I have always butchered my own. I like to cook and cook our venison. By butchering myself I get to have the meat cut as I like it. I have no use for hamburger and I believe this is really what meat processors want to do because it is easy and forgiving of mistakes. It is not an excessive amount of work and I get more satisfaction, I think, from butchering the meat myself. I get a warm sense of satisfaction as I wrap up each cut portion of meat in plastic wrap, then in freezer paper, tape the paper securely, write a date and identifier on the package, and place it in the freezer. This year my 9 year old daughter wanted to help. I let her write the date and identifier on the package and put it in the freezer -- her writing is neater than my own!!!

I even butchered my son and my pronghorn antelopes on our out-of-state hunt in Wyoming last year. I just cut-up and packaged the meat in our hotel room and put it in dry ice. I had skinned and quartered the animals in a shed on the hunting property.

I hunt deer in Oklahoma where sometimes it can be warm during the hunt. In this case, if I can't leave the meat out overnight I will immediately skin and quarter the deer, leaving the quarters on ice in plastic garbage bags until the next day usually. Then I will butcher the meat that next day.