How many of you process your own deer? (Page 2 of 2)
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Originally Posted By Ohiogators: I just pull out the straps and everything else goes in the grinder. It would be silly to pay someone to do that. For most applications, you’d never know the difference between ham steaks (from the big muscles) and backstrap. |
Not fly enough to be halal....
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I've done my own before. But now we have someone do it for us. I've known the guy my whole life. He and his father do it together. I had 2 deer cut up, 35 pounds of maple breakfast sausage made and burger on top of the rest of the usual cuts and it was like $215. So basically $100 a deer. I've seen the carcasses of the deer when they are done with them and they get all the meat. He's clean and you only get your meat. For $100 a deer and I can just drop it off and pick up a couple boxes of meat a week later plus not have to deal with disposing of the carcass.....seems like a good buy to me. |
Joined:
Mar 2023
Posts:
44
EE: 0% (0)
KS, USA
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I butcher my own deer most of the time, and only bring it to a processor if I'm crunched for time. Last time I brought one to a processor was a few weeks before my kid was born and I had way too much on my plate already to get things done around the house. I'm always happier with the results when I butcher them myself. All the local processors overcharge and want to grind everything into burger. I like getting a lot of big cuts of meat and keeping the rest as stew meat, but they just want to grind it all into burger to save time and charge me more money. |
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I've always processed any game animals myself. I shot one elk when the weather was just too warm to hang the animal for even a couple of days. I took the quarters to a local processor. I had them grind any burger with no added fat, I make my own sausages and I prefer to control the ingredients myself. I don't know how much processing I will be doing from here on though. Most of my hunting partners have quit hunting and I'm not sure I want to wander into the hills alone and shoot something where I need to call friends and family to help me haul something back to the truck. It could be 4 or 5 miles of rough terrain between a potential dead animal and the truck. |
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We have always processed our own. Do about a dozen a year, for ourselves plus some for others, so I've done hundreds at this point. Buy good equipment, set up in a way that makes sense (high tables, winch or come along to lift, meat lugs with liners for bulk storage between steps, etc.). We always buy either beef or pork 50/50 trim for grind. Save backstraps, breakfast strips, shanks, and roasts, grind the rest. I make brats, pastrami, jerky, snack sticks, can some, etc. Variety is good. |
Malcolm X was right about liberals.
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Originally Posted By VAbull: We do our own. No way they are gonna take care of it as well as we do. And I know I get all my meat. This. I’ve watched processors many times in action. I do my own. |
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
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Originally Posted By TxRabbitBane: Cut these today… https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69531/IMG_0826-3700990.jpg Never followed up this post. Here are some of them off the grill… 
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Not fly enough to be halal....
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Originally Posted By LineOfDeparture: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/310196/1000002163-3801122.jpg We do ours at the house. Get yourself a Victorinox 6" curved semi stiff boning knife or 3. You'll thank me. Probably cut your butchering time in half. Also, you can get big cutting boards on amazon for pretty cheap. So nice having the room to put the entire quarter on the board and not have it hanging off. I like the 18"x24" size. |
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Originally Posted By eclark53520: Get yourself a Victorinox 6" curved semi stiff boning knife or 3. You'll thank me. Probably cut your butchering time in half. Also, you can get big cutting boards on amazon for pretty cheap. So nice having the room to put the entire quarter on the board and not have it hanging off. I like the 18"x24" size. Originally Posted By eclark53520: Originally Posted By LineOfDeparture: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/310196/1000002163-3801122.jpg We do ours at the house. Get yourself a Victorinox 6" curved semi stiff boning knife or 3. You'll thank me. Probably cut your butchering time in half. Also, you can get big cutting boards on amazon for pretty cheap. So nice having the room to put the entire quarter on the board and not have it hanging off. I like the 18"x24" size. Or a cheap fillet knife |
Originally Posted By nickforney
This subforum has filled up with a bunch of worthless fudds and I feel less and less that this is any kind of community I want to be a part of.
This subforum has filled up with a bunch of worthless fudds and I feel less and less that this is any kind of community I want to be a part of.
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Originally Posted By Iowaredneck: Or a cheap fillet knife IMO fillet knives are too flexible and most are made from terrible steel. They go dull very quickly. The Victorinox knives while not super steel hold edges far longer than filet knives. Plus they're not expensive. You can get them for like $20 each if you look around. |
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Originally Posted By eclark53520: Get yourself a Victorinox 6" curved semi stiff boning knife or 3. You'll thank me. Probably cut your butchering time in half. Also, you can get big cutting boards on amazon for pretty cheap. So nice having the room to put the entire quarter on the board and not have it hanging off. I like the 18"x24" size. Originally Posted By eclark53520: Originally Posted By LineOfDeparture: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/310196/1000002163-3801122.jpg We do ours at the house. Get yourself a Victorinox 6" curved semi stiff boning knife or 3. You'll thank me. Probably cut your butchering time in half. Also, you can get big cutting boards on amazon for pretty cheap. So nice having the room to put the entire quarter on the board and not have it hanging off. I like the 18"x24" size. +1 on the victorinox - if you can catch a sale, they’re not even that expensive I love my 6” boner. Yes, if you order one, that’s what’s on the invoice. It’s amazing how much easier the job can be when you have the right tools. |
Not fly enough to be halal....
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Originally Posted By eclark53520: IMO fillet knives are too flexible and most are made from terrible steel. They go dull very quickly. The Victorinox knives while not super steel hold edges far longer than filet knives. Plus they're not expensive. You can get them for like $20 each if you look around. Originally Posted By eclark53520: Originally Posted By Iowaredneck: Or a cheap fillet knife IMO fillet knives are too flexible and most are made from terrible steel. They go dull very quickly. The Victorinox knives while not super steel hold edges far longer than filet knives. Plus they're not expensive. You can get them for like $20 each if you look around. Victorinox are good knives I have many but when I’m going to bone out quarters trimming off silver skin 99% of the time I’m using a fillet knife I keep a folding one in my elk pack it does most of the work when one hits the ground |
Originally Posted By nickforney
This subforum has filled up with a bunch of worthless fudds and I feel less and less that this is any kind of community I want to be a part of.
This subforum has filled up with a bunch of worthless fudds and I feel less and less that this is any kind of community I want to be a part of.
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My brother and I use to process our own. Then we discovered a kick ass processor thirty minutes up the road that charges a flat rate and they have one rule... the deer has to be dead. No skinning or gutting required. They do a great job, you actually get your deer, processed in various ways for one price. Heavy sealed plastic and the meat lasts all year in the freezer. Once we started using them, we put the knives down and never looked back. Opening week the line is fifteen to twenty trucks deep but the line goes fast... they are very popular as they do a great job. It's nice to kill a deer, load it up and drop it off, and have time to relax with a stiff drink if night time, or enjoy a nice breakfast and coffee if late morning then get a few chores done before the evening sit. |
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Originally Posted By Bowhntr6pt: My brother and I use to process our own. Then we discovered a kick ass processor thirty minutes up the road that charges a flat rate and they have one rule... the deer has to be dead. No skinning or gutting required. They do a great job, you actually get your deer, processed in various ways for one price. Heavy sealed plastic and the meat lasts all year in the freezer. Once we started using them, we put the knives down and never looked back. Opening week the line is fifteen to twenty trucks deep but the line goes fast... they are very popular as they do a great job. It's nice to kill a deer, load it up and drop it off, and have time to relax with a stiff drink if night time, or enjoy a nice breakfast and coffee if late morning then get a few chores done before the evening sit. Yeah I’m not leaving the guts in a deer any longer than it takes to take them somewhere and get them out. |
Not fly enough to be halal....
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We generally process our own now. After a few years of leaving the deer with my Dad to do all the work after a trip to the ranch/lease he gave me a 1.5HP MEAT brand grinder for X-mas. Works great and I now take my deer home and ice it till the next weekend when we do all the processing. No vacuum packer so 1 year was freezer paper, didn't like that. Hard to defrost without making a mess. Next year was meat bags, the little tube shape ones, those worked well but didn't stack efficiently in the freezer. Couple seasons later I got a vacuum packer, then a chest freezer and we are now fully set up to process and store 3+ deer with room for a hog and some chicken. It is really nice having all the equipment, but you can gather it over multiple years. There are ways to keep meat fresh without the expensive vacuum sealer, but I won't lie, the sealer is the best once you are in a position to buy one. I used a processor a couple times, before I had the confidence to do it myself. I was fine with it, but I'd rather save the $$ and get all the cuts portioned and packed exactly how I want. We still take some meat down to Prasek's every 2-3 years for a batch to sausage. That is on the to-do list, a stuffer and some learning about how to make sausage. |
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My wife and I process our own deer. I used to use a processor that did a great job. They stopped doing it, so I took to another one that was recommended. I got back so little meat that I I thought it was a joke. Somebody there took 3/4 of my deer.... After that I started doing it myself. Bought a grinder and a vacuum sealer. |
