We grew up hunting and we did not exactly have a lot of money either so we had to do it ourselves.

Last year, I killed a nice buck on a trip in Kansas, and for the first time, I thought about taking it in and having a butcher do the dirty work for me. When he came back with a $125 price to process the deer, we decided to do it ourselves again.

I guess, like anything else, you just get better with practice. Everyone always wants deer meat if you have it so you invite one or two (just the ones you do not mind giving meat to) over and have a " Processing Party" . Me and one other person can completely cut up, wrap, and grind all of the useful parts of the animal and be cleaned up and meat in the freezer in less than three hours. Mind you, sausage takes a little extra time but, other than that, there is nothing to it.

I believe once you try it a couple of times you will like it better anyway. You get roasts the size you want and steaks the size you want. Also, you know that you are getting all of your meat and some of it is not getting skimmed for the butcher or whoever.