Several part question 1) on average how many deer do you kill in a season? 2) do you butcher yourself or take into a butcher? 3) if you do it yourself how long does it take you to completely break on down? Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
2 deer. I take them to the butcher, but the butcher is a half-mile from my hunting property. I would like to butcher myself, but I do not own the right facilities to do it properly. Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
I’m not much into deer hunting in previous years but I’m going to give it a go round next year. I intend to do most of the work myself. Most guys I know will clean, skin, and then quarter their own game animals. Then take the meat they can’t process at home down to the butcher to be cut up and ground as they want. I hunt mostly small game and fish. Also hunt a lot of song dogs. We hunt rabbits in groups of 4 or 5 hauling in between 150-200 of them. We are up cleaning and skinning rabbits for hours. Then we get up next morning and cut up the meat and clean it all up. I imagine a single deer would be a lot easier than cleaning 50-100 rabbits. But we do the rabbits in teams of two. One holds the back legs while the other skins and guts.
do it all myself its part of it, plus im eating my deer and not part of jim bobs and john boys because the butcher doesn't care what you get or how it was cared for after the shot.
when i have butchered myself it has taken me 7-8 hrs to skin, de bone, cut wrap and clean up. i kill usually 2 deer a year but not always now i take it to a friend / butchers deer as a second job. $50 to skin, cut, and vacuum wrap.
1-2 per year. If it's cold and I have time I will do it. If it's warm I pay for it to be done. I'd rather let it hang for 2-3 days if I can. I bought all the vacuum sealer stuff a few years back when I went elk hunting so I can do it proper. Plus I was a meat cutter at a supermarket in college so that experience helps. Cheapest decent processor anywhere I can get to is about $100, so it saves me quite a bit of cash if I DIY.
1-2 deer per year. Butcher the deer at home with the help of my 12 y/o and 8 y/o boys. My girls are not into it that much. The boys run the grinder and the 12 y/o de-bones the front legs. It takes probably 3-4 hrs I would guess. I do sometimes take some meat in for jerky and smoked hams that’s sliced thin like lunch meat. So delicious. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I butcher myself. Usually try to kill 4 or 5 deer, I share with all my family. I can skin and 1/4 Deer in less than 1 hr, then I hang the 1/4’s and meat from fridge for a day or two. Then debone, grind and makes all cuts and vacuum pack (around 2hrs). I feel it’s important to be able to take care of your own kills, that just has always been part of hunting to me. The investment to buy a good grinder, slicer (for jerky) and vacuum sealer pays for itself after one season of not taking deer to processor. Plus like others said you know what and who’s deer your getting. I understand the need and convenience of the butcher tho but it’s around 100$ a deer fro my area (Sw Pa)
I do both. I will take it to the processor 3 miles from the farm and have them do primal cuts and grind some with a little beef tallow. When I have time during the winter and after the meat has been frozen for at least thirty days, I will grind it myself to mix and make summer sausage, old school like. It has been my experience that freezing the meat before making jerky or sausage gets the most blood out of it. When it thaws that is.
I try to kill 1-2 a year. That doesn't always happen though. I cut and wrap all the steaks myself and keep a roast or two to make homemade jerky with as I don't care for venison roasts, or really roasts of any kind. Then the rest I will split between ground venison and I will get a bit made into summer sausage, ring bologna, breakfast sausage....
Unless I am forced to due to logistical reasons, flying home ect I do everything myself. Even with air travel I have broken meat done and take it home without processing.
I am far too picky to bring it in. I like to hang for 7 days before I process. I trim all the fat and as much of the silver skin I can.
I'm not a big killer, on average, I get a deer every other year. (This is my year to get one, lol) I usually bring it to the butcher as I'm not equipped wiith the space/place to process myself. The last deer I shot was in 2017, forum member @Smitty0220 taught me how to do it myself. Taking our time trimming all the fat and silver skin, it was around 8-10 hours.
2-3 deer. I take to the butcher. Don’t want it anywhere near my house with all the tics on them. Butcher is only 5 minutes from my house and they do a good job for $80. and turn around time is pretty quick. Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
Have been shootin 3-4. Take them to the butcher only for deboning I make my own jerky and summer sausage Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
You are WAY faster than I am then. To answer the OP question: 1. Between 5 and 10 usually. 2. I almost always process my own. There are times when hunting away from home that I'll use a processor, but not often. 3. From the time I pull it up on the gambrel I can have one skinned, quartered and the carcass picked clean in about an hour. It goes into a fridge to chill for anywhere from a day to three days and then, once my wife and I start actually processing one it takes about two hours to process a deer with BOTH OF US trimming, sorting, slicing, grinding and vacuum sealing. I'll add that nothing but the guts, head, spine, hooves and hide is wasted on deer we process. All of the fat, bloodshot meat, belly meat, tendons, sinew and that sort of thing gets ground up for the dogs. The leg bones and ribs get frozen to oven bake for the dogs also.
3 deer the past 4 years, butcher myself. Usually about 4 hours apiece. I leave it In the ice chest for a day or two. Grinder $100 FoodSaver $80 One deer at the butcher cost me $150, so I do it myself Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
between my dad and i we shoot 3-5 deer a year, since he moved we now have a butcher shed that was already on the property and we bought a stainless steel kitchen prep table. With the proper gear it takes about 2-3 hours from skinning to vacuum sealed! I really enjoy it as a part of the experience of the hunt!
