How long to let deer meat age?

[ALwoodsman]

Any of you that process your own deer, how long do you like to let the meat age before you cut it up?

[Cory Mattson]

4 days minimum 8 days maximum - I try for 7 for mature deer.
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[bluemoonrising]

Kill it and cut it! There's no reason to let venison age. Peace!

[Rob W.]

Mine is usually cut and packaged the night of kill.

[ksbowman]

I usually quarter and remove the loins and back straps and bag them, then throw them in my beer fridge for three days to a week depending on my schedule, all bags need to have room for air to flow around them.

[frassettor]

If its cool outside, I let it hang overnight and cut it the next day. If it's not cool outside, I cut it up ASAP

[pitbull]

A constant temp of 36-38 degrees is required to age venison so unless you have it in a cooler it is almost impossible to do. If you have that, I go 5 days. Remember it starts to spoil at 40 degrees. That is why I usually cut mine the same day.

[longrifle346]

I've always kept mine on ice but dry for at least 7-10 days, then process and vacuum pack. Never had a bad batch.

[Aunty]

+1 what Cory said.

[meathead]

I like to let mine hang for 7-8 days.

[BRIARS]

Aging meat is not an option in our area, unless you have a cooler. High here was in the mid to high 60's today.

[statedriller]

A friend was asking me about this today.  He is "new" to deer hunting and several people told him to hang it in a cool area until it turns green.  Then scrape the green off and butcher it.  He was serious and said they were too.  

I gave him a little better advice than that...

[stujay]

I clean, skin and hang the 1st day. Hang overnight, then days 2-4 depending where I am start taking off a section at a time for triming and cutting it up. Wife packages the steaks, roasts etc while the pieces for grinding are put in large container and refrigerated till all complete. Then grind it into burger. I like to take 2 days for the triming and cutting.

[Dave Bulla]

Lots of folks in warmer parts of the country have never had the chance to let a deer age properly and swear it does no good anyway.  Butchers and processors often say it doesn't do any good either because the meat is not marbled like a cow but I've decided that line is used simply because they don't want your deer hanging in their cooler for a week before they cut it up and get their money.

I've been aging my deer meat for years and I'm convinced it makes a SIGNIFICANT difference.  Just today I cut up a doe that I shot last Sunday.  Starting that day, we had a cold front move in and the temp that night was in the 20's.  Monday only got up into the upper 30's.  Perfect!  Monday night was again in the upper 20's but the daytime high on Tuesday was forcast to be about 50.  At 5am Tuesday before leaving for work, I wrapped the hanging deer in two tarps to insulate it for the day.  Tuesday night was only down into the low to mid 30's which was still okay.  In conditions like those, I'd leave that deer hang for a week.  Getting a little below freezing at night and up into the high 40's in the day is about perfect if the hide is left on.  Deer meat is slow to freeze until it gets down to the low 20's for several hours and slow to warm up with the hide on.  Especially if wrapped and hung in the shade.  

I have a breezeway between the shed and the house that is perfect for this.

Wednesday it was getting warmer so after work I skinned the deer, quartered it and cut the backstraps out and packed it all in a cooler with about 30 lbs of ice.  Didn't open the lid until today.  The ice was melted but everything was still real cold.  Cut it all up and have about 15 pounds of meat in the smoker right now for jerky.  Made chicken fried steaks today for lunch and they were absolutely fantastic.  Honestly some of the best I've ever eaten regardless of being deer or beef.  They were so good in fact that the kids wanted the same thing for supper!

If a fella had the extra room in his garage, it'd sure be nice to pick up an old refrigerator with the wire racks and put a drain pan in the bottom.  It would be easy to age your meat either on the shelves or by taking the shelves out and hanging from hooks.  The temp could be set perfectly and a fella could be confident things were under control.  I don't have that option but I'm comfortable with doing it the way I just described.  

Works for me!

[Roger Norris]

If it is colder than 40, I let them hang 3-4 days. I killed a deer at Shrewhaven once on day #2 of a 10 day hunt. It stayed cold. No problem with spoilage.

[Jeff Strubberg]

I've stopped aging deer meat.  Maybe it's my unrefined palate, but I don't notice any difference at all.

For me, good deer meat is about getting it clean and getting rid of as much connective tissue as possible.

[ALwoodsman]

The reason I ask is that I have heard to let it age for at least 5 days and I have heard of people doing it longer than that.  I have heard several butchers say this.  I am new to this and am actually processing my own deer for the first time this year.  I killed one yesterday, brought it home, skinned and quartered it.  I placed the meat on racks in a extra fridge in the garage.  I will probably just work on it a little at a time throughout the week.  Thanks for the replies.

[findbows]

I have a cooler I let it hang 6-10 days. The temp is 38-42 in the last 20 years my family and I have butchered over 325 deer with no problems.

[huntsman247]

As stated, it all depends on the temp of where it is being aged.  I like 7 days if below 40 degrees.

[critter69]

We have done it about every way you can think of. My Dad used to say it had to hang (age) for a week when possible.As an example we hunted 10 days. temps were in the 20's to 40's. We always hung in the shade,skin off asap, wraped in game bags,and kept dry.We have shot deer the first day that hung the rest of the time we were there. And then shot another one on or about the last day of our trips. We process or owen and fried some of each as we butcherd. None of us could tell the diffrence between the one that hung 10 dys and the one that never realy aged at all. I think the most important thing is to get them clean,skinned, cooled and kept dry and process as soon as possible or immediately as temps. dictate.