How to care for your freshly killed deer:

As soon as the deer is killed the animal should be field dressed and brought back to camp to be skinned and hung.
The best temperature to hang a deer is 40 degrees or less, if warmer the meat starts to go rancid.
Flush the deer carcus with cold water before hanging to remove any leaves, dirt or hair.
Wipe chest cavity dry.
Hang deer fron hind legs as far off the ground as possible.
Skin the deer.
Make sure you prop the chest cavity open for proper air circulation.
If the temperature is too warm, some hunters cut the deer into the desired cuts, place them in large ice chests, leave the drain open, and cover them in ice. They then keep topping off the ice to make sure the meat remains cold.
After about 6 days the enzymes have broken down and tenderized the meat and it is ready for butchering.
You can butcher and process your meat or take it to your local butcher if you don't want to do it yourself. If you do, tThere are many books and thorough instructions on the whole process, although it's a good idea to read up on the subject before you acually have the deer on hand.

Deer Meat Cuts

NECK - stew or loaf
SHOULDER- roast, ground meat
SADDLE - fine roast or chops
LOIN - steak, filet, chops, roast
RUMP - roast, steaks
SHANK - roast
RIBS/BRISKET - spare ribs, brisket
FLANK - soups, stews, ground meat, jerky
LEG SHANK - soups, stews, ground meat, jerky

With any of the sections you can make soups, stews, ground meat, jerky. It's a good idea to label the sections of meat as you put it into the freezer with the date, it's hard to tell what it is after it's frozen. Wrapped properly the deer meat has a freeze life of about 1 year.

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