How long to age/hang venison

[Salmo]

So how long  do you all prefer to hang/age venison?   I almost alway cut and wrapped on the 3rd day due to lack of access to a walking cooler.  Temps just never seem to cooperate..

Anyway, how long do you hang your venison?   

[JohnVH]

weve hung them up to a week, if its cold. My bear was in the cooler a week.

[pianoman9701]

1-2 weeks in a cooler. Less without, especially if it's warm. Aging assists and multiplies enzymes which break down fibers making the meat more tender. I do this with elk too. There's a lot trimmed off, but the results are excellent.

[Jingles]

I only hang them long enough to get them from the day they were shot til I can get them out of camp and home and depending on weather might be next day. Keep it hung in barn while I skin, bone and cut them up . Then the wife goes to work cutting all connective tissue off and wrapping. By the time we're done it is all as tender as backstrap and doesn't have any of the gamey taste

[jaymark6655]

Just long enough to butcher the thing.  Hanging too long makes the meat too mushy.

[runningboard]

3-5 days if you can keep it cold, heard something I wanna try, hang from ribcage & rope around flank in front of rear 1/4s no tension on muscles supposed to make it more tender. worth an experiment 

[Smokepole]

Ten days is a good time to hang them if the weather is cool.  You have to keep your eye on the carcass and smell it daily if the temps are over 40.  I like to age long as possible, since it dries the meat a bit and you don't get as much water oozing out into the fry pan.  Tenderizes it too.  I've also butchered them shortly after the kill, and the meat is fine, just not as good, IMO.

[adamR]

We only hang them as long as we have to.  Typically we take the animal home, skin it, and butcher it all one after the other.  I don't typically let it hang longer than nessasary.

[Huntbear]

5 - 7 days minimum...  longer if it is a big old nasty thick necked blacktail that has been rutting in the alder thickets...

     

[WSU]

Depends on temperature.  Here is a good read based in part on a study done by the University of Wyoming:

http://www.theoutdoorlodge.com/features/articles/wild_game/handling_big_game_carcasses.html

[Greenhorn]

Good article WSU!

[Jonathan_S]

I have never hanged deer for longer than two days at any temperature

[jaymark6655]

Depends on temperature.  Here is a good read based in part on a study done by the University of Wyoming:

http://www.theoutdoorlodge.com/features/articles/wild_game/handling_big_game_carcasses.html

  Everytime this comes up I post a study down by another university, CO I think, that says hanging/aging game meat is bad and makes it too tender.

[Russ McDonald]

Doe I shot in Minnesota this year.  Gutted, pictures, hung, skinned, butchered, wrapped all in about 5 hours.  Aunt buck she shot the first day I was there we gutted, pictures, hung, skinned and quartered threw quarters and backstrap in bags and put in chest freezer to firm up because it was actually hot in Minnesotat.  Butchered and wrapped the next morning.  Hunting as a kid in Minnesota I don't every remeber us leaving our deer hanging. 

[superdown]

The absolute minimum amount of time. I like my meat butchered as quickly as possible and off the bone even quicker so there is no possibility of anything effecting the quality or flavor of the meat.