I have always done my own. As far as hard comments go,it ain't hard it takes some practice to be fast at it. More common sense then anything. KISS: made up of muscle groups, seperate the muscle groups and cut cross grain of the meat.
I like grilling so cut my steaks 1" thick that way you can get nice grill marks without over cooking, rare is the best IMHO.

As far as equipment a couple of boning knives and steel are all that is needed to take meat off the bone. Nice to have; a meat saw. A hand grinder is all thats needed for a deer or two. Nice to have; electric to speed process up. Brown freezer wrap and tape. I double wrap my steaks/burger with brown freezer wrap and never have a problem with freezer burn. My sister doesn't eat a lot of red meat and haspulled out 2 year old steaks without issues. Trick is to cover meat entirely with wrap and remove the air in the folding/tuck process. I vac seal peps, sausage, etc. They will not last that long due to the additon of domestic meat such as pork or beef trim for fat content. Pork is only good for 6mos and beef you might get 12 if lucky. One reason I say its better to make smaller batches of sausage then one huge batch. Depends on your consumption though!

In terms of smoker I have a el cheap o cabinet propane smoker (walmart sells them) that works fine for jerky and sausage a like. It is easier then stoking my big smoker which is only used for big batches, it'll handle 200 lbs of coil sausage. The oven works fine, you just don't get the smoke. Mixes can be bought to simulate that though. Liquid smoke is also an option but use sparingly!!!!

Good luck and enjoy.