do you let the deer hang out after gutting and before skinning?

[Curly]

Do you know if some game processors will hang your meat for you? Until your ready to travel home if fr outta town or trying to fill another tag

Several years ago I killed a buck and took it to a butcher in Baker City Oregon to be cut and wrapped. A few days later I showed up to get it since my brother had since tagged one and they still hadn't gotten to it. I paid for storage and took it home and cut it up myself. They didn't mention storage as an option when we first stopped in but when they hadn't started on it a few days later they just charged a fee for storage.

[birddogdad]

What I'm surprised at is watching the Moose hunt on North Wood law. All the moose at the check station were whole with the hide on. Moose have to be harder to cool then elk and how did they get them out of the woods whole?

Of course if your in the woods in PA during deer season all the deer hanging have the hide on.

From Maine, family has drawn 3 over the years, father, grandfather, and mother. Nice they allow a "2nd" hunter..... early on that was how they "wanted" them brought to check stations... used to be refer trucks there, would take you game and deliver for a fee too.. come a long way was 1000 tags then now almost 4000 per year drawn.. and they can bring whole, quartered, hide off to check stations too...
http://www.maine.gov/ifw/hunting_trapping/registration_tagging/index.htm#taggingrequirements

[jason stevens]

Gut it, skin it , put it in the cooler, home,butcher it, freeze it, all as soon as possable.we stopped hanging a long time ago. Personally I think its bettet but just my opinion.

[Hunta270]

I'm in Australia where the average temp is way higher than WA and unless we want a skin or cape for a mount we almost always hang with skin on. My mate hangs legs with skin in in his cool room for up to 12 WEEKS!!! No issues with taste or anything. These aren't whitetail or elk these are reds, fallow, Rusa, chital, hog and sambar deer... Not that I think I makes a difference... As for getting a ticket for wastage for not skinning??!! What a load of *censored*!! I would call all the dried out meat because of skinning wastage!!! The skin protects it from bacteria and from drying out. If you get it cold quickly the skin will have zero negative effects.

[singleshot12]

 :yeah:gUT ASP,wipe,clean and dry cavity. Leave hide on and hang in 38 degree cold storage for 2-3 weeks to age. The only way to make an old deer taste it's best imo

[cryder]

Place up close to my cabin charges 6 dollars a day storage if you let them process it its 4 dollars a day , ill tell you one thing for sure this place is only two miles from the kill zone I like to call it , and what ever I get will be in there cooler with in the hour for 5 days and they will process it , total cost , 65 bucks !! Ill do that any time.OH YA ! ,if I get one of the six bears up there ill take it to the shop , hang it for 5 days and put a add on here for bear meat you pay the costs I don't want bear meat, but I will be making my own hide. Stat tuned !

[Brazz]

Gut it where it died, leave the hide on while getting to your truck and camp. Hang it, then skin it. After skinning it, I use two game bags to cover the exposed meat. I then use a tarp to loosely go around the hanging deer to keep any direct sun off the animal, but allow air flow to cool it down even faster. I've hung deer in camp for 9-10 days with no problems if it is cool enough. It is vital to care for your harvest correctly because if you don't when you go to eat it and it taste like crap you've wasted a lot of effort. One photo of deer hanging is just before I skinned it.

[Hunta270]

Gut it where it died, leave the hide on while getting to your truck and camp. Hang it, then skin it. After skinning it, I use two game bags to cover the exposed meat. I then use a tarp to loosely go around the hanging deer to keep any direct sun off the animal, but allow air flow to cool it down even faster. I've hung deer in camp for 9-10 days with no problems if it is cool enough. It is vital to care for your harvest correctly because if you don't when you go to eat it and it taste like crap you've wasted a lot of effort. One photo of deer hanging is just before I skinned it.

So essentially you skin the deer only to put another "skin" back on it??!! What's the point? It can cool down fine with skin on.. In what way does skin affect taste? Genuine question...

[dewandgin]

I grew up hunting in Wyoming and never skinned a animal til we were ready to process it. Usually 5 to 14 days. Moved to Washington wetside and almost lost my first elk because it wouldn't cool quick enough with hide on. Since then I always skin as soon as it is convenient. Really the only difference in taste has been whether the animal was stressed or not.

[Dan-o]

1.  Ever notice any of that premium dry aged beef hanging with the hide on?    Me neither.
2.  Ever notice it hanging in some uncontrolled area with uncontrolled temperatures?  Me neither.

I say cool it off ASAP (that means getting the hide off ASAP*), control temperature ASAP.  Forget about "aging" game meat.  But that's just me.

I cringe when I see elk hanging in elk camp with all of the flies laying eggs in the heat.

[fish vacuum]

Can an animal be "aged" by hanging? Yes
Can an animal be ruined by hanging if the conditions aren't right? Yes.
Skin and process ASAP.

[Miles]

Gut it where it died, leave the hide on while getting to your truck and camp. Hang it, then skin it. After skinning it, I use two game bags to cover the exposed meat. I then use a tarp to loosely go around the hanging deer to keep any direct sun off the animal, but allow air flow to cool it down even faster. I've hung deer in camp for 9-10 days with no problems if it is cool enough. It is vital to care for your harvest correctly because if you don't when you go to eat it and it taste like crap you've wasted a lot of effort. One photo of deer hanging is just before I skinned it.

Nice buck Brazz.  Have a story or any other pics of it?

[police women of America]

Thanks guys. This is some Great info 
And nice buck Brazz!

[csaaphill]

Yep Gut, get home to hang and skin asap, or if camping back to camp to hang and skin.
to skin your hand ouch
fixed it sorry to hang and skin

[Brazz]

Thanks for the comments on the Bucks. The one with the two of use putting the drag on is actually a different deer than the first picture. It was my brothers first deer kill. Long story, The Brazz clan is known for being long winded. My brothers second year hunting, first year he missed a monster on the run. I've been hunting in the same location for 27 years so I take him to an old wooden tree stand, (more of a tree fort than tree stand) he can sit and watch the area. He can sit all day, as long as he has a couple diet cokes and some snacks. While he's sitting up there the plan was for me and my wife to skirt around the area then make are way back to him in about 4 hours. I start out maybe a 1/4 mile from him and 20 minutes after leaving him we hear a shot. So we keep to the plan, but circle back early (1 hour) to get in position to view the tree stand he was in. We see it but he's not in it, but I do see threw my binocs that there is a diet coke can sitting on the platform. We finally find him an hour or so later standing by his deer. I exclaim...OH MY God!, he says what's wrong? I tell him, I don't think you understand how big that WT is, it's the biggest bodied WT I'd  ever seen. We get it back to camp and a friend had shot a 4x4 Mule deer and it was already hanging. This WT body was bigger than the  Mule Deer. My brother said that he first saw a doe running by about 100 yards away. Following it was this buck about 30 yards behind. The doe never stopped, but the buck sensed something odd, stopped for about 2 seconds looked in his direction and he put the shot on target. He believed that when he saw the doe, he put his diet coke down on the platform...he says that's what the buck saw out of place? This buck was shot clean threw the heart, shredding it, but it still ran 150 yards until falling over. One last picture of his first deer.