if you field dress it, get it cooled down and leave it hang for a few days and can keep it 35 ish or so before getting it processed in a timely manner then you should be good to go.... personal experience is that poorly tasting venison is a direct derivative of poor processing and preperation. Fat on a deer is not like fat on a steer.... it is tallow more or less... ie wax... and not pleasant when it solidifies on the roof of your mouth... better left for the coyotes and coons and possum to nibble on...

i process all of my own game... and spend a lot of time doing it.... and no one complains about it... ever... even fi it is a non corn fed deer (ie non southern michigan deer)...

#1 live by the boning out method....

#2 deconstruct the carcass muscle group by muscle group as much as possible.. not as important if you are going to trim and chunk to grind as you can trim and seperate later

#3 get every last bit of fat off that you can before you even cut into the meat... torch hair that may be stuck to meat, off with a propane torch.

#4 get all of the membrane and remaining fat off of the muscle... a fillet knife works great for this... LEAN is the key word here...

#5 get yourself a vacuum packager...

#6 when you cook vension don't cook it well done... i prefer medium... overcooking dries out the meat and makes it very tough and really brings out any "gamey" flavor.

i distinctly remember, when i was very young, my aunt and uncle would have a yearly venison dinner from deer taken the previous fall... overcooked, fatty, membrane laden and cut with the meat saw generally... just like beef... it got to the point where i wanted nothing to do with it... these days on the other hand, now that i process my own meat... i might have a few extra hours into trimming and packaging after initial butchering but the quality of the meat is no where even in the ballpark to what i grew up with... it is well worth the extra effort you put into it... to get it as lean as possible... steaks or cube meat to be ground...

so again... processing, care, packaging and preperation.... all key....

JMHO

J