intestines, sliced the stomach open, then through the liver/diaphragm/lungs.

Didn't lose any meat on him aside from a little bit of tenderloin.