I used to just drop mine off at the processors every time I killed one but a good friend of mine has always done everything himself so these last two seasons thats what ive done. We take it straight from the woods and hang it up to remove the meat. Then put meat in a cooler with ice and salt and drain cooler everyday while adding salt and ice as needed. After 3-4 days we cut and grind the meat as we like. Done my first of the season last night took about 2 hours. We got 12 pounds of ground, full rear ham, then with the other rear ham made steaks n what not out of it. And of course we cut the back straps n tenderloins up for good breakfast steaks. Either way gets the job done..but, atleast at my local processors, the turnaround is never that quick and I have found the "game" taste is hardly present when we do it as compared to sittin in a deer cooler for a week before any work is done on it.