Elk, moose, deer, antelope has always been venison by my dictionary and as such always been treated in the same manner. Get it cooled asap, clean, relax when possible (rigor process which I have always been led to believe lasts upto 24 hours), trimmed. packaged properly andfroze thoroughly. I grew up in afamily of butcherswe never let our venison hang inthe cooler for longer then 3 days.I have experimented with hang times on my own and found no difference beyond the rigor process taking place. Basically boils down to time and temperature for my personal harvests. I also cut for others and have cooler accesswhich boils down strictly to time. Being a sideline I somewhat limited in my turn around when things get busy,though strive for 3 days and out the door. A lot of the quality is shape of the deer before harvest and care after harvest. I have seen some prettynasty carcasses come in and it's aweful hard to turn a pigs snout into a silk purse..[]