We’ve processed ours for years. Father in law used to say “your worst job is better than their best job” referring to the processors. Probably not to far from the truth. Local meat market who also stopped processing deer a couple years ago used to be able to process 50 deer a day. Couple guys skinning, few guys cutting, one guy grinding, couple guys making sticks/jerky, and a couple guys packaging. That’s a lot of deer to completely process in a day. If they were working 16 hour days, that’s about a deer every 20 minutes from start to finish! We use mostly burger so its pretty easy to process ourselves. Save out the loins and back straps. Jerky from the rear end. Some ground gets turned into sticks. Everything else is burger. Feed the dog and cats the scraps
Processing here precovid was $75. $200 now. In 1997 I took a nice buck to have processed. Asked them to de-bone the hind quarters. I got back 3 shoe boxes full of meat and hind quarters both had the leg bones still in them. I’ve done between 1 and 3 per year myself for the last 25 years. The comment about “your worst is better than their best” is spot on. We use saw horses and plywood as a temporary table and leftover Tyvek as a covering. Takes a few hours including skinning but you know what you’ve got when you’re done. And you’re not eating someone else’s unwashed gutshot hamburger
Does anyone besides my family like roasts? There so easy to process. Just cut a hunk the size you want to make at one time.
$80 for mine and it was ready 2 days after I shot mine. This guy was $60 for the same, only a couple years ago. Super nice guy, and he got the 2 bucks we brought in in 2 days. When I picked mine up, he had a lot of deer he was processing. chris is correct, a few years ago, there were more processors, but since they now have to keep venison separate from beef, many just stopped doing deer processing.
One place we went to decades ago, you knew damm well that you were not getting the same deer back. One year we got so much meat from 2 deer. That time made his know for sure we were given other parties deer, that probably didn't want to pick theirs up. Where I go now, I know for certain it's my deer.
I love roasts. Crock pot with on it onions, potatoes, carrots, a can of cream of mushroom soup and whatever else you want.
I have taken to processors before, a couple were reputable and some were disturbing. They are harder to come by around here too. I only know of a couple within an hour or so from where I am. There used to be a couple within by fifteen minutes. This year I decided to do my own. I don’t have any commercial equipment by any means, I used a meat grinder attachment on a kitchen aid mixer to grind. It did the job just fine, just took a while. I enjoyed the processing, it’s definitely a process, took about twice as long as I had imagined. But I know exactly where it came from and how it was treated. I am too cheap to drive an hour twice and pay for the processor, plus I wanted my kids to get a better idea of food gets to the table
I've done beef before, deer would probably be doable as well. It's just easier to drop it off and pick it up. In this situation, my plan of dropping it off was foiled. It also fell on the day prior to a warm up and scheduling conflicts. Thankfully, the kiddos have cut a few chunks as well.
I go to my brother in laws. Part of his garage has an old butcher shop attached. Next time Im there, I'll take a pic of the old pulley system. Kind of unique. For bologna and venison hot dogs, etc... I take it the deboned meat to a shop. My BIL helps out there. They have been slammed all archery and muzzleloader season and rifle just started yesterday. Taking in 1000#s of meat daily. They run a tight ship. I've been there before when people brought in "dirty" meat and did not accept it. Bologna sticks, doggies, sweet sticks, the meat is mixed. You buy by #. Obviously if you have bring in 6 # of meat, you only get 6# back. Steaks, roasts, etc... are your deer.
I love hot dogs. The best ones I've had were antelope hot dogs. I've never had whitetail hot dogs, but I think I'll get some made from my buck this year. At least I know what is exactly in my hot dogs then. Not lips and a-holes. Lol
I’ve never taken a deer in to be processed. Killed my first one at age 14 with a bow, mom dad myself and sister cut it up and put it in the freezer. Since college I have taken anywhere from 1 to 4 deer most years and I’m 55 now. I won’t take on this year however because I shot a cow elk, (self processed that also) Why do I do my own deer? Kinda hard to answer. But it’s probably the same reason I load my own ammo, fletch my own arrows, cast my own round balls for my muzzle loaders and cut my own firewood!
I have always cut and boned my own, then I use a butcher shop that is a half mile from me. They make trail, sticks and burger for me. The shop used take full deers but they quit about 3 or 4 years ago.
My son shot a medium size buck earlier in the week. Last night we skinned, butchered, and boned out everything. Got everything but the grind packed and in the freezer. This evening we ground and packaged.... I like to wait a day to grind to get the meat really cold...Makes the grinder run so much better. Took 3 of us 2 hours start to finish. While we had the grinder out I ground up some pork back fat I had in the freezer to mix in with ground deer for salami. The rest of the ground fat is rendering in the crock pot for lard right now. Salami cures overnight tonight then I'll stuff it and bake it tomorrow night. Making three 2 lb sticks.
We butcher our own on the Popcorn Farm. I have a grain room in the barn, where we hang them. One 9f the guys suggested putting up blue board, and a window AC to deal with warm weather harvests. my skills aren’t pretty, but i do roasts and jerky, so no big deal. We have some good food processor but i dont mess with burger.
I would really like to see it. Guy at work built a small shed, put a 110v AC unit with thermostat modified. Gets to acceptable hanging temps.
Just a store bought kit is all I have ever tried so far, high mountain brand and pepperoni flavored I think. Best ones I’ve ever done were from my first and only bear. Bear meat and the bear’s own fat. I need to get another bear…
