RE: how long do you leave the hide on your deer?
I did it with a fat lamb this spring. Best meat I have ever had. Sucker hung a long time but oh it was good. Leg was like butter.
That all being said, the few deer I killed or was there when they were killed in Montana we skinned on sight, while the carcass was still warm but the buck was killed maybe 100 yards from the chiller that we hung them at.