We just aged a cow moose two weeks in a small walk in cooler at 36 degrees. There was no drying, but we did hose it down to clean it off before we put it in the cooler.
There is nothing in the hide that is going to add to the quality of the meat, but a lot that will detract from it. I treat any animal,deer,elk, etc., the samea s I would treat a beef that I butcher. Get the hide off immedicately, keep it clean and get it cooledd down.
We cut all the membrane off the carcass before we bucther and the elk that we do age ,there is maybe 1/8" of drying of the meat, but that gets cut off with the membrane. Probably less than 2-3 pounds of meat cut off.
Certainly the age of the animal will dictate the length of time it should be aged. A young bull or cow maybe aged 3-4 days, something older 8-10 years,it gets aged at least a week.
It is more important to keep the temperature even. Most at about 34-38 degrees. The up and down from that to 55-60 or greater is what really hurts and a person needs to watch the meat carefully if that is happening. With care, in muzzle loader season when it is warmer, I have kept an elk in camp 3-4 days without a problem.
As Alomosa states, you at least want the meat to go into and out of Rigor Mortis to let the muscles relax, before removing from the bone.
