kaywoodie,
The meat of all the nilgai I've taken has been aged for a while, which makes considerable difference in chewability! One was aged in the cooler a butcher shop in Texas before being shipped to me; the others were aged in the coolers I brought them home in via airlines.
Depending on the animal, we've aged game up to 3 weeks before butchering and freezing. That long can make a BIG difference even in old bucks and bulls!
JB...have you got any hints for aging them in the summer in Montana?
If you don't have a spare refrigerator, then putting the chunks in big coolers with ice works fine. We have a pair of 120-quart Igloos that we use to bring meat home from hunting trips, and just one will easily handle a semi-boned average elk or nilgai cow. When doing that, we put the meat in the bottom of the cooler, then bags of ice on top of the the meat. We place the cooler on the floor next to the garage door (east side of the garage, which is coolest during afternoon), with the drain open toward the door, and the other end propped up to allow meltwater to drain out under the door. Then we keep checking the cooler (or coolers) and adding ice as needed.
Have used that system on all sorts of game, not just nilgai but anything take in warm weather, including September moose, and it works very well. Usually a 3-7 days of aging is plenty for younger animals, but older ones often need a couple weeks.
