Aging deer meat is useless unless you want to let your meat rot. Beef is aged because there are a certain type of enzyme inside the meat that allows the muscle strands to break down, causing the meat to become more tender. Deer meat does not have this enzyme and aging it will not make it more tender. There have been many studies proving this. Any local butcher worth beans (who handles both beef and venison) will be able to tell you this.
I age my deer in an extra refrigerator skinned and quartered for 14-21 days, depending on when I have time to process.
I am in the cattle business so I know a little bit about cattle aging and tenderness.
It is widely accepted that the longer you age beef the more tender it will be. Commericial packing plantsusually age beef aminimum of 14 days, and higher end "branded products" will be aged a minimum of 21 days. It would be even more tender at 28 days but not enoughimprovement to justify carrying the inventory an additional week.
Bacteria present on the carcassis part of what causes thetenderization, never heard ofjust an enzyme being the reason.I may be too skeptic, but it is my guess that a local butcher told you the above information so that hecould justify NOT aging your deer, but maybe I am wrong.
Could you direct me to one of these studies?