saddle, that is what we have always done.. Get things skinned as soon as possible.. But here I often kill my antelope in mid Sept. to late Sept. I often hunt deer in the early season which opens Sept. 15th.. The latest I usually kill my mule deer is the first week in Oct.. Pretty warm at that time of year.
Same here. The deer I killed in ML season was early Sept. Elk in ML season is earlier yet.The moose I killed on Oct 17, it was 60 degrees during the day and not down to freezing at night.The elk I killed on Oct 20 (three days later),the temp was about 55 and the nights were right at freezing.
Any one of those animals would have spoiled if I didn't get the hide off immediately.
My antelope season this year is Dec 6th. We usually kill 2-3 during the day and skin them all that afternoon.
I am fortunate as my hunting partner has small walk in cooler so we are not hanging meat in a dusty old barn or garage. Except for the little bit of drying while we are still out in the field, we see no drying when the meat is in the cooler.Once we get the meat home we usually hose it all off to clean it further. That probbaly helps some to keep it from drying.But truthfully,I have never been concerned about drying. I think hanging without the hide ,also permits any blood to drain out of the meat which also helps the taste.
One year ,I hunted elk in Alberta and it was 25 degrees below zero. Another fellow had killed an elk in late afternoon and they left it until them next morning. It was frozen solid and it took four of us to skin it.
What I do works for me and I don't really care what others do.I am just trying to answer the OP's original question
