hanging a deer

Last year my daughter shot her first buck. Warm out and hurry like a sumbitsky.
Skinned it all out and still an hour to pavement and an hour to the locker.
Scared the bejeezus out of me.
I had shot a small two point and got the little rascal home in lightning speed. Called our local game cutter and his locker was full till the next day. Crap.
Skinned it out and quartered the little guy up and hung it out in the man shop under
the ceiling fan on high. Slight bit of taste off. It was 10 degrees in there.
Now I refuse to go out early. Easy pickings, but I'm at an age where if I need to hustle
me britches, phuck it. Costco is up the hill. Do dilligence. We are suppose to be of the
high end caliber, so when in doubt, don't. Bring a freezer and a gen set.
Worse come to worse, find a creek with a bridge over it and hang the quarters under
the bridge till dark and hurry to the cooler.
My pennies worth.
Cheers.
 
Get the hide off, keep it out of the direct sun and the flies off it, and it will be fine at 20c for a day or so. Warmer temperatures accelerate aging so your total hanging time will be reduced but you won't ruin the carcass.
 
I only hunt in the evenings anyway so it will most likly be cooler then that. (Around 15 or so). And going down to about 10. At night.. I usualy dress, skin and butchar right away and have everything done in under an hour after it has died. Iv never hung my meat so I was unsure of what temps ect
 
I only hunt in the evenings anyway so it will most likly be cooler then that. (Around 15 or so). And going down to about 10. At night.. I usualy dress, skin and butchar right away and have everything done in under an hour after it has died. Iv never hung my meat so I was unsure of what temps ect
 
Whatever you do keep the meat dry.
Washing meat down with cold water won't hurt it at all. I always flush with cold water from a hose whenever possible. This will cool down the meat and wash off any dirt and hair. I dry it off after and hang in a cold, dry (non-humid) location. Never had a problem.

OTOH ....... Hanging it in a humid environnment will promote much bacterial growth, fast.

.
 
We usually gut as soon as we get to it.Hang for at least 21 days same as beef.Temp is between 1 and 3 degrees.We do not skin until we bone out.Makes a huge difference aging meet.
 
Washing meat down with cold water won't hurt it at all. I always flush with cold water from a hose whenever possible. This will cool down the meat and wash off any dirt and hair. I dry it off after and hang in a cold, dry (non-humid) location. Never had a problem.

OTOH ....... Hanging it in a humid environnment will promote much bacterial growth, fast.

.

I wash the meat off with clean drinkable water then I pat dry. Nothing wrong with that. However lake water ect... Not good!
 
What exactly do you want to know besides what i said? Yes I have done it, 2 years ago in deer season we were wearing t shirts. It was hot so that's how we cooled it.

I heard this up north in one of the fly in native communities, and used as a short term storage solution in hot weather. I don't think it was even remotely close to a preferred solution, but an emergency one. At the bottom of the lake, its usually around 4 degrees C.

Most lakes have their share of small debris and for want of a better word "sludge" drifting around.

What else do I want to know? how about how did it turn out?

Does the meat get water sogged and how does it dry out afterward? Damage?
 
I heard this up north in one of the fly in native communities, and used as a short term storage solution in hot weather. I don't think it was even remotely close to a preferred solution, but an emergency one. At the bottom of the lake, its usually around 4 degrees C.

Most lakes have their share of small debris and for want of a better word "sludge" drifting around.

What else do I want to know? how about how did it turn out?

Does the meat get water sogged and how does it dry out afterward? Damage?

It turned out fine, It didn't get water logged and dried like its spose to when we took it out...No damage its a sand bottom, spring fed lake If you can find mud or anything dirty in it ill give you 10 buck.

It did turn out fine not like we left it there for 2 weeks, It was pretty much just to get the heat out of it till we got the cellar cleaned out for it. Normally we hang our deer off the meat pole but like I said it was hot that year.

It was a tough hunting season, without doggers seeing a deer on the move during light would have been lucky.
 
I cut and wrapped a deer (road kill) this year, at 30 degrees C.
It was Sunday, no butcher shops open, and I have no place to hang meat in the cool.
So, I just did the job, cut wrapped, ground, the works, and froze the lot.

Result, the meat is major bloody when thawed, and the hamburger insanely so.
I've found the best idea is to that it so the blood can drain away from the meat, and burger.
Cooked burgers are much darker than normal, and taste different. Not bad, just different. No real problem with the cut meat, but as I said, I try to drain it before cooking.
 
Meat is extra bloody maybe because it didn't get a chance to bleed out. I have butchered antelope in weather so hot you were sweating. Skinned and boned it out and put in a cooler with ice and brought it home. The best thing I found for lifting a deer up by myself are these ratchat rope pully gizmos I bought from Lee Valley tools.You can pull up each side a bit at a time and get a big deer off the ground with out to much trouble.
 
Meat is extra bloody maybe because it didn't get a chance to bleed out. I have butchered antelope in weather so hot you were sweating. Skinned and boned it out and put in a cooler with ice and brought it home. The best thing I found for lifting a deer up by myself are these ratchat rope pully gizmos I bought from Lee Valley tools.You can pull up each side a bit at a time and get a big deer off the ground with out to much trouble.
Obviously the meat was bloody because I could not hang it, it was too hot.
That's the point of this thread.
I have a nice spot in my garage with a chain hoist to hang, if it's cool, and 30 degrees is not cool. Flies were gathering, the place stank of blood, and I was more than sweating on that one.
 
Ive eaten stinky old bucks that were probably 8years old, and the meat was tender with no game smell or taste.

Ive eaten younger deer that were tough... and stinky... all good cuts of steak.

The difference is aging and a bit of commitment to make sure its cooling well, especially the first 24 hours.:cool:
 
We've taken extra heavy plastic bags and sunk meat in water to cool it. The meat didn't get wet but had to be deboned and retained a lot of blood. It worked in a pinch but not my favorite way to cool meat.
 
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