Back when we were kids our folks had basically unlimited access to a meat locker behind our house on the res in Oregon. This is what my dad did at the time he would field dress/gut on the ground, get it in the truck, then back in camp get the deer hanging by it's rear legs on a home made gimble usually a stick and a rope, cut it's throat to let it bleed out more , skin it, wrap deer bags around the deer to keep the flys out and if it was pretty warm out he would take it too the meat locker and hang it and then come back to camp with the rest of the hunting party. He didn't have the taxidermist do any mounts except bear , they were kids of the depression and food was more important than other things. he would usually let them sit in there for about a week then mom and him would butcher. Now this was in central Oregon before we moved to Arizona and I think the mule deer in Oregon tasted better than the mule deer in AZ and this I firmly believe has to do with what the deer eats, just like a cow these old scraggly range cows we have where we live now just don't taste the same as a well fed mtn cow that eats healthy mtn grasses. I still think if you let something hang in a locker for a week or so before butchering it does taste better, now if it were a lousy piece of meat to begin with I don't think a meat locker is going to make any difference in taste. I'm a little different since I've had too many bad experiences with our local so called wild game meat processors we as a family pretty much butcher ourselves with the exception of grinding hamburger which I have guy who grinds and sleeve in 1 lb sleeves with 10 percent pork fat, both deer and elk. It's just so much easier on us especially if we 3 or 4 elk to grind, he does so much better job than I can with his commercial equipment. Arizona can be quite hot during hunting season , but it can freeze also, we don't cut the throats to bleed out and almost always skin on the ground mainly because we have a system down skinning whether it's the gutless method or skin and roll. A lot of places it's too rugged to drag out in large pieces so we bone them out where they lay then pack out. In any case we have multiple large ice chests and get the meat cooled down as soon as possible, we don't hang anything in a meat locker because we don't have access to one without paying, and I don't trust these local meat processors anyway. If I had my own meat locker yes I would hang it for a week or so, it doesn't hurt anything, and we can butcher at our leisure instead of a mad rush to get the animals cut up when we get home. If this was 20/30 years ago and knowing what I know now I'd probably buy a small used meat locker and Hobart commercial grinder and do every thing my self, back then we ate a whole lot more red meat than we do today. Whether hanging for a week or so makes the meat taste any better is debatable just my opinion good well fed meat taste better than old rutting bull elk & deer or well fed mtn grass fed animals vs old desert range animals. There is one exception and that's Coues deer vs mule deer those little white tails are just better tasting than either our mtn or desert mule deer. Normally anymore I don't buy commercial game bags although I do keep a few elk sized bags in the hunting trailer, but rather I will go down to the thrift store and buy a few king sized sheets and duck tape around the deer/elk legs and neck and close any openings. Warm weather kills the meat got to get it cooled down and keep it cool.
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