I now remember why I always process my own deer

[flbuckmaster]

I've never done it myself, but I'm thinking about it for next year.

You have to kill one first Tye!

[Vince]

Check out Stoney-Wolf Production: Wild Game Field Care & Cooking.
Gold Medal Master Chef Milos Cihelka goes through the entire process of getting the most from your vension......and he has some very interesting tidbits to be aware of for those who take their venison to a processor!

[kendo kid]

ecoaster is bang on. When you learn to do your own butchering you can use and retreive more of the meat. I have done my own butching for years as I grew up on a farm and learned how to butcher from my dad. A few years back I started hunting with a group of guys and they all shipped their deer of to the local butcher. I must say, the quantity I received from the butcher was not even close to what I could take. I did what they did but stopped after two years. Remember a butcher get his money per deer and is not driven to give you the maximum amount off a deer. Speed and his time is the most valuable to him. Where with me it is the amount of meat. Additionally, the amount of facia remianing on the meat is important to me. I can take the time to really remove most of the "cellophane" around the muscle and thereby increase the tenderness and quality of the cut.

I don't think a butcher keeps some of the meat for himself; but I do think there is a big difference between butchers when it comes to wanting to do a job that will maximize the amount of meat returned to the customer.

So I recommend you start learning how to butcher your deer. It is not difficult and you will feel great about the money you save and the fact that you did everything (scout, construct stands, hunt, shoot, drag, skin and butcher) to place the meat in front of your family or guests. The consequence of your decision is yours so don't bitch about the results.

[dnepr]

I started butchering my own deer about 4 years ago. It gets easier every year. I think you get better meat and more of it when you butcher it yourself. I even do some of my friends deer . It is a bit of work but I consider it part of the hunting experience. I also like the fact that I can take it from " on the hoof" to served up with the baked potatoes myself with no outside influence.

[Hoss]

Dang Adam I think you could pull a motor with that dude.. nice rig

[saxman]

I need alot of pratice in the area of gutting,caping,skinning and butchering but since i dont hunt much and hardly ever make a kill it's hard to get the pratice.

[Highlander]

We do our deer every year. This year, my wife and I processed a small doe in 2 hours. It was done right with the cuts we like. Our shop has a quality meat bandsaw, a good stainless steel wrapping table, a big butcher block table for boning, and an industrial grinder for making hamburger. It's all inside and well lit with a cool room next door. It is the cat's behind....

Like someone said, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

[wildwindom]

I just ordered a 2 dvd set on how to do it from start to finish. I also orderd a dvd on how to do taxidermy cant wait to get them

[Corvus]

Not all processors are the same, guys. I had one that was in my town that would saw through the bones and I'd get bone chips in the packages and it was awful. I found another guy 20 minutes away and tried him and I'd never dream of doing it myself again. His day job is butchering at a meat shop and he does a fantastic job.

My buck weighed 156 (and a lot of it was the antlers!) and although I didn't weigh it, he gave me 90 packages of meat back. I'd estimate there was 60-70 lbs of meat there and I've tried every cut except for the roast and been amazed at how beautiful a job he did.

The only thing I didn't like was that he used plastic wrap on most of the cuts, but I ran every package through a Food Saver, so they'll be fine for quite a while.

[Sierra]

Corvus, sounds like you found a good butcher.

We have butchered our own deer for over 30 years. Most processors return little meat for the size of the deer at an exorbitant price. And you can't be sure that you are getting the meat from the deer you checked in.

I learn to butcher from a family member whose father owned a butcher shop in Texas. Now my three sons help. It is work but it is time spent together as a family. We average a little under an hour per deer, from skinning to in the freezer. We now have a vaccum packager that really helps.

We have an 8' high L-shape deck that we but a 6"x 4" x 10' across that we can hang three deer at once.

[TYE]

I've never done it myself, but I'm thinking about it for next year.

You have to kill one first Tye!

I know.

This year was frustrating.

[Allan]

The first deer we ever got, took 6 of us 8 hours to butcher. That was from first cut to final clean up. 10 years later and all that practice has improved our skills. 2 of us can debone a deer, grind up the scrape cuts and package the whole thing in about three hours. As has been mentioned, sharp knives are necessary

Saxman, come on up here and we will gladly show you what we have learned.

[swiowaxbowhunter]

I grew up in the grocery business and learned to cut meat when I was a teenager (40 years ago). SInce that time, I have made use of those skills to save some serious money. I live in Iowa and hunt the bow season, shotgun (w/ slugs) and muzzleloader. We can also get antlerless tags for each season and I have 4 members of my family that hunt with me. Last season we took 15 deer--mostly does--and processed them all ourselves. There were three of us working most of the time and a couple others in and out...we worked all day Monday and finished Tuesday about 4 PM. We like doing it all ourselves because we always know that the meat is handled well, that all that is possible is used, and we know the quality of any other meats we combine with it (whole hog sausage in with the ground meat--as well as for our dry cured summer sausage). We eat the meat year round and are really thankful that we do not have to pay the processing fees for this many animals.

Like others have mentioned..a good I-beam through my basement to hang them from to skin out and break down, sharp knives and grinder blades, a boning table at the right height, a good vacuum sealer, and tons of freezer space all make it possible.

[A.W]

wrong post

[A.W]

wrong post

Allan: Are you sure?

Yup. Should have been a PM.