How cold before you will hang a deer overnight?

[bpa556]

No max temp here. A gutted and hanging deer is not going to “spoil” overnight at any temperature.

Keep it out of the sun and it’ll be fine for several days at far higher temps than your refrigerator. Just keep the flies from blowing on it.


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[S-3 Ranch]

No max temp here. A gutted and hanging deer is not going to “spoil” overnight at any temperature.

Keep it out of the sun and it’ll be fine for several days at far higher temps than your refrigerator. Just keep the flies from blowing on it.


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Agreed, just keep the flies off and out of direct sunlight

[Patton]

I'd like it to get below 50 before hanging it. However wouldn't be nervous about hanging one at 50-54ish if it was nice and windy.

I hung a deer the night 10/26/19 in Lockhart, It got down to around 42* or so but certainly not below 40. Saved a lot of my ice from melting by letting it cool overnight first.

On that same night, I also pulled out a broken down sika, put all the meat and game bags and let those hang out to air and dry as well.

When properly cared for, meat is not as fragile as some people like to think.

It better be 32 degrees or colder, only done that once, maybe twice.

This results in a big pain in the ***. You ever tried taking the meat off a frozen deer?

[PondPopper]

Depends on whether it is skinned or not. We hang birds at 55 for three or four days before we pluck and draw.

Skinned deer, bone in with meat cut or opened to bone will cool even when hot out. An elk lives at 104 degrees. Just gutting and skinning will cool the meat even at 80 degrees. You don't want to freeze or butcher until it has relaxed.

We hang skinned but we also try to open up the meat next to the bone. That's where it will spoil first.

Those fellas in Nebraska hang those pheasant, whole and not gutted, for days before they process them...

[Paycheck]

I worry about critters and flies. But would feel comfortable in the shade open up with air moving at just about any temp.

[KX500]

On the one hand, food poisoning sucks! Probably why most are pretty conservative on this topic.

On the other, I'm another one who has killed a deer on a warm evening hunt, with an overnight low in the mid to upper 50s (maybe 60s, can't remember). Found deer next morning and meat was fine. I recall the meat being fairly warm the next morning - but of course it may have died an hour before I got there as it wasn't a great shot.

And there have been a couple deer that weren't found until about 24 hours after the shot, with fairly warm temps. Right or wrong, couldn't eat those!

[gatt40]

40 is good