once you have your deer...

[ca2pa]

so while it is still relatively warm outside (not freezing yet), if you take your buck or a doe, where do you take it? some meat processing place? the deer i harvested last year were late in winter and temps were waaaaay below freezing, so they would hang in my garage for a few days. but lets say you harvest one earlier during the season, how do you deal with this scenario?

and if anybody knows of lockers or processing spots in bucks co, please let me know..thanks in advance..

[MrBi11]

I take mine to the freezer, wrapped in small individual packages.

My kids grew up with 'peal and eat' meals, I've always done my own processing.
It's not that hard, and any mistakes simply turn into burger. Just watch for bruised meat.

[bigborehnd]

I have a spare frig in the basement. Summers it's home to a keg, after Sept. it is waiting for a deer. Just skin it and quarter it up. Processing it yourself is easy and you get your own meat.

[wis bang]

Frigid Freeze in Riegelsville is one I've used. There was a guy in Pt. Pleasant who does bologna, etc.

Once you've done a few w/ guideance, it's not all that hard to do one yourself. Kinda desconstruction by muscle groups.

[NikeBauer21]

I take mine to the freezer, wrapped in small individual packages.

It's not that hard, and any mistakes simply turn into burger. Just watch for bruised meat.

^This.. Just decide what cuts you want, and do it.. any mistakes, just throw it in the burger pile..

[ca2pa]

ya i processed my own last year and was ok with the results, but my question was geared more towards the temperature. do people not leave the deer hanging for a few days so that the meat ages a little and softens up? how can one do that when the meat can go bad due to the not so cold yet temps?

[Buckster]

I process my own too and I will leave my deer hang over night or up too a day with warmer temps. Look at it this way. If you made a bad shot and had to pull out overnight to track later the meat is still plenty good when you find it. After that I would at least quarter it and store it in a fridge if I can get to butchering it. The hanging usually is not for aging its just to let it stiffen up and get easier to work with or I just dont have the time to do anything with it.
Also when meat is aged the meat on the outside does go bad. You have to cut it off and only eat the meat thats left. I think.

[Sandcut]

ya i processed my own last year and was ok with the results, but my question was geared more towards the temperature. do people not leave the deer hanging for a few days so that the meat ages a little and softens up? how can one do that when the meat can go bad due to the not so cold yet temps?

If the temp is above 40 degrees, I wouldn't leave the meat hanging for more than a couple hours after skinning the deer. Especially if you expose the meat to any stomach contents during gutting.

The reason that you keep your fridge around or just below 40 degrees is that is the temp under which most bacteria/fungus can't operate and reproduce well. You still get some. It just takes a lot longer. The warmer it gets, the more rapidly bacteria grow.

As a minumum, I skin my deer, let it hang for a while to go, at least partially through rigor mortis, if possible. Not quite so hard to work with. As mentioned upthread a bit, I will at least quarter the deer, wrap it in saran wrap and store in the downstairs refrigerator. Here you can age the meat for a couple days if you want. The muscles have a chance to relax. The natural enzymes have a chance to age the meat a bit. And you also can work on butchering in and around other household duties as time allows. This can go on over 2 or 3 days with no problem.

Getting it in the refrigerator also lessens the exposure to flies and bugs which can make meat funky pretty quickly

But quite honestly, I've stuck entire deer into the freezer all chopped up within 5 hours of being killed and I really can't tell any difference from those that have been "aged." And I end up cutting off less of the meat that has dried up and turned brown on the outside.

But, that's just me. YMMV.

[Arch007er]

I put water in some 2 liter coke bottles and freeze them, and stuff them into the chest cavity if I can't get around to skinning it the first day.

[spagluvx]

In the warm weather it is most important to reduce the core temperature of animal as soon as possible. Rather than splitting the hind quarter (through the pelvic bone), I cut around the anus. This helps hold the ice/2L in and allow me to keep the hinds close to help in cooling. After cleaning the deer, I wash and then pack with ice or frozen 2l bottles.

If you can safely store the meat (you can fit a quartered whitetail in an old fridge) you can then take your time and process on your own. If not, you should take the animal to a processor so that they put it in the cooler.

IMO there is nothing worse than game that was taken and wasted. (not saying you were intending to.)