I always leave mine on the lowest setting for 8-9 hours. Everything cooks well in that amount of time. The best part of meat from a slow cooker is how it practically melts in your mouth when cooked properly. I also use a lot of seasoning. A quick recipe for slow-cooker venison is to dump a couple pounds of meat, couple bags of frozen vegetables, and a couple pouches of standard beef stew seasoning into the cooker. Put in enough water to get within 1-1.5 inches of the top, turn it on low and eat it the next day. Them's good eats.