Reply #245: That is a really good point you make [View All]

[DeschutesRiver]

I live so remotely that if we hung a deer to age here in the open, well, it wouldn't bother anyone because our nearest neighbor is over 2 miles away. But we'd likely have a bear or cougar out there munching by morning, and I am sure the horses would strangle us for this.

Out here, hunting season is late enough that you'd be hanging them in cold weather. Actually, if it was for some reason unseasonably warm in the fall when the hunting season started, a person would be a fool to hang out a carcass, as it would rot and be unusable. Usually, if hunters here feel it isn't cold enough, they just take their kills to the local slaughter house to hang in their cold freezers. We no longer hunt, but even when we have the mobile slaughter out for our beef cattle, we have to consider weather. The guy comes and kills them right here, and immediately removes the hide, hangs them inside the truck and takes them right back to the shop. And if it is too warm, he tells us we'd better wait for a cooler early morning to ensure that the carcass won't be stuck in his truck for too long that day.

But taking your harvest to someone like that costs money, as does the cut and wrap, and some prefer to wait to hunt until they can hang it, then cut and wrap themselves because otherwise, they can't afford to do it, and meat becomes a once a week/month splurge via the grocery store pickings.