Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Hanging

I shot a cow elk Sunday evening and was able to load it whole, does anyone have a suggestion on how long to leave it hang before processing?

Guess it depends on how cold it is where you can hang it and how stable the temp will be.

I left a boned out elk on ice for a week and it turned out just dandy. It was completely covered in ice though so it was probably colder than a standard fridge.

There are experts all over the board on what is best. I wouldn't wait until January to cut it, but once it is cooled through, it is fine from 2 days to 2 weeks...

Are you referring to aging time, or how he got it out?

Best one I ever had mostly froze in a blizzard the night I took him, then hung in my garage for 12 or so days with the hide on at 45*.

The next best didn't even age, we started eating on that one the night of the kill.

Outside temp this morning is 32 degrees. The shop probably stays a little warmer and more constant at 40.

I hung my bull whole on Sunday night with the hide on. He will hang until at least November 16. 14-21 days is great if the temp is around 40-44 degrees.

Meat scientists with whom I have worked tell me that with elk, you're wasting your time and drying the meat excessively if you hang it beyond five days. With deer, they say the same after four days.

Hanging in the skin (as most of us do) is preferable. If you skin the animal, knock a day or two off the the above unless you use a shroud to cut down on drying.

The guys here suggest 10 days, but that can very with the age o the animal.. I no longer cut up my elk, have a local guy do it.. He likes to let them hang 10 days...

Some of the best meat I ever had was when I lived in another house here in town. It had a huge old garage.. One year I killed one later in season.. We just hung it and cut meat off as we needed it.. The meat got ice crystals in it but it was the best.. Worked ok til it got really cold and froze hard as a rock...

Couple of reasons that people hang meat.
Long muscle and fiber will constrict to some extent after a kill. Waiting until it relaxes again improves the texture/tenderness. It should be completely soft again in less than 72 hours.

Ageing meat is a different deal. Done to enhance flavor and is much more to the individual's preference (although additional softening occurs during ageing also). Some people will age meat for quite a while.

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.

We've had long discussions here about how to get the best tenderness. Gutless dressing is very popular and I've done it many times myself but if it's done before rigor mortis sets in, it's sure to make the the meat tougher, sometime a LOT tougher.

Have a personal freezer (commercial grade) ,been using it for mostly wild game over 20 years .
Nice think about it ,its a place to store the meat until you have time to cut it up.
The longer you hang wild meat the gamer it will taste.
The dryer the cuts are.
The more waste you will have.
I try not to go more than 10 days for a moose,4 days for a deer .
Day one starts the day it was shot,not the day you hung it .

This fall I shot a 47 inch spread moose on a Wed and got it hung on friday .
I start cutting up that saturday. Mostly the fronts as that went threw the grinder I finish off the rest the following weekend.
It was very good .
Oct 10

Wondering why you say it will taste gamier. That is pretty much decided by what it eats and how the meat was taken care of immediately after the kill.

Probably drier because a lot of the blood gets a chance to drain out which is good thing for me.

RC, I use the gutless method 95% of the time, what causes the meat to be tougher if done to quickly

Check out: "Aging big game"

As meat approaches rigor mortis, the fibers contract and shortened fibers are tougher. If they're still on the bone, contraction is minimal. If cut, though, they will get shorter and will stay that way. They won't stretch out again no matter what you do.
I've kept track of the toughest animals I've killed over the last 20 years and all of them have been done gutless. A couple have been memorable in how tough they were, totally unchewable. I once ended up with 300lb of moose burger because of it.
In recent years I've stopped doing it gutless, in spite of the extra work and mess involved, and I haven't had a tough one since.

Cold shortening is another factor. Meat that's cooled too fast, like hot meat cut off the carcass and rolled in snow, will be tougher. Look up cold shortening for more info. Ive read research that game shot close to the freezing point should be left unskinned for at least 12 hours to slow down the cooling and to prevent cold shortening.

Why would gutting or not affect toughness? Are you using gutless to mean boneless?

The gutless method refers to removing the front quarters, usually with the bone intact and then removing the hind quarters by filleting down to the hip socket from the top of the pelvis and leaving that leg bone intact and then filleting of the backs trap from pelvis to neck. Ending up with the rib cage, spine, neck and head intact without removing the guts.

The tenderloin can be removed by pushing in the paunch and cutting the tenderloins at each end and pulling out. Some back packers bone out the leg bones too.

The gutless method refers to skinning out the animal on each side and not gutting it. Then removing the front quarter with the leg bone in. Then removing the hind quarter by filleting down from the top of the pelvis to the hip socket and leaving the leg bone in. Then filleting the back strap from pelvis to the neck. Remove the tenderloins by pushing in the paunch an d cutting at each end, then pulling it out. Flip the animal over and repeat. Some back packers remove the leg bones too.

When done the rib cage, spine, pelvis neck and head are in tack with the guts inside.

I do gut less when I am by myself. With the moose I just got, we gutted it. Sawed the ribs off and took the spine intact with the backstrap still on it. Hopefully that will fix the problem of that being tough.