You both are right about letting it hang.The best deer meat I ever had hung for 21 days.I will give you a little tip on your grond up venison and making jerky with it.Buy you one of those jerky cannons they are well worth the money.I probally made over 200lbs of ground up venison into jerky for people last year.It just makes things so much easier.They are also good for making slim jims and snack sticks also.