Shot a deer on Friday last @ 11:00AM, the temperature was around 9 degrees C. Found him later in the afternoon and had him gutted by 7 PM that sameevening.
Hung him in the garage overnight, temperatures dropped to 4 C overnight and left him all day/night Saturday in 6C/4C temperature thru toSunday AM.
On Sunday AM, I started caping him and to my surprise the hair came out in handfuls--the meat was perfect, but the hide--well that didn't look very good.
Any ideas"what" could have caused this? I'm quite baffled as I have not experienced this on a hide in such cool temperatures in so short a time.
Yes, in the past when the temperatures were not so cool, but for a hide to go bad in so short a time in so cool temperature, really has me concerned.
Would really appreciate some reasons for this to happen.

Taxidermists call this "slipping" and it's basically because the bacteria set up and got to work very fast. I know it dropped prettycold overnight, but those 90-degree temps are murder on deer capes. I know; I lost one on a P&Y buck a couple years ago, and had to have a friend give me a cape from one he wasn't going to mount.

MQ 1 I thought about the bacteria factor--but the temperatures ranged from 50 F (10 C) during theday and dropped to 39 F (4 C) during the night. So it wasn't that warm, the meat did have a chill to it.

Hunter's Specialties has a product called Wild Gamekeeper, it's a granular powder which you add water to and spray the meat. This mixtureinhibits the bacteria growth--I wonder if this would also work on keeping the hides for a few days?

I've seen that advertised on the Prime Time videos... at the time, my first thought was "gimmick", but who knows? Mabye...