vikesfan353

I've never brought a single deer to a butcher!! It's so easy once you learn how!!

indianahunter83

I know of a butcher down in southwest georgia that prefers you bring the deer in not field dressed. I'm not exactly sure what he does with the insides but he does make one hell of a deer sausage! (jk) My guess is he either coyote hunts with the entrails or has a pig farm. Either way sometimes it is just nice just to drop off your deer and pick up some deer meat a few weeks later.

Scott/IL

We do most of our deer ourselves now, and only send a few pounds away to be processed. However we butcher it down and wrap it ourselves the day after it is killed.

The first deer I ever shot me and my dad tracked her and found her about an hour after dark. My dad then handed me a knife and said get to work. He stood over my shoulder as I started cutting through telling me what was what and where to go next.. It was that night I learned just how bad a deers stomach smells when punctured by a knife.[:'(]

Redtail565

To answer your question, NO! I don't think it should be mandatory. I always field dress my deer, except the last one I got - last year. A friend was with me who always brags about how fast and good he is at dressing out a deer, so I watched. Honestly, he did it exactly how I do it, so nothing learned there. J

If I’m hunting with you and you get one and are timid about field dressing, stand back. I’ll gut it for you. It’s really not that big a deal. I’ve only skinned one. Most time I take it to a butcher hide on.

I would never even drag the thing in until after field dress. I have heard of guys doing this, but to me, the sooner you get those guts out and the meat cooling, the better.

lpv77

I have field dressed and butchered my own deer since the time I shot my first. MY friend always has and showed me how. Ive shot 14 deer in the 3 season Ive been hunting and did all the work. Hell, thats 1100 dollars right there I saved . Pays for 1/3 of my Illinois trip this year.
As far as it being mandatory. I feel everyone should atleast filed dress there own deer, hence the term "field dress"!

Sliverflicker

We do it all ourselves, de-boned, cling wrap, then freezer paper.
Most processing places will charge you 10.00 more if its already skined!
The year my Wife did deer processing, we made an extra 800.oo on skins alone!

Critr-Gitr

I went back and re-read the original question, and maybe I should clarify my answer. I don't think that you should have to EVERY time, but I think you should have at least field dressed and skinned one a couple of times if you have killed very many deer. I believe you should be operating from a practical knowledge base and not a theoretical one, i.e. I read a book or something. Occasionally I will take a deer to the locker plant if it is late or I don't have much time, but it is always field dressed, and most of the time we butcher our own. I just feel it is a natural part of the process, and that is the way we do it. Just my opinion though, no big deal. My boys know without a doubt that meat comes from a living creature and not the grocery store. Nothing like watching a couple of boys poking around in deer guts saying "What's that?" or "Check this out!"

NY Bowhunter

Jeff - just out of curiosity, why do you send your deer to have butchered after you've hung it and skinned it? Why do you choose to not go ahead and finish butchering it yourself? It's hanging there skinned. Doesnt' take much more to debone it and cut the meat how you want. Maybe it's common elsewhere. I just never heard of someone skinning the deer and sending it to the butcher. May as well just send the whole thing.

Beezer

That's how you catch fish. Tear open the stomach, find out what the one you caught has been eating and use that bait. My son loves to open 'em up. He also loves to take out the eyeballs,cut them open and keep the "crystal." If you let the little round sac dry out it looks like a piece of candy, something to save.

GMMAT

First deer I ever killed....I had a buddy on stand-by with his grinder and vacuum sealer. It took us THREE HOURS to finish the project. Nowadays....I field dress in the woodlot above my house.......come back to my shed......hang it, skin it, quarter it and put it on ice in a cooler. I leave the cooler to sit for 5-6 days (draining water and adding ice bags, as needed) and take it to my butcher. He charges me $30 to package it in vacuum sealed bags (Backstraps, inner TL's and roast if I want) and puts my burgerand sausage in tubes.

I spent a good three hours the first time I did it on my own.....including a clean up job that I just don't care to go through again. Not if I can alleviate the need for $30.

It's not worth it, to me, to do it myself.