I skin the deer while it is laying on it's side in the field. I just skin 1 side at a time. Then I cut the hind quarter off at the hip joint and the front shoulder off and cut the backstraps out and put them in a bag. I then cut the meat off the front shoulder and cut the hind quarter off the thigh bone and put the meat inthe bag. It is amazingly easy to just reach in and pull the tenderloin out sometimes you can just pull it right out without even using a knife. Then I flip the deer over and repeat the process for the other side. I don't mess around with gutting it. The entire process takes about 30 minutes and you have 2 nice bags of boneless meat to take home and process the rest of the way.

I've done the ice chest thing with some pigs and it worked but sometimes you have to process it right away. I shot an Antelope in Montana last Saturday at 3:30 in the afternoon and it was cut and wrapped and in my mother's freezer by 9:00 that night. I shot a deer last Tuesday and put the boneless meat in the fridge overnight and cut and wrapped it on Wednesday and both animals were in coolers riding back to Texas with me in nice white frozen packages on Thursday.

I've heard all kinds of old wive's tales about hanging, aging, etc. but generally I think the final taste is going to be more affected by what the animal has been eating and how much it has been moving around before you shoot it than anything you can do after it has been shot.