Venison care early season

huntinforfish

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Archery season is still over a week away here in MN(I know, I know). With the weather still forecast to be quite warm, I am curious to hear what others do to care for and store deer in the early season. I have no room in my current dwelling for processing myself and therefore have to transport somewhere for processing. Some places have decent hours to get deer in, but this early, it can be tough. What do you guys look for as far as hanging temperatures and hang times in the early season. Any helpful tidbits that I may not know? Thanks for any tips.
 


JMF

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Quarter it and throw it in a cooler with frozen water.
 

SDMF

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Or if you want all the hair off:

 

johnr

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Cool it down as soon as possible, throw a bag of ice in the chest cavity, rinse it off once you get it home to help clean and cool it. It can hang for a 24-36 hour period if needed without worry if you clean and cool it. This time of year the nights get cool enough to likely get your garage or shed cool at night and leave it closed up during the day to keep heat out. Most butchers this time of year are going to be able to take it in if you are to busy to get to it yourself in that first day/ day and a half.

I had a deer hang for 5 days in 50* temps, didn't seem to taint the meat any. Might not be recommended, but then neither is most things a guy does.
 

Kickemup

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Just get a Yeti and put 5 lbs of ice on your meat and it will be frozen by morning.
 


NDwalleyes

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First and foremost, get the hide off ASAP....Then do 5 lbs of ice in in the yeti and let'er freeze.
 

KDM

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Gut as soon as you can, hang'er up, and rinse down with cold cold water. You can fill the chest cavity with ice if you wish and let hang overnight and then process the next day. Early season for me is a shoot'em, gut'em, and cut'em kind of thing. Later in the year I like to let my deer hang for a few days.
 

Lycanthrope

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You can age deer in a cooler, skinned. I have done this several times and it will work up to a week. Put a rack in the bottom of the cooler to keep the meat out of the water/blood. Keep the drain open and tilt the cooler so water runs toward the drain and out. Throw deer on top of the rack and then cover completely with ice. Add ice once a day to replace whatever is lost to melt. Never had a problem doing it this way.
 

johnr

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No way I am putting a bunch of stinky venison in my fancy chick getting Yeti.

Just let it hang with the hide off, and some ice in the chest cavity for the night, get to it asap or within 36 hours
 


Lycanthrope

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Haha, Ive noticed all the hot chicks are with Yeti toting dudes.... Maybe I need to start saving up!

yeticoolerphotojpgc07c808458b942bc-1.jpg

Potential FBO calendar girl here, only missing a few beerz.... Is that gaff handle curved for her pleasure?
 
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NodakBuckeye

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I would check around for hours, ask who can meet you at their locker after hours, ask what is the latest they will meet you. If you stick one late evening and it is 10 or 11 pm, will they meet you to get the carcass in the walk in? If you cannot hang it at home overnight then load up the cavity with ice from stem to stern and lay it so water can drip out. We would lay the deer down on a tarp, load it with ice and fold the tarp over. Transport with ice and remove before taking in.

Most places don't give a rip about taking the time to hang a deer- especially if tbey are an inspected facility and have beef and pork to cut. Your deer might lay in the cooler on a suspect floor for several hours before they get to it. They cannot butcher your deer while they have inspected carcasses to do. I would take a cooler, cutting boards, knives, lanterns,etc.. along with me. Skin and debone or quarter your deer, place meat in trash bags and lay on ice. Moisture can cause big problems if meat is above 45°. Anything you are going to turn to burger does not need aged. Backstraps and filets generally do not need aged but can be held in fridge for a few days if you wish. Anything you plan to steak or keep in roasts can be aged in fridge for several days and not take up too much space or keep iced in cooler as Lycan suggested. We got to the point where we could skin and bone out a hanging deer in about 90 minutes or less.
 

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