ORIGINAL: Dnk
Fifty is perfect for bacteria. It should hover just above freezing. A few butchers have told me that there is no real reason to hang wild game for anytime unlike domestic meats.
Sorry but I totally disagree with that statement, the no reason to hang part. In a perfect work, I would hang all my wild meat (deer, moose ect) for 2 weeks, but I do not have a proper cooler to do that. When my meat has not hung for very long, I can really taste the difference in the meat. It will not nearly be as tender and it will have a major strong taste to it (the shorter the hang time, the stronger it will be).
The moose camp my family joined a few years ago, used to have the moose butchered within the week (if shot on Thursday, meat would be butchered and dispersed to everyone by Saturday before people left camp), but not now and they now rave about how much better the meat is. There is almost ZERO fat compared to farm fed beef, so you must take care of your preperations better.
But like I have said before, it is mostly personal preference. I want a tender meat without that strong "wild" taste.
I do agree that 50 is too high to hang for extended time. A doy or two at the biginning should not hurt too much (just shorten total time for hanging), but if it has already been hanging for some time,
I would butcher it right away.