Butchering Deer

[elkstalkr]

Ok, quick question how many people enjoy processing there deer and how many people loathe it?

No wrong answer here just curious.

I for one LOVE it, spending hours in the garage carving on meat is grand, but maybe I'm the exeception. I clean many deer every year and after the season is over I get sort of depressed thinking about having to wait months before I can butcher another!

[GenericAngler]

Originally Posted by elkstalkr

I clean many deer every year and after the season is over I get sort of depressed thinking about having to wait months before I can butcher another!

That quote right there would be money on an app to a meat processing plant

[Catfishsteve]

I don't mind doing a couple every year. As long as I have the time and place to do it.

I sure wouldn't want to do one every week or anything, but I do like to do it.

[Alex T.]

I'd deer hunt alot more if I knew how to process them myself. Gets too expensive taking them to a locker to have it done.

Alex

[goose abuser]

Bring em on over Alex. Ill show you to butcher a deer without it being field dressed.

If you can do the sausage or jerky or whatever youself, butchering them in the garage is the way to go.

[Ty Stromquist]

I got a guy who does it for $25 that used to work for IBP. He labels every cut and packs it for me too. I really should learn to do it myself. Im sure I can figure it out though.

[Catfishsteve]

I used to just bone mine out into the chops and steaks I wanted and then I'd take the rest of the meat into a shop to have it ground and packaged.

That was a pretty good deal, I thought.

Some shops will take your boned out venison and grind it for you. Some won't. I ground my own a couple times. I won't do that again unless I buy an electric grinder.




Sometimes, on the 2nd or 3rd deer of the season, I'd just not bother and I'd take the whole deer in to be ground up for hamburger.

It's really not that hard to cut up your own deer. If you've got a garage and a freezer, you're set.

[bachelorpads]

Last year we turned 7 deer into jerky. It is pretty easy to do it yourself if you just have another pair of hands to help out. We can have a deer completely deboned in about 1.5 hours, and making the jerky probably takes 2 hours. The key to doing something like this is a dehydrator that can hold 2 full deer at once. Cabela's sells one that works for this.

So i kind of enjoy it, but if you give me the option of tearing apart a dead animal and doing pretty much anything else. I would do the anything else.

[obert]

got a guy who does it for $25 that used to work for IBP. He labels every cut and packs it for me too. I really should learn to do it myself. Im sure I can figure it out though.

That's a good deal. I enjoy doing it on my own but you can't beat that deal.

[Chopper]

I did around 15 deer last year. I wouldnt say I love it. But I love not paying that bill at the locker. A few years back I took two boned out deer in for processing. The bill was $300 or so, for summer sausage, sticks and burger. The next year I bought a grinder, slicer, dehydrater, stuffer, and built a smoker for all under that 300 bucks. Now I do mine and some familys deer for next to nothing everyyear. Quality seems better as well. Plus,I buy my own hogs and butcher them also. Saves ALOT of money!

[springerfan]

I don't really enjoy it. It's much cheaper though. Are there any good places here around Lincoln to process your deer. I am interested in Jerky and Sausage.

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by springerfan

I don't really enjoy it. It's much cheaper though. Are there any good places here around Lincoln to process your deer. I am interested in Jerky and Sausage.

I actually wanted to ask the same question about Lincoln area lockers. I've heard Wahoo is good, and I've heard the same about Schuster's. Anyone with experiences that they could pass along? I'm hoping to get a muzzleloader deer this fall and would like to do it myself just dont know that I will the time (and equipment).

[nehunter88]

Last year my hunting buddy and I processed 14. It was a lot easier after buying one of the bigger grinders that can do 10 pounds a minute. Of course the fact that I grew up with my family once owning a small town locker plant did help with the experience.

I'm using our old summer sausage recipe, and using the old cure recipe for corned deer and making dried beef. Though I guess that would be dried deer now.

It has been fun digging around on the internet and finding brat and stick recipes to try out. The nice part of having so many deer is you can experiment with some recipes and then discard the ones you don't like. Some that didn't sound like they'd taste that good, have turned out to be some of the best.

I've got 12 poiunds of meat thawing out right now to turn into something this afternoon. But first I need to put up some tree stands.

[ElkMan]

I kinda enjoyed doing it in the past, but the one year 3 of us took 4 elk and 2 muleys sort of spoiled the fun. I'll gladly pay someone to do it.

[fishhawk]

I enjoy it but get tired of it after a while.

My wife's uncle has a butcher shop (including a cooler that will hold about 10 deer). We process all our deer together. I enjoy the comraderie and being around friends and family. And all that goes with a big processing job. We make a lot of sausage and some jerky. By the end of the week I'm pretty tired of processing. But I always look forward to it next year!

The biggest "problem" I have is that they only rifle hunt so if I shoot something early in the bow season I end up processing in the garage by myself. Not a bad job, but a little lonely .

[Slack Jaw]

We usually do between 10 and 15 deer a year. Decided to invest the money for processing and bought a grinder, smoker, jerky shooter, and meat mixer.All that equipment paid for itself in one season.

[sqwidbrain]

A guy I hunt with has a pretty slick set up. Got a garage door track, hoist the deer up with an electric wench, that also rides the track. Skin'em on one end then slide'em to the other to be cut up. He's got tables that fold down for processing and a vacuum sealer on the end.

I enjoy cuting them up. We get about 8-10 a year. Its all part of the deal.