Processing Deer Survey

[nemhed]

To go along with the "Hanging Deer" topic, I was just curious how many of you process your own deer (or other large game animals) as opposed to those who take it to a processor. I've always butchered my own, and now the one my son shot. In fact he and his youngest sister stayed home from school to help. To me it is an important part of the hunt, and usually turns into a family project which really doesn't take that long.

[ceb]

Other than my first deer back in 1968 I've always done it myself. That way I know what I'm getting and how it was taken care of.

[Old Ironsights]

Nobody touches my game meat but me.

I process the meat into whole muscle Jerkey, what won't jerk well gets ground for Sausage/snack sticks.

Just the good cuts go into steaks. I don't do roasts.

[nemhed]

OI, just a quick comment. I quit making jerky because I had no self control and would founder myself on it. Now I divide the backstraps into 4 packages, keep two roasts from the shoulders and grind everything else. We're not big on roast anything but we will make Italian "Beef" sometimes.

[WCF3030]

Around here it use to cost only $30-35 vacum packed, and I knew the butcher.
Now they want at least $80-90. So I do my own.

[El Chivo]

I did my own - I don't like the idea of paying for my own meat.

[Old Ironsights]

OI, just a quick comment. I quit making jerky because I had no self control and would founder myself on it. Now I divide the backstraps into 4 packages, keep two roasts from the shoulders and grind everything else. We're not big on roast anything but we will make Italian "Beef" sometimes.

That is a problem... but I figure since I don't eat much meat otherwise, Jerkey is the best way to go.

I keep it frozen and ration it out over the course of a year...

[JerryB]

I bone it out and cut roast, steaks and stew meat, grind some and make some jerky. to easy and cheaper than having it done. We enjoy it as part of the blessing from the Lord.

[Modoc ED]

I process mine myself and usually end up giving most of it away.

[RIHMFIRE]

I DO IT MYSELF TOO....

[FLINT]

We've always butchered our own. My dad worked at a slaughter house for a little while when he was younger so he's really good at it.

[6pt-sika]

I render it into edible portions myself !

I take the backstraps off whole as well as the tenderloin !

Everything else is removed from the bone and donated to the "Food Pantry" here in our town for giving to those that can use it !

And as for the backstraps and tenderloin , I give a good percentage of that to friends !

I doubt if I keep 10% of what I kill ! And I usually get 10-15 each year !

[rost495]

We do our own, generally end up with jerky, about 300+ sausage, straps,and loins. Thats on deer, don't care for the roasts so much with whitetails. On elk and moose if we are lucky we do lots more roasts and use only trimmings for sausage. I won't let anyone touch my meat generally and just recently, about 3 years ago was in a bind and let a plant process an 18 month old eater into steaks and vac sealed. that was HORRIBLE meat for some reason.

[Tycer]

Butcher my own. Used to be $35 and two years ago went to $75, so I learned to do it myself. After my first one, I'm not sure I used to actually get the meat from the deer I shot. They seem to taste better than they used to. I've never had to track a deer and I clean the cavity immediately and well and dry it and keep it clean while dragging the deer out of the woods. I've seen deer at the processor that are filthy and have multiple wounds in non-lethal places.

[TedH]

I do all my own.

[gunslinger598]

I've always done my own

[Slick13]

Butcher my own. Used to be $35 and two years ago went to $75, so I learned to do it myself. After my first one, I'm not sure I used to actually get the meat from the deer I shot. They seem to taste better than they used to. I've never had to track a deer and I clean the cavity immediately and well and dry it and keep it clean while dragging the deer out of the woods. I've seen deer at the processor that are filthy and have multiple wounds in non-lethal places.

I read or heard somewhere recently, maybe in one of those videos about lead fragments making their way into various parts of the deer away from the entry wound, that it isn't uncommon for processors to mix deer meat. No thanks, I've seen how some people can shoot, and how they treat game after it's been harvested. A buddy and I get together and butcher our own.

~Michael

[gcs]

I always bone out my own, no roasts, just vacuum pack and freeze in 2 meal chunks, and slice into steaks or cutlets right before I cook it, this keeps freezer burn to a minimum.
No ground meat either, I will dry rub and smoke shoulders whole, sliced cold with a beer...
Everything I don't want goes to the dogs, they love me.

[GANJIRO]

I always process my own, no such thing as butchers here except some of the barbers.

[Kansas Ed]

I've always cut my own, but used to take the grind meat in and have it ground. It broke me of that habit one year when I neck shot my elk, and got a bullet back in my grind meat....wasn't sure how at the time, but there it was. It was then I realized that it all goes into a big tub and no one gets their original meat back. I take good care of my game...field dressed immediately and cooled with running water ASAP. But I've seen so many Bubba's out there who leave their deer un-field dressed until it gets to the slaughterhouse, and it generally rides around a full day or more in the back of their truck so they can show it off to their buddies and everyone else....not to mention that I pass on big bucks so I can have good meat. So why on earth would I want my meat mixed with that rotten stuff??? So a few years back I bought a grinder and started grinding my own....I make my own jerky also, both stripped and ground. As for cuts, I dislike deer steak, so the backstraps get cut in half and frozen as roasts, major roast sections get trimmed as such, and the rest is ground. BTW, if you have never used backstrap for roasts you are missing out on a culinary delight...

Ed

[BenT]

I don't do mine, my wife does. The first time I butchered a deer with her, she told me how I was doing it wrong. Who I am I to argue with her. She lets me wrap, of course after she showed me how to do it correctly !

Her mother used to work in a butcher shop.

[marlinman93]

I used to do my own, but the older I get the less I want to fool with it. I take mine to a small husband-wife shop and let them do it now.

[Bullard4075]

Use to do my own on the kitchen table.
Now the local processer charges $35 and then I donate the meat to the local Food Bank. The process fee comes off my taxes
as charity. Everybody is happy. The family doesn't eat Deer. Moose we eat. Elk ........I don't know, haven't got one yet. Antelope....nasty critter ...near record head went on my wall, meat went to the Food Bank. Probably never shoot another.

[AJMD429]

It is a family affair. Kids need to know where meat comes from, and how to handle an animal respectfully and cleanly, not just shoot one and haul it off to a butcher. A table used a couple times a year is far cleaner than ANY butcher shop assembly line could be, simply due to the constant presence there of meat and blood. Our butcher table sits out in the sunshine half the year after an end-season cleaning with bleach.

[Last Spike]

I'm in with the processing the deer at home crowd - why waste money taking it to the butcher when one can do it themselves? Learning how to and making ones own sausage is a real treat.

[klrhunter650]

I can't find anybody else that will do it for free. I once worked at a meat locker where we processed deer for half the county and I can tell you that nobody got their deer. At least not in that establishment. Roll your own.

[Lastmohecken]

I have had it done, a few times, but not often. I usually cut mine up into thin steaks. I don't much care for deer hamburger, or roast, so I bone it all out, and cut it up into pretty thin steaks, always trying to cut it accross the grain for easy chewing. Some of the pieces get pretty small but that is the way I like it. And I always try really hard to cut out all of the white seniue or how ever you spell it. I cut out all of the white strips, lines, etc. I probaby waste a little more meat, then I might otherwise, but what I get is darned good.

[Bogie35]

We've always processed our own. But it's been years since I last shot a deer, and I had made up my lazy mind to have my next one commercially processed. Not now!
Thanks for the heads up!

bogie

[kooz]

Ok, I'll admit it, I always have mine done at the processing place.

[Tennessee Hayre]

Guys, I have always thought of it as a sin to let someone else process your deer. All though I can understand. I have always dogged my brother about this subject. He has rifle and bow hunted in the past years and always complained about how awful a deer smells when he guts it and will not touch a deer when it came to processing it. I my-self believes a true deer hunter kills, field dress's drags, skins, and process's his own and prepares as well for the family. While at the dinner table then gives a full account of the hunt. (I love it). Their are alot of hunters around here who go and bag a deer and just gives it away because that don't like the way it taste. I can't understand that. I do not hunt over bate and do not tree stand hunt. I am a fair chase kind of guy. Don't get me wrong, I do not have a problem with those who do, thats just the way I feel about deer hunting. (To each his own) Process your own makes it all worth while.

[Buffboy]

Just got done with the boning of our 2, may borrow a electric grinder tomorrow. I got about 60# of grindage after the boning and my old boss just said I could borrow the Cabelas one he bought last year. I did last years deer with a hand crank grinder and I just don't want the muscle aches that come from that. Especially since we have 2 more tags that might get filled in the next week. Must be getting old or as Clint would say: Mans got to know his limitations. Got the first batch of jerky marinating, the steaks all vacuum packed and in the freezer. You know of all the wedding presents that's the one that gets used most, that Food Saver vacuum bagger.

[JReed]

I do my own. Not only am I cheap but I get more satisfaction knowing that I did all the work that put that meat in the table.

[dr walker]

We butcher our own. It is a family thing 3 generations ussually the work is after dinner until it is done. Jerky making going all night and day. While I love jerky I take most of my venison in boned-out roasts. I can cut them into whatever size pieces when they are semi-thawed right before cooking.

[buckeyeshooter]

Depends on where I am. Here in Ohio, the local processor charges $125.00. In my kentucky hunting area they do it for $45.00. For over $100., I'll do it. For $45., I let them do it.

[SR James]

Used to do my own but now I have a better system. I have a friend who is a custom single shot gunsmith. His wife developed a beef allergy a few years ago. Now I give them most of my venison. I do a friend a favor and it doesn't hurt to have your gunsmith owe you one! When keep a deer, I process it myself.

[geobru]

I do my own by boning out the carcass then muscling out the meat. I DO NOT like the taste of deer tallow, and am very picky about trimming all of that out of the meat. No butcher will take that time.

One time, years ago, I went hunting with two guys and one of them got an elk. They didn't want to mess with butchering, so one of them suggested a butcher he knew, and we paid the price and got back packaged meat. When we opened up a package of steaks, they were sliced 2" thick on one side and 1/2" on the other. That was typical of the work that "butcher" did. (Actually, he really lived up to the name butcher! ) I would have tossed my knives into the garbage can if that is all the better I could cut with them!

You are much better off learning how and doing this chore yourself IMHO.

[2ndovc]

I used to. My former father in law and I would haul them down the basement and usually staly up until they were done.
I miss that.

I take it to a fella I know that doest it for me for aout $60.00

Don't have the time these days but I'd like to do my own again someday.

jb

[2571]

http://www.americangunowners.net/handgu ... n-t860.htm

We don't like the taste of venison. Do the processing myself. Grind it all, season it and make taco meat out of it. Usually have enough frozen in dinner-size packages for the whole year and it makes for a quick meal.

[Old Time Hunter]

Used to always do our own, but found a butcher that can make better sausage than I can. Pepper sticks, Italian Sausage, Brats, and 3# sticks of Summer Sausage' from the butcher. Back straps and Tenderloins in I take my self.