in the pass i always brought my deer to a local butcher and didn' t worry about cooling it down and cutting it up. he would call me in about a week or so and come pick up my deer. well two of my local butcher shop as closed up because of the big supermarkets. so i want to butcher the deer my self. my question is because of the warm Sept. weather and lack of a hanging meat cooler do you butcher the deer right away.

not having a cooler ,I always skin my deer as soon as I can get it home.I always gut and get home .after I get it skinned and cut into 1/4s. I then ice it down in a large chest.I drain and reice it daily for 3 or 4 days.then I cut it into whatever I want to put into the freezer.most I grind into burger , the backstrap and loins I cut into fry meat.package and freeze.

I have been doing this for the past few years.the shops got to be to expensive,and I know how it' s done.

Treeclimber is right but take it a step further and keep it cool in ice water and add a box of salt to it to help take out the blood.

I gut mine where they lie, get it back to camp and skin it and bag it. Then within a day to a day and a half, I cut it in half and bone it out. I cut a lot of roasts and steaks, wrap and freeze. From an average mulie doe I' ll get at most 20 to 30 pounds of ground Venison and Venison Sausage.

This year however, I will probably need to bone my elk and/or deer where they fall and pack the meat back to camp and head for home to process it right away.

When I process a deer cutting it in half, boning it out, cutting and wraping takes about 3/4 of a day. A word of caution: When cutting down the center of the spine WEAR RUBBER EXAMINATION GLOVES. Then when finished thoroughly scrub the cut area with a mixture of 50% Vinegar and 50% Water. Because of CWD discard the organ meats and do not come in contact with spinal fluid or brain tissue. This is just a safety precaution . . . there is no evidence that CWD has ever been transmitted to humans.

I have processed all my game in the last 20 years . . . that way I know that nothing is wasted.

RBCSS... you think Sept is hot..... try July. Anyway, I' d love to beable to hang deer, but we rarely get to. An hour after I get home the deer is skinned and boned and in the fridge. I make up some obsorbtion pads and put the meat on trays. I cover with wrap and leave them in the fridge for 3 ir 4 days(depending on my wifes state of irritation over the whole thing.) You what you have to do. We have one place about 10 miles from the house but I don' t like paying $80+ to have a deer processed.

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I also want to add that the boning that I plan to do this year is done without gutting the animal first. I have never done it that way before but it is supposed to be a lot quicker and much easier. There are a couple of websites that show the procedure on elk and it looks easy and great.

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