How long to hang

[hillbillyhunting]

How long would you hang your deer in the weather we have been having on the west side? high of 60-65 low of 40

[kselkhunter]

Get the meat below 40F temps as fast as possible to stop bacteria growth:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/meat_safety/

[fishngamereaper]

I've done 2-3 days. But my shop stays cool during the day.

[brew]

we just hang ours up and skin them...then quarter them up or bone them out and put in our beer fridge in the garage for a while.  I've put a whole cow elk in a fridge by boning it out and a blacktail will fit with the hind quarters bagged and both front shoulders bagged and bone out the rest.  You can even still fit some beers in there if you work it right.  After 4 or 5 days just cut it up...works perfect

[andr3wxmma]

id process it fairly fast with 60 degree temps

[brew]

i've gone on Craigs List and found numerous refers you can get for free-you will need to spend an hour or so to clean them out with some anti-bacterial cleaner but they are perfect for cooling meat

[predatorG]

Couple days maybe. The best way is to let it hang for a couple weeks, temps provided. Look up aged beef. Studies have been done, and I believe the ideal length is 21 days. It's a little warm where you are, but we've hung for a day or two with no problems. Relatives have 4 deer, an elk and an antelope hanging out at the farm rn. It's pretty cool there though. If anything they're trying to keep it warmer. They've had to bring them into the basement to dry out before, imagine walking downstairs and seeing what appears to be a buck standing there!!

[hillbillyhunting]

Thanks for the quick responses... I was up in the air if I should cut up the deer tonight or Wednesday.  It is always hard to decide how long to hang for me.  I am probably more of a risk taker than most.  I was up in the air on this decision and your quick responses helped me out. 

FYI: I hung the deer in my uninsulated garage from sat afternoon until this evening and the meat looks great.  I cut the quarters, backstrap, rib meat, etc off the carcass tonight and put it in the fridge in game bags.  I will butcher and package on Wednesday.

[PolarBear]

we just hang ours up and skin them...then quarter them up or bone them out and put in our beer fridge in the garage for a while. 

 
If I can’t keep it constantly inder 40 degrees it goes in my beer fridge the next or the day of hanging. Back straps and tenderloins get cut out, cut up and frozen immediately. The rest I cut up over the next week as I feel like.

[HntnFsh]

Game animals aren't beef. The meat isn't marbled and hanging them for extended periods of time does nothing. I have butchered deer and elk the same day I shot them, and have hung them for a week. No difference. That said for some reason I usually shoot for 3 day when under 50 degrees.

[dvolmer]

My Partners grandpa was a butcher in Waitsburg and Dayton for years.  He processed thousands of animals.  wild game and livestock.  He always told us deer you hang just long enough to cool the meat before cutting it up and freezing.  Elk hang 7 days in cooler if you can and then cut, wrap, and freeze.  Beef hang 21 days in cooler before processing.  He sais it had to do with the fact that fat in livestock is your friend and fat in wild game was your enemy when it came to flavor of meat.  Not sure all the details of that but its what I try to do.  All my animals are de-boned where the die.  I don't pack a single bone out except the skull.

[pcal]

You really need to read "12 reasons your venison taste like hell"by will Brantley. Read and heed. Has anyone ever made a bad shot and had to track a deer hours to finally seal the deal and then declare that it was the worse meat ever? Hanging  for 2 weeks at 38% would help but it will never be as good eating if the buck would have died asap,cooled off promply and processed to the freezer.Deer need to not be stressed by predators,drought, fires or rut fighting to be good eating,too.pcal

[nwwanderer]

At those temps, cool and process

[JakeLand]

we just hang ours up and skin them...then quarter them up or bone them out and put in our beer fridge in the garage for a while.  I've put a whole cow elk in a fridge by boning it out and a blacktail will fit with the hind quarters bagged and both front shoulders bagged and bone out the rest.  You can even still fit some beers in there if you work it right.  After 4 or 5 days just cut it up...works perfect

Boned out and on wire shelves stacked in beer fridge

[C-Money]

We bone out our deer after hanging them in the barn for a night or two. Meat comes off pretty quickly at my house. It goes in the fridge and is processed soon after.

[Igottanewknee]

we just hang ours up and skin them...then quarter them up or bone them out and put in our beer fridge in the garage for a while.  I've put a whole cow elk in a fridge by boning it out and a blacktail will fit with the hind quarters bagged and both front shoulders bagged and bone out the rest.  You can even still fit some beers in there if you work it right.  After 4 or 5 days just cut it up...works perfect

Boned out and on wire shelves stacked in beer fridge

About exactly the same as we do...

[JakeLand]

I like to use wire shelves ( I made ) and stack with a drip tray under each shelf to catch any drippings  I'll cut and vacuum seal within 2 days but before putting on shelves I thoroughly wash and trim all meat

[Mudman]

I understand arguments made but we have hung as long as temps allow.  Warm?  No hang just cool.  Cold 4-5 days seems perfect.  I absolutely feel a good hanging clean deer tastes way better then a sept boned deer.  As a matter of fact I have quit hunting Sept deer because I prefer to hang my deer in cold winter temps.  I am a meat hunter so this is important to me so much I don't hunt the hot weather recently.   

[bullfisher]

Another vote for not aging!
Had a meat cutter tell me deer dont have enough fat to warrent aging nor do enzymes break the meat and fat down the same as beef. 

[HntnFsh]

Another vote for not aging!
Had a meat cutter tell me deer dont have enough fat to warrent aging nor do enzymes break the meat and fat down the same as beef. 

Exactly!

[jagermiester]

I take the fridge apart. We fit two deer in our fridge this year hung for a week.

[jackelope]

Lots of beer drinkers here. That's good to see.
 

[Mudman]

So venison has no lactic acids?  No sugars in it?  It may taste better to some but aging is science and does help when done correct.   I confess to just eating some fresh backstrap that was delightfull, so maybe it is better.

[duckmen1]

All of our animals are processed as soon as we break the animals down. Gutted, hide off, quartered, then deboned, and straight to processing and into the freezer. Our meat turns out great.

[NOCK NOCK]

I take the fridge apart. We fit two deer in our fridge this year hung for a week.

In a travel trailer too.  Nice 

Lots of beer drinkers here. That's good to see.
 

 

Another vote for below. 

we just hang ours up and skin them...then quarter them up or bone them out and put in our beer fridge in the garage for a while.  I've put a whole cow elk in a fridge by boning it out and a blacktail will fit with the hind quarters bagged and both front shoulders bagged and bone out the rest.  You can even still fit some beers in there if you work it right.  After 4 or 5 days just cut it up...works perfect

Boned out and on wire shelves stacked in beer fridge

About exactly the same as we do...

[Igottanewknee]

Lots of beer drinkers here. That's good to see.
 

For a second I thought it said deer brinkers..... and I haven't touched one yet. 
And may I add, I keep the fridge between 34° and 38°.....

[hollymaster]

All of our animals are processed as soon as we break the animals down. Gutted, hide off, quartered, then deboned, and straight to processing and into the freezer. Our meat turns out great.

  Never bothered hanging.

[brew]

i don't put them in the fridge for "aging" as much as i put them in there so i don't have to worry about dealing with them for 4-5 days.  Take this last buck for example.  I took my son-in-law out deer hunting this year.  it was his second year modern hunting as he was raised in Michigan and came out here in the Military and spent 4 years combat in the sandbox and an additional 3 years there as a "civilian" contractor there. I really wanted him to shoot a deer as he never has before.  second weekend of the modern season as you know we had a big wind/rain storm.  On saturday the 21st we finally spotted a buck in a cut about 175 yards away at around 2:45 pm.  the remington pump action 30-06 that i gave him as a christmas present a few years back barked and his first buck was down.  It was raining sideways and it took almost an hour and 1/2 for us to drag that thing up to the road and gut it out.  by now it's a little after 4 o'clock.  it took us over an hour to drive out of the area we were hunting and i wasn't driving slow. got back to my house around 5:15 and i don't have the set up to hang/cut it up but my son does who lives 1/2 hour away.  called my son who lives in Lacey and told him we were coming in "Hot" with Larry's first buck. we took it there and skinned it/quartered it and after many congratulatory beers headed back to my house where we put the quarters in my beer fridge.  got up on Sunday morining and really didn't feel like dealing with cutting up the meat so i told Larry to go home and be with his family and i would cut it up during the week.  i spent last week cutting a little of it up at a time after i got home from work.  I got a free fridge of C/L and it is the best thing i've done in a while.  my work week is 4/10's and its difficult for me to shoot a deer and process it immediately rather than cutting it up "next" weekend after its been in the fridge without me worrying if its too warm

[Boss .300 winmag]

At least two months, then scrape off mold, cut, wrap and eat yummy. 

[PolarBear]

At least two months, then scrape off mold, cut, wrap and eat yummy. 

Sounds like what they do in Morocco. 

[andrew_in_idaho]

One of the best bucks I've ever eaten hung a full 2 weeks in a cooler while we were out elk hunting. Last February I took a cow elk on a depredation hunt and I was able to hang in my garage for 2 weeks without freezing or getting too warm. Those have been 2 of the best tasting game animals I've ever eaten. My buck from Sunday is hanging in my garage as we speak. I'll probably cut and wrap Saturday as the overnight temps are low enough to really cool the garage and I'll close it up during the day to trap the cool air in


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[7mmfan]

I normally cut mine up within a few days. This year I killed my mule deer in Idaho on the 2nd full day we were there, so I quartered it, let it hang in camp that night to get good and cold, and then would store it in my RTIC cooler during the day, bringing it back out to hang at night. I did that for a full week, cutting/wrapping it the following Sunday/Monday. That animal aged beautifully, and my wife told me she thinks it's one of the better eating deer we've had.

[Dan-o]

I vote for no aging of wild game.

[PolarBear]

 
Worst buck I ever ate (of my own) was a muley buck that I shot and let hang in camp for almost 2 weeks.  It was cooled out immediately and hung in a bag in the shade where the air around it never got above freezing.  In my experience the longer they hang the more gamey they taste.  This is probably why my wife can't stand the smell of wild game.  She was around folks who would not cool them out properly and would hang for almost a month. 

[7mmfan]

Small edit to my above post. This buck was quartered and packed out on a well below freezing night, so he cooled asap. Also, the next day I pulled everything out of the bags, trimmed all the fat off and boned the quarters pulling the internal fat/glands out of the quarters. The meat at this point was essentially ready to process, but I had to wait until I got home to do so.

[pianoman9701]

We always asked our butcher in NH to hang deer for 7-10 days. He would make the burger right away and trim all the fat off. It was always fantastic and tender with no gaminess. I can't get anyone to age venison or elk out here. They're moving lots of animals through during the season and don't have the space, is what I've been told.

As far as hanging in your garage or shed, if it's not below 40F, cut it up and freeze it.