Butchering

[MiG25]

Basic butchering is pretty easy.

A boning knife and a Victorinox steak knife along with a vacuum sealer is an adequate basic setup.

 

[Potashminer]

You could hang in your garage if it was cool enough, unlike beef there’s no definitive gain from hanging/aging deer. There’s no fat marbling the meat, you’re just drying it out.

I generally let it rest overnight if I’m too tired to butcher it right away, or if it’s warm out I’ll break it into quarters and leave it on ice in a cooler for a day or so till I have time to cut and wrap.

^ This! I do not think many people understand the difference between deer / pork and beef. Many times, we ground up pigs (pork) for sausage, that might have still been a bit warm from the butchering - there is no "marbled fat" to worry about. Same with deer. But it is nice to be able to hang good beef for 8 or 10 days after butchering - at a temp that keeps the meat cool but does not freeze - I had read that circa 4 C or so is about ideal.

It might be different for big elk and moose - a butcher that I met near Hudson Bay, Sask. would hang the sides in his cooler room, until they felt "sticky" to put your hand on - time to cut them up, then. He had a "freezer plant", so the packaged meat would be "flash frozen" quite quickly after it was cut up and wrapped. As with other cooking, the result is often with the "cook" - cuts of deer meat are NOT cooked the same as higher end beef cuts.