It's the same here as Alberta, the'll charge by the pound. I've noticed there's some really good instructional videos/cd's out there for those who've never tried it, but basically it's common sense. I taught myself and I don't waste meat and I get nice roasts and steaks. I usually set up a table out in the garage and have at it. would set a grinder up on the end and do all the burger meat at the same time. I'm getting one of those vacuum sealers too, they look like the cat's a$$.

We do our own butchering.

I looked into having it done last year but the cost was about $75.

No thank you!!!

One thing about having the deer butchered professionally is that they can hang it for a few days in a refrigerated location. Hanging the meat properly helps with flavor and tenderness. The correct temperature is important, I've always heard 35-40 degrees. Since it was 74 here today that could be some incentive to pay someone to handle it for you.

I do my own meat processing. I am one who believes if you want it done right, do it yourself. Also, with a lot of BIG game, the butchering has to happen where the animal falls. I have a stainless #22 electric grinder with a cabelas patty maker attachment which works really slick. Back where I grew up in PA we actually have a butcher shop on the farm as my grandfather used to butcher for a living. It is well equipped for doing deer with an overhead winch, rail with meat hooks, cutting table, etc. I was home a couple weeks ago for deer season and we had six hanging in the shop.

lone wolf wrote:

I divide the carcass into "primal cuts" in the shed (shoulders, neck, back & hindquarters) and do all the butchering in the kitchen. Shoulders and neck are generally deboned for grinding. Next I take off the backstraps, along the top of the back and cut them into steaks or strip roasts. The hind quarters are cut into steaks and roasts.

Sounds exactly like our system

tracker wrote:

I'm getting one of those vacuum sealers too, they look like the cat's a$$.

We use one and love it, although it can be a little slow. We buy the bags in roll form, and it takes almost as long to make, stuff, and seal the bags as it does to cut the deer.

pumpkinslinger wrote:

One thing about having the deer butchered professionally is that they can hang it for a few days in a refrigerated location. Hanging the meat properly helps with flavor and tenderness.

We stack the "primal cuts" that lone wolf mentioned earlier on racks in my "beer fridge" for a few days if the weather gets too warm.

Although the weather can be warm(ish) here in November, the last deer I shot on November 29th. had to be cut up the same day. If I had let it hang in the shed overnight, it would have been frozen solid by morning (and may not have thawed until March). I like the idea of stacking the primal cuts in a big, old fridge - it would work in reverse as well & prevent freezing.

Yep, guess I'm gonna have to get a beer fridge....dang...

I thought all real hunters have beer fridges.... I watched an oldtimer bone out a deer in 1969 an he showed me the ropes and I haven't paid a butcher since. All of the above comments sound familiar to me, but the real reason one should process his own meat is to avoid the dreaded gamey tasting meat. Not many people know this, but a deer has scent glands hidden between his muscles in a whitish membrane and they are located throughout his body. When a deer is not boned out it is impossible to remove these scent glands and therefore your deer will have a good chance of having that gamey taste. The easiest place to fine one of these scent glands is between the top and bottom round. Next time you bone out the hams look for a whitish glob nested in the tissue that separates the two muscles. It will look like a little fat glob about the size of your 0 on your keyboard and will stay with the connecting tissue. When you find this little bugger, cut it open and you will be amazed how gamey it smells. I remove all of the fat off the venison and add about 15% pork sausage when I grind so my burgers don't stick to the grill. The key to tasty vension is: 1) remove the skin asap, while he is still warm. 2) never use a saw and leave bone in your cuts of meat. 3) Bone out every cut and remove all fat. 4. If it is too warm to let him hang until you butcher, buy a beer fridge to put your bags of boned meat until you have time to cut and wrap. 5) Buy a vacuum pac.

My 2 cents.

Pops

oldpops wrote:

I thought all real hunters have beer fridges.... I watched an oldtimer bone out a deer in 1969 an he showed me the ropes and I haven't paid a butcher since. All of the above comments sound familiar to me, but the real reason one should process his own meat is to avoid the dreaded gamey tasting meat. Not many people know this, but a deer has scent glands hidden between his muscles in a whitish membrane and they are located throughout his body. When a deer is not boned out it is impossible to remove these scent glands and therefore your deer will have a good chance of having that gamey taste. The easiest place to fine one of these scent glands is between the top and bottom round. Next time you bone out the hams look for a whitish glob nested in the tissue that separates the two muscles. It will look like a little fat glob about the size of your 0 on your keyboard and will stay with the connecting tissue. When you find this little bugger, cut it open and you will be amazed how gamey it smells. I remove all of the fat off the venison and add about 15% pork sausage when I grind so my burgers don't stick to the grill. The key to tasty vension is: 1) remove the skin asap, while he is still warm. 2) never use a saw and leave bone in your cuts of meat. 3) Bone out every cut and remove all fat. 4. If it is too warm to let him hang until you butcher, buy a beer fridge to put your bags of boned meat until you have time to cut and wrap. 5) Buy a vacuum pac. My 2 cents. Pops

Hey oldpops,

I am in agreement with most of your way, however, I have a couple questions:

#1 why do you feel it's necessary to remove the skin ASAP?

I've seen, butchered, and eaten deer that were hung with the skin on for extended periods of time. I couldn't tell you a difference between a deer wearing his coat too long and one who shed it immediately.

#2 by "never use a saw", are you refering to a meat bandsaw? and bone-in cuts of venison?

If so, I agree, but I use a saw on every deer I process, to split the hindquarters down the middle.

The reason for removing the skin asap is to let the meat cool preventing toxins in the lymph system to migrate throughout animal. If you live in a cold climate the deer will cool very fast, even with the skin on. I often hunt in 100 degree weather and once an animal is harvested, everything stops until the meat is in the freezer. No bandsaws and bone-in cuts are the rule. It is ok to split the carcass with a meat saw.

We hunted Colorado this year and stayed in a Hotel with no where to hang a deer overnight. I don't trust game processors so we simply broke down each deer, placing backstraps, hams, and burger meat in separate bags. We put three deer into one very large ice chest and left it in the back of the truck for almost a week. It was very cold and the meat was almost frozen and very easy to work with when we got home. It took three men and a boy to get the ice chest out of the truck. The 2 1/2 gallon ziplock bags work really good when boning a deer in the field. Next year I will try to remember to video how we bone a hanging deer in the field. Basically you hang the deer head down, take out the backstrap and tenderloins and then start at the bottom and work up to the hams. Some states want you to keep proof of sex attached to the meat while you are in the field, but I haven't had a problem yet.

Pops

Back when I use to skin for a butcher we always skined them and then hung them in the cooler. My neighbor has a cooler box that 4-5 of us use, it's not a "hairless locker" so I hang mine with the hide on to prevent hair in my meat. I most always let the deer hang over night and cut it the next day the meat is good and firm and cuts very well. It sounds like ya have a pretty good system there oldpops . Nothing like cutting your own
Joe

When I was young we did not have much money. Times were tough and we lived off the land to some extent. I hunted and trapped as a boy, it was as much as a job as a pasttime... We even ate what was caught in the trapline as well as selling the furs. We had to do our own butchering. It was not an option. It was a family affair, and every body kicked in. Excited to have good fresh food, My mom would be frying the back straps steaks as we butchered only hours after the kill.
That was many, many moons ago.. Now money is not as much a problem as time. I can make 3 times the cost of proccessing in the same amount of time at work, and frankly, I would rather work. But I do worry about the old ways being lost and not carried down to my boys. Maybe the old ways are just that? The old ways, and they will never need to know, but on the other hand something drives me to think they should know and understand how to live off the land, and not off society....

Some things are wrong with this picture. You would rather work than butterfly backstrap. LOL Just kidding, to each his own. I retired about five years ago and work is a four letter word. Work smart when you are young and then you can work at hunting, fishing and learning to really enjoy the whole hunt, not just the kill. Butchering your own meat is just as fun as scouting and sitting around the campfire and talking about the old days. If our society keeps going down the current path, knowing how to live off the land and protecting what belongs to your family may pay off. I hope the downward spiral doesn't start too soon because I have a grandson to teach the old ways.

Pops

We do our own as well, I have the grinder, meat saw (a different blade for my band saw) and a Tilia vacume sealer that we have had for ever it seems. We took a package of steaks dated from 2001 from the freezer that were still fresh.

I take mine to a processor. He's always done a good job, so I'll keep using him. The only thing that I don't take to the processor is a small hog (50 pounds or less). I'll just skin and quarter them for the BBQ.

I to, was raised like Bukmastr (even trapping). My mother used to chicken fry (batter dipped deer meat) as we were processing them on the kitchen table. That was really good. I hadn't thought of that in years.

Down here, we have to get our game into a cooler as quick as possible. The temperatures during hunting season could run as high as the 90s. After we field dress a deer or hog, we'll coat the inside with black pepper (all exposed meat areas). This keeps flys from laying eggs in the fresh meat.

Cary