Dry Aging (possession limit vs daily limit)

I have zero interest in "aging" my birds. I clean them the same day and then vacuum seal them. Leaving the guts in them does not sit well with me. I field dress a deer right after I shoot it and would never leave the guts in that either.
 
Ky Setter man said:
Im telling you , if you havent , you never ate good pheasant.
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Its the same way with ducks as well, and im sure any other game bird. The old timers used to hang ducks in the barn until the necks stretch and the body falls.

The iffy part is the ever changing weather in the Midwest. Saturday morning it was 19F when I hunted, now its 66F. Wouldnt be able to hang birds right now, not unless you have a big barn or something to that sort which will hold cool temp a little better. When we go back to cold weather, it will shoot to straight below freezing day and night which does not allow for hanging either.

Hard to get conditions right, i am watching for an old give-away fridge to hang birds in so i can regulate the temp.
 
I have cleaned pheasants one of two ways- if they were being processed at the outfitters to be vacuum packaged, frozen and accompanied by the paperwork, we cut out the breasts within hours of the hunt.

When I hunt public land and have to keep them in a cooler with attached wing until I get home, I was taught to stand on the wings and pull the feet until the onliest thing between my feet were the feathered wings and the breastplate.

Here lately, I’ve had the wings tear off when I clean them the same day o shot them.

Does the dry aging process make it easier to pull the legs, entrails, neck and head off without the wings tearing off the breastplate?
 
Lots of parts of this to unpack. Leaving the guts in only works for pheasant and smaller upland birds. Ducks, geese, turkey, deer, etc all can be aged as well but they need the guts removed. Bigger animals the guts hold the heat too long and same for waterfowl. Their down keeps the insides too warm. Different animals need different temps and different length of aging. Deer should be around 38° and minimum 14 days if I remember correctly. A resource like Hank can answer all those details. A wine fridge would be perfect for birds, I’ve been looking for a cheap one for awhile.

With aged birds I save both the breasts and the legs/thighs. So once they are done aging, I cut out the breast lobes and then remove the legs and thighs from the carcass and never touch the guts. I usually pluck 1 or 2 per season but it just takes too long for me to do any more than that. Those ones I gut of course.
 
gps4 said:
I have cleaned pheasants one of two ways- if they were being processed at the outfitters to be vacuum packaged, frozen and accompanied by the paperwork, we cut out the breasts within hours of the hunt.

When I hunt public land and have to keep them in a cooler with attached wing until I get home, I was taught to stand on the wings and pull the feet until the onliest thing between my feet were the feathered wings and the breastplate.

Here lately, I’ve had the wings tear off when I clean them the same day o shot them.

Does the dry aging process make it easier to pull the legs, entrails, neck and head off without the wings tearing off the breastplate?
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Ive only ever plucked birds or butchered out from whole when aging. But I would imagine trying to do that would result in two legs in your hand or two wings under your feet, it feels like the joints and muscle really break down and would tear apart easily.

Ive only ever done the leg pull when hunting public land far away and wanting to dress the birds in the parking lot instead of dealing with cleaning birds after a long ride home.
 
We did the wing pull on most of ours this year. If the wing was taking the brunt of the shot dont try. Just clean that as normal. But it worked great on all the rest. Pull slowly. Just keep steady pressure and go slow.
 
Deer, antelope, and elk are different. With these animals, the best way is to gut and skin the animal as soon as possible and then let the carcass age at a cool temperature. Dry aging is often difficult to do some years when November temperatures are warm.

The grocery store I worked in when I was in HS always had a half dozen beef sides hanging in the cooler (they had a real butcher). Sometimes I would go into the cooler and play "Rocky", but I never tried to break a rib.
 
We used to clean our birds at the hotel or home. Now it's strictly on the side of the road. Throwaway stuff goes in a garbage bag and back to a garbage can. Except for maybe a single head we usually set up in the ditch grass for the eagle eyed road hunters. Lol
 
BRITTMAN said:
The wing method is fine and seems to be common in Minnesota on both ruffed grouse and pheasants. Please, please dispose of the carcasses ... do not leave them at a public parking access or in a ditch.
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I clean the birds at the motel and put the entrails in a garbage bag and toss em in the dumpster.
 
Doesn't the standing and pulling method of pulling the bird apart leave the thighs behind? If that is the case and I saw someone doing that, they would not be hunting with me again...just damn wasteful. Respect the bird enough to eat the thighs which are easy to harvest. Hate to see what those fellas leave behind when they process deer.
 
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