When my grandfather (deceased 20 years ago) was a kid, there was no refrigeration. They slaughtered a beef or two each year, hung them in a cold house for months. It was essentially a shed, and the roof and walls (about a foot thick) were filled with sawdust for insulation. Blocks of ice were cut from local ponds and placed on shelves inside and the whole thing kept cool way into summer.

His mother would send him out to cut various pieces/steaks off the hanging sides of beef. He said during the late summer there was a black ring of dried flesh a half inch or more thick around the outer portions of the pieces. They would trim that off and eat the rest. He said it was the best meat he's ever had.

Now I can't vouch for this particular deer, but kept in a shed out of the sunlight, I don't find it hard to believe at all that the deer could still be good. This is VT after all.I knowthe animal was frozen solid much of the time it has been hanging.

Then again this guy could be a moron who never got around to dealing with it. Hard to know without more info.