How many of you guys cut them up yourself or taking them some where, I have always taking them to a processor but trying to see if it is worth doing it your self for 2 to 3 deer a year.
How many of you guys cut them up yourself or taking them some where, I have always taking them to a processor but trying to see if it is worth doing it your self for 2 to 3 deer a year.
Cut mine myself, it nice not having to deal with it but had a bad experience one time. The place I took mine to would skin, butcher, and package. One I took to them I think they left hang with the hide on to long. Had a funny smell when I got it back. It was a clean quick kill and was in the cooler within 2 hours after the kill, so it should have been a good one.
Plus you don't get very much meat for the money to pay someone. Maybe I am to cheap
I have been looking into doing it myself. Chris, how do you package your meat so it doesn't get freezer burn? Do you vacuum seal it?
I have skinned a many a dear I just need to learn where each cuts of meat come from where (other than the backstraps and tenderloins obviously)
I vaccum seal now, can't beat it.
Once you do a couple you will be a master, I was lucky because my neighbor is an 80 year old farmer that used to butcher deer for people. For some reason he and his wife think the world of me so he tought me. It will be kinda tough to explain without just showing you but the only thing you need is a place to hang and a sharp knife.
Send me an IM with your number when you try it and I will help out as much as possible.
If you can get your hands on a cuber, that is the best I have found for everything except the tender loins. I stay away from roasts since I get a beef every year, and make everything else into burger.
I normally do the processing myself, but this year I found a place that was only charging $45 for processing. I can't say I was happy when I got my meat back. It was a nice buck that I took in, but I swear I have gotten more meat out of a yearling than what they gave me back.
Now I know why it was $45. I usually try and get all the meat off I can. Obviously, they didn't.
I normally use quart size, sealable freezer bags for my hamburger and such. I just get most of the air out and seal it up. It has worked out fine for me.
I made a meat grinder a few years ago with an old crank style grinder, a coupling and a motor. It works good.
Modified \'92 Procraft 170 Combo/\'97 Johnson 130<U></U>
i/we always do our own, unless we are having hotdogs and sausage made up. pappy used to make it up for us, but never left us any instructions. butchering is kind of easy.........pappy was a butcher and he taught us the single most useful tool you can have when slaughtering is a good quality fillet knife, if not, then a quality boning knife, and i heartily agree. used to do the ol'fashioned freezer wrap, never had to worry about venison sitting in a freezer for more than 3 months. we have started vacuum sealing just in case, and it makes quite the convenience. not only will it add freezer life, but the vacuum sealing makes it more storage friendly, stacks easier and takes less room
We take ours to a butcher skinned. We make an appointment and wait and watch while he cuts them up. 20.00 per deer (doe, buck or fawn). We get steaks, hamburg, roasts and stew. We also does sausages too, so you leave what you dont want, and he packs it up in a box with our name on it, and in january, voila, honey garlic and hot sausages!
We used to butcher our own, but for 20.00 a deer, it was worth it to have real butcher do it, when we did it, everything was called a steak, big steak, small steak
\"Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission!\"
For $20.00 I would let someone else do mine too. I skin and debone mine as soon as I can. I put them in the cooler on ice with some salt added and let the stuff just roll around in the cooler for two days then I grind or cut mine up as I would like it. We use a meat slicer and make lots of jerky. Nothing to it once you do two or three. I use a Horbart grinder and it makes short work of the grinding. If you use to small of a grinder it can be an all day job.
might be worth it to learn how to do it, 130.00 around here that is with summer sausage being made out of some of it. 80.00 bucks without gets expensive after a awhile.
I am glad to see that most of you guys feel the same as I do about paying a butcher. I usually can get more meat out of a deer than any butcher I have ever taken one too. Also what is up with wanting to charge $4.00 lb for sausages that I supplied the meat for. Hell at that price I will go to the supermarket and buy Jimmy Dean.
Larry Fitzgerald
2024 Tracker V-175 /115 Merc
2021 Silverado/ 4 Banger
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back home where the slicer is, we take it and slice up some real thin like steak-ums. take some high grade cholesterol slap it in the skillet, fry'em with some onion an garlic, sometimes peppershhhmmmmm good
$100 or so and I get steaks,stew,burgers,garlic and cheese sausage and hot sausage's. One of these days I would like to give it a try myself.
\"98\" RANGER R73
115 FASTSTRIKE
We have always done our own. It, to me is part of the hunting process. And this way I know that I am getting my own meat, and not some gut shot pick-up run thing someone else killed.
Dave
I hunt with a group of 6. We process our own. We just upgraded to the No. 32 grinder from Cabelas and got the cuber attachment. We meet once a week to debone, grind, and vacuum pack out meat. We mix 2 lbs. of smoked bacon into 10 lbs. of ground. We have put ground beef in some, too. We run it out of the grinder into plastic tubes. The Cabelas grinder iand cuber attachment s the bonm. We vacuum pack the cube steak. One of hte guys who help us used to butcher meat for a living. Our general opinion is you don't always get your meat back when you take it to a butcher. I can think of at least one or 2 instances where I was pretty sure I didn't get mine back after taking it somewhere. We divy ep the meat at the end of the session. WE usually do 4 at a time.
I hunt with a group of 6. We process our own. We just upgraded to the No. 32 grinder from Cabelas and got the cuber attachment. We meet once a week to debone, grind, and vacuum pack our meat. It is a social gathering for us. We mix 2 lbs. of smoked bacon into 10 lbs. of ground. We have put ground beef in some, too. We run it out of the grinder into plastic tubes. The Cabelas grinder and cuber attachments are the bomb. We vacuum pack the cube steak. One of the guys who helps us used to butcher meat for a living. Our general opinion is you don't always get your meat back when you take it to a butcher. I can think of at least one or 2 instances where I was pretty sure I didn't get mine back after taking it somewhere. We divy Up the meat at the end of the session. We usually do 4 at a time.
$20 per deer is dirt cheap!!! Seems that everybody in my area charges $60-$75 per deer
I guess that I'm the exception. I've always used a meat processor, and I've been blessed to have always had a good one. He has a 40 degree hanging room, and some of the cleanest worksites I've seen. Never a hair or questionable meat. It's nice to take a deer, field dress it and pop it in the truck to an expert. I get the loins butterflied, well wrapped packages of burger, stew meat, roasts, or whatever else I request. This year he even started making jerky. He has a tracking system that ensures that you get your deer. Charge to me is $50, and I get to spend the rest of my day hunting for a second deer. Best money I ever spent.
Azure AZ200 (with stuff like cupholders, bathroom and table)
I do my own, around here the processors get $75-100 per deer. My dad used to butcher between 50-75 deer a year and 20 years ago he was getting $20 per deer.
Ever since TBJ introduced me to S&D in Utica, MS, and the greatness that is their jalapeno and cheddar smoked sausage, I just clean em and bring em there....a while later, I get a call to come get it....I got a few in the cooler right now that will make a ride in a few days....just gotta gear up for that 3.5 hour ride up there.....but it is SOOOOO worth it.....I've had that same sausage made at about 7 other places since I started getting it made....none can come anywhere close to it...
I don't do too much of anything else with it....I may save a bit of hind quarter for fry meat, but thats it....
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