I’m hunting on a property that has a large amount of MLD dough tags that we need to fill. We have a large walk-in cooler which does a really good job and holds 40° very consistently.

If we field dress and then hang the deer inside the cooler, how long is reasonable to leave the deer hanging
Before skinning and cutting up the meat for final processing?
Thanks.

I’m no pizza expert, but I like to leave my deer hanging for 2-5 days, depending on what’s convenient.

Many online sources will talk about aging deer in the cooler for weeks. If you have not cut up the deer or skinned it yet, then it could age in a cooler for 3-4 weeks and I have heard good things about that timeframe making some very tender meat.

I am planning to process my meat down, vacuum seal and then wet age for 4 weeks in the fridge. I typically let it sit in meat containers cut into the rough cuts for a week or two, then process further down into edible pieces (taking all the silverskin and tough stuff) and then vacuum seal and freeze. This year I am planning on doing the same but once in the bags I will leave in the fridge for another two weeks, then drain the resultant blood/myoglobulin out, and reseal. then go to the freezer. Always looking for new ways to do things.

Have kept many +\- a week in a fridge or on ice. A few made 2 weeks and it’s longer than I would prefer.

I like pizza too

In a reliable fridge, the aging process can be super long, even months. So why would you prefer less than 2 weeks?

The longer the meat is aged the more the muscle fibers are broken down and become tender. A quick aged meat is going to be more tough and chewy compared to a longer aged meat..

Because I’ve had bits turn green in two weeks. My take a lot more goes into humidity/contamination control for aging than your run of the mil fridge.

I have routinely had deer age in the fridge for 2 weeks and never experienced any go bad. Weird.

I have not gone much longer than 2 weeks, but my plan of doing 2 weeks initial, then process down to final cuts and then seal and wet age for 2 more weeks might be the way to go.

I have also heard of people processing and sealing, freezing, then when they want to eat, they put in fridge to defrost and then age in the fridge for the remainder with good results. Seems the time of 21-28 days is good for deer to become very tender. At least what I read....

OP, are you asking what time is optimum or how long you can push it without a problem???

Most of you are talking about aging meat. Which I get and is fine. I’m more talking about leaving a skin on deer hanging in the cooler.

The reason is if we shoot 10-15 does one weekend we can’t process that many that quickly. So some of them might need to sit there a bit and I’m wondering how long is reasonable.

Say we put 15 in the cooler. I can take 2-3 deer to three different people who all need the meat. They can each handle that many but I still have more deer left. So would you leave 5-8 deer sitting until the next weekend?

I think I'd at least get the skin off of them, then let them hang. Some folks hang meat for 2 weeks and say it improves the quality. (As you stated - "aging.") I wish I had a list of people that I could take a gutted deer to. The processors in Junction want 50.00 a pop to donate. That's one of the reasons why I hold a couple of TWA hunts and an occasional other charity type hunt during the season. It's a win-win. However, even with guides/mentors helping, the cleaning, skinning and quartering is s-l-o-w...It's like watching grass grow.

2 weeks hanging in a reliably Good walk in cooler is plenty alright.

Not even a concern for anything going wrong there.

1000%

Very few of us have ever eaten a beef steak that was less than a month old. If i had a walk in cooler, all my deer would hang for 30 days minimum with the skin off.

I've never understood why people are so scared of game meat going bad! I promise you, 90% of us probably take better care of our game meat than anything that we purchase at the store.

muddyz hanging them in the cooler is aging them.. As long as the cooler stays below 43 degrees your deer will be fine.
Sometimes we skin before hanging and sometimes we hang and age with the skin on, less dry rind to cut off that way.
It's good to let them get out of rigor before cutting or they will be tougher.

You'll smell any problem with the deer if they start to go bad.


This is an older paper put out by the UW meat lab but it still holds: https://www.wyoextension.org/publications/Search_Details.php?pubid=380&pub=B-513
https://www.wyoextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B-513R.pdf

This brings up a question, I have a reliable refrigerator/freezer trailer that will hold 38 degrees. I can plug in to 110v or run off of a welder/gen mounted on the front. Problem is that it is only 4' tall, 5' x 7'. If temps are 40 or below I like to hang my whole deer outside for a few days if possible. My question is... is there any benefit to quartering and hanging the deer in the trailer vs. putting the whole deer in on the floor? There are also expanded metal shelves on one side of the cooler that could hold quarters....

I would think you would want air around it vs laying on the floor. Wire racks would work or you could just hang the quarters

Thanks, sounds good. I think i can run a couple of black gas pipes with sliding hangers under the coils across the top. I will still have the expanded metal shelves too...