I shot my first ever elk (yearling spike, on the small side) on Thursday and am unsure how to proceed with aging the meat prior to butchering. Here are the specifics:

Shot @7:15am approx 25 F outside temp. Skinned, quartered, bagged (alaska bags) and set in shade to cool before noon. Temp didn't get above 45F all day. In garage hanging by 5pm on evening of kill. The weather has been nice an cool and the garage hasn't been above 40F at any time since hanging. Night temps are at or below freezing mark. Neck/rib meat, backstraps and tenderloins have been washed and stored in fridge since Thursday evening.

How do I tell when the quarters are ready to be cut into steaks/roasts and frozen? Ditto with backstraps tenderloins? When is it ok to grind the remaining meat into hamburger?

Awaiting some veteran elk hunter wisdom.

You will get a lot of opinions. I have had good luck as long as I have aged elk for at least 3 days. Sounds like you have had it in ideal conditions from the start so keeping it longer is OK as well. Many like for 5-7 days or longer, but I think you start getting too much loss from dehydration of the outside after that long. As far as hamburger, I always grind twice and don't think it matters when you do that. ASAP would be fine IMO.

First off, congrats on the elk. It should be a good eater.

I just read in Colorado Outdoors Magazine that you do not need to age wild game but I will continue to do so. I have always aged mine 4-5 days at refrigerator temps. The temps you have been experiencing are about perfect for aging which is not freezing and not much over 40.

The aging process produces a lot of dry meat that I've seen folks trim off and throw away. Any thoughts about whether or not it could be put in the 'grind' pile and used for sausage along with other less dehydrated meat? Perhaps mix in a little more pork in the mix? Seems like kind of a waste of meat otherwise.

I was going to send the trimmings through the grinder last and then cook them up to treat the pup.

Rookies.

Hanging any meat for at least five days is never a bad idea as long as the temps are consistent and the humidity is low. I would hang it all the same length of time and cut it together. We used to hang beef as long as 21 days before we switched to the box ready vac pac stuff they use now. As mentioned, low humidity is key to good results. I've seen coolers full of moose that were a mess because of humidity. Bacteria really grows in those conditions.

Dehydrated meat on the outside of muscle is best just put through the grinder with the rest of the grinds. Old style butchers have been doing swinging beef this way for years. Don't waste it, grind it.

Any black/slimey trim should be discarded as it will be high in bacteria. Chuck it right out.

I prefer to bone out all muscle as it makes a nicer cut and reduces the amount of bone dust on the meat. Bone dust will taint the taste, esp with deer. I have no experience with elk meat, but can only assume this would be the case as well.

Cut that [bleep] up!! Grind it!! If i was stuck in the feild i'd be pleased with 45 deg.. But seriously cut it up and grind whatever you want. The longer u wait the more u waste. In my environment we nearly always butcher the next day. It's not beef. Can't ever go wrong with cutting it up quick.. On the other hand you can go wrong waiting to long.

Shag just give it a chance.

There is more than one way to age. You don't have to hang it.

I quarter mine, and age in a cooler in an ice water bath for a week. Add a cup or so of salt, and it will basically pull most of the blood out of the meat. Contrary to what you might think, it does NOT get water logged, or the meat get soggy or anything like that. Drain the water and re-ice once a day, or every other day.

I've never done it with elk, but its the only way to fly with deer.

Never done an elk, but with a whitetail there is a OBVIOUS difference wiht meat aged a week, vs not aged at all. Some of the not aged stuff, even on yearlings, is flat out tough. Too tough for me.

But since we don't have your temps down here, all my whitetails sit ina cooler of ice for at least 7-10 days before cutting.

We don't ad salt, the ice water draws the blood out by itself too.

So I'm on smalljawbassers side here. Except its not elk if htat could make any difference.

I have aged deer elk moose antelope caribou for 3 to 5 days and I have cut up after hanging 24 hrs. Have soaked meat in ice salt water too. Have not noticed a big difference in meat, flavor or tenderness.

I typically will hang 1 to 2 days and butcher it.

For me getting the hide off, meat cleaned up and cooled off ASAP seems to me the most important regarding meat quality. In the early season I get the bones out immediately to aid in the cooling.

I've been around a while... trust me we get the hide off and the guts out asap. Rarely less than 15 minutes here at home until the hide is off, and then a few minutes after that the guts are out.

And maybe its just whitetails, but I"ve tried aging a few days, seems that 7-10 days is the ticket for tender meat.

I've also cut out the tenderloins that everyone brags about, immediately on the kill and cooked them then or the next day. Horribly tough. Hasnt' even done all its rigor mortis and gone stages yet...

Ditto, hide off asap, get it hung and cooled, bone the meat out, and butcher it, vacuum sealed, done deal.

These threads always illustrate how many hunters misunderstand what aging meat does, and how to do it right.

Aging meat breaks down the collagen in meat, the stuff that makes it tougher, by using natural lactic acid that forms after the animal dies. Older animals tend to have more collagen, so benefit more from aging.

A young animal like a spike elk (or most deer) isn't going to benefit all that much from long aging because the meat doesn't have as much collagen. Allowing the meat to cool down, then a day or two of aging is usually plenty, though if conditions are right another few days sure doesn't hurt.

There's no reason for meat to dry out while aging. If the weather's so warm the animal must be skinned immediately to get the meat cooled down, or you just prefer immediate skinning, putting the quarters in plastic bags or covering the carcass in plastic will keep it from drying out. Wait until after the carcass is cool, however, before applying plastic. If the weather's cool enough (and it often is here in Montana) aging the unskinned carcass also keeps most of the meat from drying out, though I always pull the filets inside the backbone quickly and put them in a plastic bag.

I have read the COLORADO OUTDOORS magazine saying game meat doesn't benefit from aging, and heard it from a number of hunters. It's absolute BS, as the chemical process is exactly the same in elk and deer as it is in beef. It even works on game birds, making a huge difference in an old pheasant or goose.

The longest I've aged deer and elk is three weeks, and it made a vast difference in the tenderness of old animals, but for 95% of wild animals a week is plenty. The two WORST things you can do is butcher a big game animal while it's still in rigor mortis, or allow the meat to freeze while still in rigor.

Best meat I have ever had at my table was an elk that hung hide on in my garage for 2 1/2 weeks in 40 degree temps. That was after being partially frozen in a blizzard the first night taken.

Then it went to a processor who got it back to me in three days and then frozen in my freezer.

Thank you MD, this was just the sort of response I was looking for. This thread has raised some other questions for me. What is the purpose of salt in the ice water? Depress the melting point or does it actually do somthing to the meat? When waiting for the meat to pass rigor mortis what is the best way to tell? Touch? or is there some other indicator?

I grew up on a farm and butchered pigs, cows, goats, sheep, chickens and hung them the appropriate amount of time to age. But had access to a walk in cooler. Understand the aging process and break down of meat as have butchered and processed my own game over 30 years.

Have no access to a large walk in cooler now. If I did would hang animals longer. However have found that hanging an animal in a cool well ventilated place for a few days and the meat has always turned out fine.

For 20 yrs of my life I hung venison as long as possible. Then one elk was killed with no access to a cooler. It was cut and wrapped 24 hrs later.
We have now lived(11 yrs) in a much warmer enviroment and I can't remember the last time one hung for 3 days. That elk and every critter we cut and wrap now don't taste any different to us. The last two yrs we cut and wrapped the steaks in plastic wrap then set in frig for 2-3 days. Still no difference. Its all good. Every professional butcher I meet I ask the same question. And 75% agree the rate at which venision and beef age is different. 75% agree you don't age venison as long as beef. And most agree they butcherd venison in a 3-4 day period.

I tend to agree with them. I get quite a chuckle when I see venison a dark purple on verge of weird colors and then watch guys cut an nearly an 1/8 layer off the whole thing. what a waste. IMO cooked properly whether cut up 24hrs or 5-7 days later I can't tell a difference. To each his own. Mentally if you think it tastes better hang it longer. In a pinch and warm temps cut it up 24hrs later and enjoy it just the same. The sooner meat is cooled after the kill is much more important to me than how long it hangs.

I agree that the difference between aging a deer and an elk is night and day. The bigger the animal the longer you hang or age to get the muscle to breakdown and become tender. I usually hang all my animals, but this year made me change my mind on my buck here in Oregon, and I may not hang a deer ever again.
My story starts out by shooting a buck late one evening, and getting it gutted and the hide off in short order. I hung the deer in a juniper tree to keep coyotes and birds away, and then walked a few miles in the dark to my truck. I came back the next morning and boned it out, and cut it up that night. The following night we had some backstrap, and it was tender and like another poster said, very little waste from leather. I don't think I will hang a deer ever again.

Shot my elk this year at sundown thirty- had him gutted, hung, skinned, and halved in a couple of hours. Nighttime temp was around 27 degrees.
Took it to the processors the next day- they had the meat cut up, frozen, and ready to pick up a week later. It probably hung at the processors for a couple of days before cutting, just due to the volume of animals checked in at that time.
We had elk steak for lunch today- if there is any better elk meat, I'd like to know when, where, and how!

Alectoris,

Meat in rigor mortis is very stiff. An animal is out of rigor when you can move the legs again relatively easily. They won't move as easily as when the animal was first killed, but it will become easier. Usually meat comes out of rigor within a few hours, and is certainly out within 24 hours.

Salt in ice water tends to draw the blood out of meat, and some people feel meat tastes better with as much blood removed as possible. Fresh water will do the same thing, however.

Shag,

I've also talkedf to a lot of butchers who firmly believe "aging" means meat starts to rot. The fact is that most butchers have no real idea of what aging does or doesn't do, since they have no background in meat science. Instead they just learned to cut up meat. But you're right, there is no need to let most wild game hang until it dries out and starts turning colors.

Beef carcasses are protected from drying out while aging by the layer of fat on the carcass surface, but as I pointed out in my thread, either leaving carcasses in the hide or covering them in plastic keeps moistue inside and prevents the exterior from drying out.

I must also point out that somehow "aging" meat has come to mean hanging it for days or weeks. In reality meat starts aging as soon as rigor mortis starts to leave, because that's when the lactose in the muscle breaks down into lactic acid. Simply waiting overnight before butchering allows a little aging, and 3-4 days even more.

As I pointed out to Alectoris, a young animal doesn't really require any "aging" beyond cooling down and letting rigor leave the meat--and most deer and elk killed are at moost three years old.

Even older animals that have fattened over the summer and not gone into the rut are usually pretty tender and don't need much aging, because a lot of their muscle is new, put on since spring.

Bighorn,

As I pointed out in my previous post, aging begins as soon as rigor mortis leaves the meat, usually a matter of a few hours.
It does NOT begin after week. Your elk meat aged for a few days.

I am curious about the age of your bull. Was it a big 6-point with worn-down ivories, or a spike or raghorn?

One more comment: Aging of meat is accelerated at warmer temperatures. Long-term aging of beef is done at temperatures a few degrees over freezing, but meat 50 degrees tenderizes far more quickly, because the higher temperature accelerates the chemical process. A deer that goes three days at 50 degrees or ages at least as much as a deer hung in a walk-in cooler for a week.

Mule Deer, another question if you wouldn't mind.

Your's is one of the very few posts I've ever seen advocating the use of plastic. The rule of thumb I've always understood is to use plastic only below 32 degrees. Even if outside temp is acceptable (say 40) the temp inside plastic, especially sealed, can escalate fast and become too much. Is this true?

Another question. I use a game processor who usually takes 2 weeks before cutting the meat. Is this de-facto aging of the meat helping? Is loss due to drying out during hanging countering any bennefits of the aging?

Thanks for your comments.

Plastic is fine as long as long the meat is cooled down first--and kept either in a cooler or in the shade afterward.

I dunno about "sealed." All I do is put it in plastic garbage bags to prevent drying out, or cut the bags up and place 'em against the carcass once it's cooled.

How does your processor keep the meat while he's waiting to cut it up?

JB,
My bull was a 5 point, probably 3 1/2 or so years.. It simply wasn't going to be bad tasting or tough, no matter what. By your criteria, I guess it was probably adequately aged, with around 3 days hang time.

I'd rather have a bit of dried meat than covered with plastic.

As mentioned before, any humidity is a good spot for bacteria to grow in and a plastic covering would promote this, It would be OK for a temp covering to keep clean, but not for longer periods during hanging.

If that's what you prefer, then you should do that.

But right now I have the skinned parts of a buck in plastic, and they've been there since Tuesday noon, a day and a half after he was killed, gutted, skinned and cooled down. There isn't the slightest hint of bacteria in or on any of the meat (I just checked it) because the meat has been kept at less than 40 degrees, which represses bacterial formation.

I've done this a number of times over the years and never had a problem. The only two tricks are cooling the meat thoroughly before putting on the plastic, and keeping it really chilled afterward.

If you don't want meat to dry out and don't want to use plastic, the most effective technique is to leave the hide on, as it's been proven meat is close to sterile while still inside the hide.

This means, however, the temperature has to be cool enough to chill the meat even with the hide on. This isn't as difficult as most folks think, however. I once cooled down a 5-point bull elk killed on September 5th by hanging the entire gutted carcass up overnight when the temperature got down to around 40.

I much prefer the meat we cut to be cold and firm. Even at 38deg in a walk in cooler come the 4th day the firmness I prefer is headed south. My son is just ending his second year as a professional meat cutter. We have started to build his own custom cut shop here at the house as next fall he'll be open for business. We both find that 5 days would be the absolute max we'd hang vension in a walkin cooler at 38deg. There is no way either of us would hang venision at 50deg for 3 days. Which means we'd not on purpose let venison age in a cooler for 7. Once that nice workable firmness starts to go u simply are wasteing meat.
I believe the next generation of 24hrcampfire member will veiw the week or more theory as simply a "wives tale" that isn't a necessity for a guality cut.

Most of us prolly had a grandpa or a father mentor us on how to age meat. I never had that. I taught myself how to hunt and fish and take proper care of the bounty. So I feel i am totally opened minded as to which is the best way. I've listend to and spent alot of time trying to age venison the way the old timers believed it's to be done. And then my hand has also been forced due to temps to get it cut and wrapped asap. I simply have not found either to be better than the other. Except for the fact more meat is wasted the longer it hangs.

Here's an interesting link on dry and wet aging.

http://www.askthemeatman.com/dry_aged_beef1.htm

I find this statement in the link to be very true.

"This method has become more popular because it is cheaper and more profitable. Dry aging is more costly due to the approximately 18% loss in shrinkage and extra trim required, time, storage, refrigerator space, and labor".

I'll take my venison 3-4 days tops outa a cooler at 38deg. And if it isn't in a walkin cooler I'll continue to cut and wrap venison within 2 days or less as temps here will be in the 40-50's mostly because I just simply haven't found a benefit to week old aged venison. Getting the meat as cool as possible as fast as possible after the kill is much more important to me than how long I "aged" it.

I suspect that complete cooling and a slight drying of the outside of the muscle would make this work. This would keep the plastic from sticking to the muscle exterior and allow some air to pass.

As a professional meatcutter from 1978-2002, I never once saw swinging meat arrive from the packers packed in plastic. It was always hammered into us that a dry cooler running at about 32-38deg is the best condition to keep bacteria growth low.

Its good to see Mule Deer has chimed in here. I've emailed Eileen many times over our problem on our Jan. hunt. Usually it gets zero or lower over night and our problem is to keep the elk carcasses from freezing too fast. Its in a wood sided shed with 16' side walls with no real insulation. I kept the hide on last year to slow down the cooling (freezing). That was one miserable skinning job. This year I plan on using a couple of old army wool blankets and wrap them around the carcass as it hangs on the hooks - after I skin it.
I'm trying to keep the cow elk whole to left the weight of the animal stretch those muscle fibers.

I have heard that spraying the inside of the carcass with vinegar will help kill the bacteria is there any truth to this?

I agree 100%.

I've been doing it for over 50 years, and proper aging always produces better quality meat.

Anymore so many hunters aren't all that concerned about the meat, just antler-bragging. They have much or all of the animals ground up and use too much for dog food. Fewer people actually like wild game meat. I think some of this trend comes from improperly cared for animals and poor handling by the hunter, and all too often the processor.

As long as its cool enough outside we've always hung the meat hide on for 5-7 days. If its hot then yes the hide comes off but its usually cool enough here in Idaho to leave it, then you only have to skin it once. Many times the backstraps get eaten the same day its shot.

Dick

I and the preceding generations here use a cotton bag to hang the carcases in.

My favourite is a cotton doona cover closed at the Gambrel with some clothes pegs, stops dust and blowflies whilst still allowing cooling.
I have killed and hung God alone knows how many carcases in over 40 degrees Celsius heat and have never had any spoiling.


Ps, my wife has sewn in some cord at the top of my current three bags so that the top can be pulled shut and tied without pegs.

Vinegar is acidic and will inhibit bacterial growth.

Here is my opinion. I agree with JB 110%. I firmly believe in aging venison. The first time I did it was a mistake though.

I shot an old buck, GFP aged him at 10 years old. I immediately skinned and quartered him. Put him on ice in a cooler.

Between work and trying to fill an elk tag, that meat was in ice water for 7 days. Finally got that deer processed and it was the best deer we had ever eaten. Light bulb came on!

My rule of thumb for aging meat is as follows:
Pronghorn 3-5 days
Deer 5-7 days
Elk 7-10 days
Moose 10-14 days
This is at 34-36 degrees in a refrigerator or on ice. Higher temps shorten the time needed. I can adjust my fridge temp easy enough to have the venison ready for when I have the time to process.

I am very type A about controlled temp and believe that is important, or maybe I just tell myself that. I cringe at the thought of future meals hanging in a shed or garage, or worse, hanging outside in a tree! Many have luck with it, but I must be too much of a control freak to allow that to happen.

I have gotten better about leaving an animal hang overnight though, as long as the garage is nice and cool.

I have aged venison in plastic bags, game bags, ice water, and even uncovered after a crust has been formed. It doesn't take to long for a quick crust to form, especialy if you can place it in the sun for about 10-15 minutes. This is a very good practice if you are on an extended trip without the comforts of home. ie an Alaskan float trip or backpack hunt.

I age all of my venison, the only exception is if I know that I will not have time. Then it is processed, vacuum packed, and in the freezer before it even cools. It is more work to process still warm chunks of meat though.

I highly recommend Eileen's book to anyone just starting out processing their own venison. It just confirms what I have learned on my own over the last 30 plus years.

So to answer the OP's original post, I think you can process your elk anytime now because of the warmer temps it has been exposed to.

I did a bunch of research in the past, including links to studies on the subject with a number of universities on various game department sites. Wish I had some of the links for you, but they all agreed with my personal experience. To sum it all up succinctly, it was found that there was benefit to aging game (most studies involved venison, but some elk), 5-7 days at an optimum temperature of 40 degrees F. Higher temperatures shortened the optimal time. There was little to no benefit cited, whether for toughness or flavor, in aging longer, but some real potential problems in aging longer at higher temperatures.

Terry,

We've probably read some of the same sources, but we've found that certain animals do benefit from aging longer than a week. Three years ago I killed an old bull elk here in Montana. We left most of the meat in the garage, where the temperature was just right for aging, but put a foot-long chunk of backstrap in the refrigerator.

After a week I cut a steak off the "fridge strap" and cooked it up. It was still pretty chewy, so we waited another week before trying again. There wasn't much change, and still wasn't until three weeks after the elk had died. All of a sudden it got a LOT tenderer. It still wasn't as chewable as a spike, but it was pretty damn good!

One of the things many hunters apparently don't understand is that unlike beef steers, deer and elk aren't all the same age. The state of the muscles of bucks and bulls also changes across the fall, as they go from fat guys in September to much leaner in November. Then there's the temperature at the time they're killed, and other stuff. Aa a result there's no single answer to care of wild meat, and sometimes some animals just aren't as good as others, no matter what we do.

True, lots of variable's for sure. Here's one for ya. Ever notice cow elk taste better than a bull elk? Seems as though the elk were shooting even young bulls don't taste as good a cow even if the cow is older. Maybe it's just all in my head.

Lots of cows are good, for sure, but we tend to prefer spikes and raghorns as the most reliably tasty elk. But tastes vary. A lot of people prefer whitetails to mule deer, but we like 'em both.

Listen to Mule Deer regarding the applied science to aging. He is an absolute authority on the subject.

Do a search for a University of WY study on aging elk. It is splendid and answers all of these questions on effect and theory. I have it saved as a jpeg and don't have time to post and link to it, sorry. As for cow vs bull, the study showed without aging that a cow is on average tougher than the bull (very slight difference), but reacts better to aging.

I'll say this: if your only concern is final yeild, do not age; if your goal is quality meat through the year, AGE IT! You will lose some yeild (mitigated if hide on), but I guarantee it will eat better (unless it's burger and as long as the aging is done correctly).

Here is the UW study:
http://www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf
I never aged mine, simply nowhere to keep it for a city dweller. Never had any problems.
P.S. - and when I get back home, the temps are usually in the 60s, so keeping it in the garage is not a good idea either.

Without access to a cooler you are at the mercy of the weather. Before I had a cooler I would let meat hang 3 days minimum and then cut up. Now with the cooler I let the deer go at least a week and elk at least 2 weeks. It has made a huge difference in the way that the meat tastes. All meat has to go through the same process, so I don't see how being wild or farmed could possibly make a difference.

I haven't done my own processing for many years now on bigger animals, and I found a good processor who will hang my animals in his cold box until the right time to cut. I loose a little total weight cut and wrapped from aging, but I have far more good quality meat in the long run.

If you ask, many processors will hang and age for you for a small charge, and this is in a controlled optimum enviroment for hanging and aging.

headwatermike,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but my wife Eileen has done a LOT more research. She came up with even more information while writing her big game cookbook SLICE OF THE WILD 3-4 years ago.

Yes well it is my copy of Eileen's book that gives me such confidence. My apologies to her for not giving credit where it is due. It is a fine book that is above and beyond expectations and has a position of prominence in our kitchen. Anyone here remotely interested should buy a copy. Buy it to support someone who is a tremendous resource and is willing to spend his time here sharing; enjoy the dividends of your investment at the table. I don't think many here would regret the purchase.

I've enjoyed it a lot as well. Eileen uses empirical evidence to back up what she says about aging. But there's a lot more in the book than that. Total care of the animal from shot to table.

Hi John!
No doubt about it, every time we identify a "rule" we can just as easily identify exceptions to it from our own experience.
We are finishing up a bull from last year, aged 6 days in nearly perfect temperatures, as we have dozens of others in the past. And yet this has been by far the finest of them all in flavor and tenderness. The difference? This was a farmland bull who had fed all fall on lentils and garbonzos, and didn't waste many calories climbing mountains.

Diet always helps!

One of the weirdest tasting elk we've gotten was a young 6x6 (maybe 4-5) I took in northern British Columbia 10 years ago. It was the second week of September, with the rut just really going, and while the meat was tender it was BLAND, and needed stuff added while cooking to enhance the flavor. That bull was taken in complete wilderness, far from any fields. Maybe he'd been eating flavorless grass all summer....

The absolute best way to 'age' venison or elk is after shooting one, bone it out, throw it in a garbage bag, tie the top of the bag, poke a bunch of holes in it and throw it in a creek. Make sure the bag is completely submerged in the creek. You don't have to worry about flies getting on the meat, nor a bear raiding your meat pole, or warm weather spoiling your meat. We always camp near a creek anyway, so we don't have to go very far to water our mules. Just take a shovel and dig you out a hole deep enough to submerge a sack of meat. The water flows thru the garbage bag because of all the holes you made in it, and it washes all the blood out of the meat and cleans it up real nice. It must also tend to break down the meat because you can fry up a steak and cut it with a fork it'll be so tender. This trick was told to me 30 years ago by an old man and it works like a charm. For you bow and black powder hunters that are hunting when its really warm out, it takes the pressure off you rushing around trying to get your meat off the mountain and into a game cooler before it spoils - just kick back in camp, with your meat submerged in cold mountain water, and let your buddies fill their tags. When you're all done hunting go grab your meat out of the creek and head to town - you can thank me after you cut into that first elk steak.

I agree and a pillow case or heavy elk quarter bag works great too. Just make sure the creek is running pretty swift and all the meat is covered by water, leeches can be an issue if your not careful! hint...

Hmmm...I've never seen a leech in a fast flowing mountain stream and never found a one in any of my meat I've done this way. I've always found leeches in standing water like ponds.

We placed meat in a small creek(moving water) to cool came back a 1/2 hr later and had nearly a hundred small leaches working their way through the pillow cases into the meat. Water moves fast enough I know a guy that drinks straight outa it. Anyway its one of the smaller streams in the area. We moved the meat after a fight with the leaches to faster deeper water... It dosen't have to be standing water like ponds to hold leeches. Just saying if ya pick the only stream near a kill or camp. Go check it out after a bit to see if leeches are present. They will find it pretty fast if the are.

Here in CT, my Uncle who has since gone to his reward, spent the last 15 years of his life shooting White Tails when ever he wanted. One day I stopped by to see him and it was working on a back end of a small refer truck that he bought. He told me that its going to be his own walk in Larder when he gets done. He did just that he would hang venison in it and set the temp for around 38 deg or so, he would hang for a week or two hide on and then bone and cut,never served a tough piece of venison. I wonder why not more of us hunters do that. How hard can it be to have a home larder? Seems that for you in Elk and Moose Country it would almost make sense.