What is the maximum temp you feel ok leaving a deer hang overnight. Senaro is deer is shot in the evening , field dressed and hung. Skinned and butchered the next day. I always heard 50 if the humidity is not too high.
I don't think I'd worry about it at all barring obscene temps.
Hang it, throw ice in the cavity and keep it in the shade.
Forecast overnight where I’m heading is between 40-46 overnight. Cleaning spot is very shady.
I do this all of the time. I hang mine in a pole barn with the windows cracked open, so the critters can't get it. I don't generally hunt if it's over 70* anyway, but if it's in the 60's when I kill it, it's going to cool off over night. The deer is still fresh, and it'll take all night for it to get down to ambient temperature. I'd like to hang them longer if the weather permits, but if the temperature the next day is going to be much higher than 50*, I cut them up the next morning. I'll at least skin it, quarter it up, and get it in the fridge.
Then at the other end of the season in January, if the daytime temperatures aren't getting above freezing, I cut them up the next day. There's nothing worse than cutting up a frozen deer.
Forecast overnight where I’m heading is between 40-46 overnight. Cleaning spot is very shady.
You're good.
Even in the 60's it's ok for a couple days. If it tops 70, though, you need to get it on ice.
There's an old rule of thumb about how long you can hang meat. For every 10 degrees, the time is cut in half
35F 2 weeks
45 1 weeks
55 4 days
65 2 days
75 eat it now
Even in the 60's it's ok for a couple days. If it tops 70, though, you need to get it on ice.
There's an old rule of thumb about how long you can hang meat. For every 10 degrees, the time is cut in half
35F 2 weeks
45 1 weeks
55 4 days
65 2 days
75 eat it now
Im hoping I dont have to eat it on the hoof Rock Chuck.
I just figured out you guys are talking above zero. Weusuall do not have that problem here in North Dakota. Lol Ed k
I quarter mine up, get it on ice as soon as I shoot it. Always hot here.
If you skin it they cool faster and if not I hose the deer off inside and out to start the cool down. Just don't let the water from the skin side go on to the meet. Much above 60 it goes in the cooler as soon as possible. Ice in the body cavity helps but it is the hams that are most likely to not cool off.
According to studies, the ideal temp for "aging" meat is 38 degrees for several days. The problem with letting meat hang in areas that are not climate controlled, is that the fluctuation of temps can change the equation. If you take the hide off and let it hang, it will dry up to jerky. I prefer to just put it on ice in a cooler if the weather is warm and I don't have room in my beer fridge. Mostly, I just cut it up and throw it straight into the freezer.
I have hung meat in the field for several days at moderate temps, as long as it can be hung in a shady place and it is in game bags of some type.
As I was leaving the lease Tuesday a guy was bring in a deer he shot the night before. It was still limber, but no way I would clean and eat the meat.
Even in the 60's it's ok for a couple days. If it tops 70, though, you need to get it on ice.
There's an old rule of thumb about how long you can hang meat. For every 10 degrees, the time is cut in half
35F 2 weeks
45 1 weeks
55 4 days
65 2 days
75 eat it now
This. I dont care if it gets 60 in the day if it gets cooled down to 40 or less the first night. But, i will have it wrapped to keep it cool and in the shade in the day.
I smell the meat to tell when its ready to butcher. Shap and acidic smell needs aging.
If its really warm weather it gets skinned and put on ice in a cooler or filled with ice and in the shade and skinned and put on ice the next day.
Iirc beef is hung at 38 degrees for like 28 days. The good stuff is hung longer at 34-36.
Iirc beef is hung at 38 degrees for like 28 days. The good stuff is hung longer at 34-36.
I know a couple people who commercially butcher and process beef and there is no way they could afford to have their cooler tied up that long by letting it hang for 28 days. They both do 7-10 days for beef hang time.
Other posters here are right. Get the skin off (the red crust sucks to deal with, but that skin holds heat more than about anything else), and get it bagged and in the shade. It'll cool nicely with the cooler temperatures at night and you'd be surprised how cool the meat feels during a warm day if you do this.
If you're nervous about it, throw some ice bags in the body cavity.
Forecast overnight where I’m heading is between 40-46 overnight. Cleaning spot is very shady.
You're good.
Way good. 40 is equivalent to a decent refrigerator and 46 probably to a not so good one that does not keep milk well but has no problem with meat.
I did an accidental "experiment" once. While cleaning a deer one night, ADD kicked in and I left a hindquarter out overnight on a picnic table in temps that were probably mid to upper 70's. I got up before daylight the next day and saw what I had done and it was early enough that the flies did not get on it. I checked it out and it smelled good so I put it in a freezer for about an a hour to get it cooled down and then put it on ice with the rest of the deer. It was fine, we ate it and no one got sick.
So based on that "experiment", you could probably let a skinned carcass hang overnight in mid 70's temps, maybe one with the hide on as well if a little ice were placed in the cavity. IMO, flies are a bigger issue than temperature in warm to hot weather. Once you expose meat to them by taking off the hide, you need to get it chilled ASAP to prevent maggot eggs from hatching which can happen in 24 hours.
I have an old aunt who won't eat deer meat because she thinks it has "worms" in it based on what she saw as a kid. I am convinced that some of the high rollers that hunted the farm Granddaddy managed probably gave him some meat the flies got into. This was probably the 1940's so not everyone had a fridge, coolers, or easily obtainable ice.
I have seen red deer hung in 75-90 degree temps but most hunters maxed out at 1-2 days although there was one guy in camp who let hit hang up to 5 days but no-one wanted to share any of it.
Looks like the forecast is dipping even deeper. Down in the high 30s at night. That will cool off those deer killed in the evening very nicely and allow me to get a good hunt in the morning and then skin and bone out after the morning hunt in the daylight. I like putting cold meat in the cooler.
Skin 2 win baby , Skin 2 win!
Jerk the hide immediately..............
Just like at the butcher.........
Huh?????
Why do they do that?
Everybody wants to skin a deer immediately and get it chilled even faster. Hold on. For maximum tenderness, that's not the best. A thing called cold shortening can cause your deer to be tougher if you cool it too fast. Here's a good article about it. You can find all kinds of info about it on the web.
No-gut dressing is getting more and more popular, especially with larger animals like elk and moose, but it's also a cause of very tough meat.
If you get a deer when it's really cold, below freezing, you're better off to leave the skin on and let it slowly cool. I'm leaving after lunch today for an elk hunt. It's 12F up there right now and the next 2 or 3 nights will be similar. If we get one, we'll have to decide the best way to tenderize it.
COLD SHORTENING
This time of year you might think cold shortening is a result of men joining the Polar Bear club but it is really something else. Cold shortening is the result of chilling a carcass too soon after slaughter. Most folks don't realize the amount of things that need to take place right after evisceration to create the maximum amount of tenderness in meat.
First I'll do my best to explain what cold shortening is without getting too technical. When an animal is slaughtered the system for transporting oxygen to the cells shuts down, obviously. This causes pumps that move adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to shut down and allow calcium ions to
bind up proteins, all at the cellular level. This is part of the process of rigor mortis. If the carcass is chilled too fast, this condition is magnified, resulting in muscle contraction that shortens muscle fibers, making the meat tougher. Think about it, when you get cold you shiver and your muscles tighten up. Its not exactly like that but sort of. Also, there are natural enzymes that kick in after slaughter to break down and loosen muscle fibers but a cold shortened muscle will remain tougher and never achieve the tenderness levels of a properly chilled carcass. Hanging a carcass allows for some muscles to be stretched which minimizes cold shortening for some muscles.
Preventing cold shortening can present problems for a processor. To prevent it studies show that the fresh pre- rigor carcass ideally should be kept at a balmy cave like temperature of 60F 16C for about 10 - 16 hours. A large beef plant wants to move thousands of animals through each day can't wait quite that long so many will speed up the process by applying electrical stimulation to the carcass. Zapping the fresh carcass depletes much of the glycogen energy that would allow cold shortening to happen. I saw this at a Cargill plant years ago. It was like "CLEAR" and bam, the whole side of beef twitched. Another trick is to add a calcium chloride solution into the carcass which increases the activity of the endogenous enzymes, the enzymes that break down meat when it is aged.
The old method of slow chilling was much more haphazard. If a carcass has a lot of exterior fat, a poor yield grade 4 or 5, the carcass will naturally chill slower, resulting in more tender meat. I can remember picking out hindquarters of beef with my dad in the markets on 14th street in NYC and he would always look for the extra fatty ones. They cost us more but the quality level was always much higher so we could charge accordingly. Plus we would buy an old bull carcass for lean beef to mix in the fat trims for our grind. That meat was tough like a shoe but perfect for grinding.
I recently talked with John Jamison from Jamison Farm in Latrobe PA and he confirmed the 16 hour rule for keeping a carcass warm for the first part after slaughter. The USDA allows him to keep the carcass at this warm temperature for longer than what is considered normal. He says the quality of the carcass is greatly increased. Most of his production is with lamb but he has experimented with lean grass-fed beef also, with great results. It is a delicate balance between tender meat and food born illness. If a processor wants to allow a carcass to chill slowly they need to be diligent in keeping the process as clean as possible.
Another factor that can effect cold shortening is the condition of the animal when it is alive. A calm animal that has had no food for 24hrs but not starved will be less likely to have the condition than an animal that is aggravated or stressed.
One other experiment has been done to change the muscle structures pre-rigor. We normally hang a carcass by the gambrel on the back leg. This stretches certain muscles guaranteeing they cannot develop cold shortening. But what if we hang the carcass in different positions? This would allow for the stretching of muscles typically allowed to shorten. This opens the door for small processors to do some custom things. It is very difficult for a large processor to change the way they hang carcasses because everything is geared to the chain speed and equipment used to break down everything.
A bit of history also. Farmers that slaughtered their own meats often did it in the fall when the temperatures would range from just above freezing to about 60F. An old timer that knew what they were doing would slaughter on a warm morning and hang the carcass for a few days in the barn with the temperature slowly lowering. Perfect condition for tenderizing.
A friend of mine shot a deer this fall just when the weather turning a little warm. He typically hangs it for about a week before I cut it for him. He was worried about the warm temps and I told him to relax, he did and so did the muscle structure of his deer. It was one of the most tender wild caught meat I've ever worked with.
So as the temperature once again plummets this week keep in mind not to cold shorten, leave that to the polar bears.
Iirc beef is hung at 38 degrees for like 28 days. The good stuff is hung longer at 34-36.
I know a couple people who commercially butcher and process beef and there is no way they could afford to have their cooler tied up that long by letting it hang for 28 days. They both do 7-10 days for beef hang time.
Thanks for this, Lonny.
Everybody wants to skin a deer immediately and get it chilled even faster. Hold on. For maximum tenderness, that's not the best. A thing called cold shortening can cause your deer to be tougher if you cool it too fast. Here's a good article about it. You can find all kinds of info about it on the web.
No-gut dressing is getting more and more popular, especially with larger animals like elk and moose, but it's also a cause of very tough meat.
If you get a deer when it's really cold, below freezing, you're better off to leave the skin on and let it slowly cool. I'm leaving after lunch today for an elk hunt. It's 12F up there right now and the next 2 or 3 nights will be similar. If we get one, we'll have to decide the best way to tenderize it.
COLD SHORTENING
This time of year you might think cold shortening is a result of men joining the Polar Bear club but it is really something else. Cold shortening is the result of chilling a carcass too soon after slaughter. Most folks don't realize the amount of things that need to take place right after evisceration to create the maximum amount of tenderness in meat.
First I'll do my best to explain what cold shortening is without getting too technical. When an animal is slaughtered the system for transporting oxygen to the cells shuts down, obviously. This causes pumps that move adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to shut down and allow calcium ions to
bind up proteins, all at the cellular level. This is part of the process of rigor mortis. If the carcass is chilled too fast, this condition is magnified, resulting in muscle contraction that shortens muscle fibers, making the meat tougher. Think about it, when you get cold you shiver and your muscles tighten up. Its not exactly like that but sort of. Also, there are natural enzymes that kick in after slaughter to break down and loosen muscle fibers but a cold shortened muscle will remain tougher and never achieve the tenderness levels of a properly chilled carcass. Hanging a carcass allows for some muscles to be stretched which minimizes cold shortening for some muscles.
Preventing cold shortening can present problems for a processor. To prevent it studies show that the fresh pre- rigor carcass ideally should be kept at a balmy cave like temperature of 60F 16C for about 10 - 16 hours. A large beef plant wants to move thousands of animals through each day can't wait quite that long so many will speed up the process by applying electrical stimulation to the carcass. Zapping the fresh carcass depletes much of the glycogen energy that would allow cold shortening to happen. I saw this at a Cargill plant years ago. It was like "CLEAR" and bam, the whole side of beef twitched. Another trick is to add a calcium chloride solution into the carcass which increases the activity of the endogenous enzymes, the enzymes that break down meat when it is aged.
The old method of slow chilling was much more haphazard. If a carcass has a lot of exterior fat, a poor yield grade 4 or 5, the carcass will naturally chill slower, resulting in more tender meat. I can remember picking out hindquarters of beef with my dad in the markets on 14th street in NYC and he would always look for the extra fatty ones. They cost us more but the quality level was always much higher so we could charge accordingly. Plus we would buy an old bull carcass for lean beef to mix in the fat trims for our grind. That meat was tough like a shoe but perfect for grinding.
I recently talked with John Jamison from Jamison Farm in Latrobe PA and he confirmed the 16 hour rule for keeping a carcass warm for the first part after slaughter. The USDA allows him to keep the carcass at this warm temperature for longer than what is considered normal. He says the quality of the carcass is greatly increased. Most of his production is with lamb but he has experimented with lean grass-fed beef also, with great results. It is a delicate balance between tender meat and food born illness. If a processor wants to allow a carcass to chill slowly they need to be diligent in keeping the process as clean as possible.
Another factor that can effect cold shortening is the condition of the animal when it is alive. A calm animal that has had no food for 24hrs but not starved will be less likely to have the condition than an animal that is aggravated or stressed.
One other experiment has been done to change the muscle structures pre-rigor. We normally hang a carcass by the gambrel on the back leg. This stretches certain muscles guaranteeing they cannot develop cold shortening. But what if we hang the carcass in different positions? This would allow for the stretching of muscles typically allowed to shorten. This opens the door for small processors to do some custom things. It is very difficult for a large processor to change the way they hang carcasses because everything is geared to the chain speed and equipment used to break down everything.
A bit of history also. Farmers that slaughtered their own meats often did it in the fall when the temperatures would range from just above freezing to about 60F. An old timer that knew what they were doing would slaughter on a warm morning and hang the carcass for a few days in the barn with the temperature slowly lowering. Perfect condition for tenderizing.
A friend of mine shot a deer this fall just when the weather turning a little warm. He typically hangs it for about a week before I cut it for him. He was worried about the warm temps and I told him to relax, he did and so did the muscle structure of his deer. It was one of the most tender wild caught meat I've ever worked with.
So as the temperature once again plummets this week keep in mind not to cold shorten, leave that to the polar bears.
When letting deer hang a good while in warmer weather its best to leave the blood on it to form a crust rather th wash it with water which increases the risk for undesirable bacterial contamination and growth.
get the hide off ASAP IMO.
Even in the 60's it's ok for a couple days. If it tops 70, though, you need to get it on ice.
There's an old rule of thumb about how long you can hang meat. For every 10 degrees, the time is cut in half
35F 2 weeks
45 1 weeks
55 4 days
65 2 days
75 eat it now
This. I dont care if it gets 60 in the day if it gets cooled down to 40 or less the first night. But, i will have it wrapped to keep it cool and in the shade in the day.
I smell the meat to tell when its ready to butcher. Shap and acidic smell needs aging.
If its really warm weather it gets skinned and put on ice in a cooler or filled with ice and in the shade and skinned and put on ice the next day.
Iirc beef is hung at 38 degrees for like 28 days. The good stuff is hung longer at 34-36.
For beef I've heard or read 39 days at 39 degrees. Don't recall the source.
We get our meat into coolers as quickly as possible. For antelope that is usually bang/gut/skin and into the cooler. Deer are often much the same. It in[t uncommon for our elk to sit out all night after quartering (gutless method), but in such cases we pack out the filets and straps immediately to get them in the cooler.
Buddy one shot a cow that we didn't find until the next morning. Temps were around 0 at night and below freezing during the day. By the time we found the cow the meat was already toast and the processor wouldn't take it. Those elk hides are awesome insulators.
We've also seen outfitters where one guy was dressing antelope while the hunters were out doing whatever. He had about 10 goats on the ground. We figure some of them laid there for several hours in the sun. About 90 degrees. I wouldn't have wanted any part of those animals.
The NYS DEC training manual for new hunters says that you should not hang a deer when temperatures are above 40 deg. Anything above 50 deg would give me concern for rapid bacterial growth. If possible, I'd skin, quarter and pack the quarters in a large cooler with ice. I hate to take chances with food.
I just finished cutting up a bull elk that hung for 13 days by the time the last quarter was processed. Temps were anywhere from 18-42 at night and 40-65 during the day for that time. We skinned and quartered him immediately on the mountain and hunt everything in the shade until a good crust was formed after 3 or 4 days. The quarters then got bagged for the trip home. Once back home I hung them in the barn with the door up about 2” for air circulation and started cutting up one bag per night after work.
Meat is outstanding, tender and mild with no gamey taste or smell.
I have a buck hanging in the same barn that I’ll get cut up here in a few days. Shot and skinned within 2 hours and hung to cool. The weather is calling for 35 at night and 57 during the day for the next little while. I’m not in a hurry I’m sure he’ll be fine eating.
I shot two does on Saturday as the club wanted to get some off. One in the morning and one in the evening. Both clean kills with no guts or crap on the insides. I field dressed both and left the skin on as they would be hanging in the woods on a pole with no roof. Temps got into the mid 60s Saturday and down around 40 on Saturday night. I went out Sunday morning around 9:00 skinned and boned out the meat. It was very cold to the touch. I bagged in in ziplocks left unzipped and laid them in my game cooler on frozen 2 gallon water containers. I have Thanksgiving in Ohio and then hunt the general gun up here next week as well. So yesterday I drove up from Alabama to Ohio. I live in SW Florida so I had to bring the meat along. I just got the meat out of the cooler and put it in my cousins freezer and it was ice cold. I was very curious to hear opinions on meat handling from the fire as you get a wide variaty of opinions qnd know how based on many different conditions and situations the guys hunt in. The fire did not disappoint. Thanks for your opinions and wisdom. Boarmaster.
The first thing we do is get the hide off and then gut em. We always try to hang them as long as it’s not above 60 or so. Most of the time we only hang it for a day before we haul it home and hang it in my uncle’s cooler. The we cut it up one night after work. We always get that old hide off as soon as possible though.
Seems to me that most of the replies here are individual preferences rather than recommendations based on actual food science. If you look at Eileen Clarke's books, particularly "A Slice of the Wild", you'll find the appropriate references. I'm not at home so can't copy the recommendations out. As a rough guide, though, I'd say Rock Chuck's numbers are pretty good. Keep in mind that this is based on constant temperature, so you'll need to consider that if you're hanging your meat in a space that isn't temperature controlled.