I'll hang mine when I am in camp, not typically longer than 2-4 days, as long as it's quartered. My bull this year I shot on a Friday morning, and it hung in camp til I got it to the cooler Sunday afternoon and the meat was in great shape.
I read in a book one time that they hung a bull up whole over night and the temps droped into the low 30's. At 8 am the next morning they put a thermometer into the hind quarted to the bone and it was still in the 70's. The bone will retain the heat for a very long time.
I don't know where you read this, but last year my bull hung only one day in September, low 70's, and I butchered it the next afternoon and the meat was very cool all the way to the bone. This year the temp was getting around 40 at night and upper 60's in the day and after 3 days everything was cool and the meat was perfect to butcher.
