I seldom "age"more than 72 hours. In most cases, I will gut, skin and quarter the deer ASAP. I remove as much of the hair as I can, remove coagulated blood and cut away all of the damaged meat.I then clean and cool the remaining meat in a cold water bath, pouring off the "heated" water 3-4 times.I do this to thoroughly clean the meat and optimize the life of the ice. Then I ice it throughly and periodically pour off the melt-water. 99% of the time I use a processor rather than butcher it myself.