i take mine to the processor just for the fact that i don't have time to process it myself. that and i dont know if my wife would enjoy me cutting up a deer in the kitchen lol. but for 68 bucks i can get the deer cut up any way i want and everything is vacuum sealed with labels on it.
One more thing I've been thinking about getting is one of them propane torches. I don't have running water in the garage(or a drain for that matter) and no way to really hang it in the backyard. Figure singing the hair off like they do in processing plants would be fairly quick for loose hair. Anyone on here do this? Rinsing in the kitchen sink is a bit awkward but can be done.
Skin it right and take your time and you won't have hair all over it. As I get older and busier, it isn't as much fun, but I'm teaching my son...they will remember more than you think! When I was younger (before I had kids), cutting up deer was a garage party for the guys! I look at it this way: do I really want to pull $100 or more out of my pocket for a few hours of work? I can see the pluses of having it cut up, too though...
I have a friend that does it as a side business. I let him do it. The jerky he makes is so good it will make you want to slap your grandma.
I am highly allergic to deer hair so I usually gut it myself (very carefully) & have the butcher do the rest.
Killed a doe yesterday and once quartered, took me 4 hours to get her processed. I still have about 2 hours left of grinding, patting out burgers, and wrapping. All fat and all silver skin is removed. It takes me a while to do this. The butcher was full so I did it.
I'm not sure how it takes you guys that long? If the deer is still warm from the time it's hung I can have it skinned and all meat off the deer with the rear quarters deboned in less than 30 minutes. It probably takes me another hour once the quarters and backstraps are off if I'm super slow and careful with trimming silver skin off everything, cutting steaks, and grinding. If things are setup I can have maybe 2 hours total at most into a deer from the hide on to wrapped and in the freezer...............and that usually involves drinking several beers and telling a few hunting lies with the guys while I'm doing it. I've been the camp butcher everywhere I've been for years and we have fun with it. If I hunted alone I'd probably pay someone else to do it but if I'm in a camp environment where others will hang and BS with me I'm happy to do it myself, it's part of the camp experience for me.
From having the deer gutted til you sit down with clean utensils and hands how many hours have transpired? Sure quartering and deboning is easy... It's the setup, trimming, grinding, wrapping, and clean up that take forever. Even if I could do it in 2 hrs I'd still pay the $55 to have it done by a butcher and not mess with it lol. I do agree being in a camp setting definitely helps stomach it better.
I would say for me if I added up all the time from skinning to final pack of ground in the freezer we are talking a good 10 hours. Like I've said before I'm anal about how well I trim things. Keep in mind when you have it done by a butcher, none of your steaks are trimmed of the fat and sinew. Each package you take out of the freezer and if you were to trim it up that is time I don't have to do when I pull a pack from the freezer, it's already been done.
I take deer my dad and I shoot to a processor and pay $45-$75 for standard cut then make everything ourselves any roadkill we take we butcher ourselves Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We have been cutting our deer up for many years now. Team effort and you are in and out in no time. It gets rough when there are 3 on the hook or you have to save a cape for a mount but other then that we have a good time and laugh at the same stories we've heard 1,000 times before. It's as much a part of our camp life as anything else. Not to mention we've done easily over 50 deer recently and that's almost $4,000 in processing fees we avoided.
We've done our own forever. I can see how it can get overwhelming and someone would rather take it to a butcher to have it done and simply pick it up. I never will for a few reasons. I like doing it my way. I like knowing it's my deer and I get every possible ounce of meat off my deer. I like the way I trim the grind. I'll take the extra time to get as much fat and silver skin off of it. It seems like a long process when you look at the overall picture from hanging to serving. But we just take it in stages and it really isn't that bad. It does help that I do have the time to tackle it most of the time. I'll usually skin and quarter first. I have a couple big standup coolers that I put the quarters and straps in (golf course beer coolers ). Next day or so I'll come back debone, cut out steaks, roasts, trim etc... and back in cooler. Finish with the grinding, packaging and making whatever I'm making as far as sausage, snack sticks, jerky etc... Usually have a helping hand which helps a lot. It really doesn't seem that bad and we aren't ever pressed for time or racing to get it done. We just do a couple hour stages at a time until its done (usually 2 or 3 days). Only time we are crunching to get it done is when we have 3 or so to do. Then it turns into a little work. But the amount of money saved is WELL worth it when you are doing many deer. Talking thousands of dollars. Someone doing one or two deer a year I can see how they can just want to dump it off to a well known butcher and not deal with it.
Depending on where you are there is Waynes Meat market in Marengo that is very good, Also there is a guy in Elburn I have had some of his finished product never drove down to have him do any for me though but I know the stuff I had was top notch. He can be found at the Kane county gun show.
here is a link to there site Ream's Elburn Market :: Home of Randy Ream's National Grand Champion Fresh Bratwurst
It's only my first year, but I butchered my first deer myself and will continue to do so. I need to do it on the cheap. It wasn't too difficult, just took some time. And I'm sure I'll get better at it as time goes on. My other issue aside from price is that I want to make sure I get eat "my" deer. Something I can't guaranty if I take it to someone else for processing.
