I am convinced that wild game is much better if aged for about 10 days prior to butchering, regardless of the recipe. Store bought beef is aged longer than that.

Reminds me of Stone Soup, the folk tale we heard as kids. “It would be even better if we only had some…”

VERY TRUE. I Try for 7-10 days if the weather is good. Bitch to skin it but worth it.

If I don’t have the meat in the frig or freezer within three hours of the time it was killed somethings gone wrong .

Because of the weather in VA or because you don't prefer to age it? If it's hot or too warm, I'll skin, quarter, cover in cheesecloth and stack the parts in an empty fridge for 24-48 hours before butchering. Grouse 3-7 days, pheasants 5-7 days, woodcock a few days.

I just got in the habit . I woke up one Sunday morning in late December several years ago with a warm front coming in and seven deer hanging in the back yard . So now to keep from that happening again I just do it as killed . Plus it’s a good bit easier and quicker pulling the hide off before you open them up . Then open up rinse out , cut the inner TL out then cut the backstraps off . After that I trim the rest off the bone either for the stew in this thread or to be ground at the end of the season .

The pheasents from the tower shoots I bring home whole , then fillet the breasts off the cartilage and pitch the rest . I also soak the breast “fillets” in light salt water a couple days to draw any blood out , then bag and freeze .

Talking about difficult to deal with later . I killed a 8 point large bodied deer in the Poconos one year on the first morning . Gutted in the woods , brought it back to the cabin wiped the body cavity out and hung it about 15 feet off the ground . Stayed there for five days , it also never got above freezing that entire trip . Drove back to VA with that thing in the back of my truck froze solid with the head sticking up looking at cars as we went by . Once home I needed to use a wooden hammer handle to push down and get the hide off . Took me over an hour to skin that deer .

I'm still stuck on "seven deer hanging.." That would be some type of game violation in the Republic of NY, even with a nuisance permit : )

Within a couple of hours my deer are at the butcher and in the cooler. He takes them 24/7 via special drop off arrangement, it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy.