That was a long one....

"40 degrees --- period" and "the sooner the better" is what I got out of it.

** We store it in the coolest natural cover, pending transport (same day or next).
Upon arriving at the main camp, we put the quarters straight into the freezers and monitor the temperature to keep it from dropping below freezing , shutting off the freezer if necessary (a large mass of elk meat hauled in from the field will overpower the freezing ability of a freezer for a while during which time it acts as a refrigerator).

** Once all the animals are in to camp, we start butchering ASAP. We strive to get our game in the first day (or two at most). If the harvest is going painfully slow, then we will have one group start butchering what we've got, another group packing, and then some still hunting.

** The spike camp "haul out" waits until after in camp butchering is done, so we can "get right into the butchering" plus we may have some folks still out stomping around for game (hopefully not many, nor for long).

** We have one large upright freezer and one medium chest freezer and keep a thermometer in each one. Once "wrapped" and coded the meat is laid out, not touching, in the large freezer and we wait for it to freeze solid. Once sharp frozen, we transfer it and "pile" it into the chest freezer until the butchering cycle ends. Regarding the first freezer, don't trust a freezer that is under a heavy "trying to get lots of stuff frozen" load --- it won't cool everywhere in its interior at the same rate. Hunt down and remove sharp frozen packages to the final freezer. Move "warmer/slow to freeze" packages within the intial freezer to the colder spots so your average cooling/freezing rate is somewhat even. Just from experience, watch out putting packages in the door --- the air can't circulate underneath and it is next to the door gasket.

** One related note, pick a campsite that has some major conifer stands close by. As you begin butchering you may have to "juggle" meat in the early stages and you may need to "evict" some quarters out of one or the other of the freezers (acting like refrigerators at that point, holding the meat waiting for you to butcher it) to the shade and cool of the heavy conifer stand temporarily until you can get around to cutting these hung quarters up (usually they are first in line once they are hung in the trees and may only be there for a few hours) -- this lets your first stage freezer take your initial batches of packaged meat and work on actually sharp freezing them since the rate at which you butcher and put butchered meat into the freezer is not as overwhelming as the rate you can pitch in elk quarters (thud-thud-thud 200 pounds with quarters). It is an interesting balancing act.

Quick side note regarding freezers. The upright can only accept quarters that have the leg removed at the "knee". The chest 8 cu. ft. can accept quarters with the feet still on them BUT it is best to have them off. On the other hand, if you've got lots of elk down, then get them to the freezers ASAP hooves on or off --- a little quick camp work can quickly prune them down once things start getting crowded.

After researching it quite a bit, the upshot of what I found regarding aging elk meat was two points:

(1) The process of aging meat works mainly on the marbled fat and since wild game typically don't have much marbling in their muscle structure, the benefits if any are minor, if any.

(2) Unless you have a walk in temperature controlled cooler, the downsides of aging are numerous. Proper, temperature controlled aging may be viable if you are hunting close to home/town; however, if you are in a remote/away from home big game camp then the "aging" attempt is riskier still --- little to gain and much to lose. For most, "bolting" into town to the processor is the best way to satisfy the food scientists who know all to well the dangers of ignoring the thermometer for anymore than the shortest periods of time.

My $.02, of course there is someone out there that hangs them in the garage for 7-10 days at what every daytime/nighttime temperature comes along and calls it "just right". To each there own and good luck.

EKM