Butchering?
 

I was curious as to who butchers their own deer in here? I have only butchered 3 of my last 6 deer but i think i am just going to start to do it all myself. What kind of knives do you guys use? i was just using my buck knife to get it off the bone and then kitchen knives to hack up the rest. I recently bought a meat grinder(LEM electric one) and i would def recommend it. Another question i have is: when you are going to hang a deer overnight, what temp do you like it to be and do you put one of those game bags over to keep any possible flies off? Most of the deer i shoot is during bow season where the temp can go from 20 degrees up to 80. thanks everyone

RE: Butchering?
 

Well Ive butchered every one I have ever killed. If it is cool enough I hang them over night, if it is really cool enough I hang them for a few days. If it is hot I run cold water over them until it is cooler, then I put them in a cooler full of ice for a day or so. If it is way too hot a guy down the road has a walkin cooler I can use. The knives that I use are hand made, I also us a Russell Green River and a Cutco. I dont use gamebags I would go broke if I used one for every animal I take, and normally it is cool enough that there are no bugs. I also have a LEM grinder, make my chili and ground meat with it. I also have and electic tenderizer which i run the hindquarters through. Here is one of my handmade knives.

RE: Butchering?
 

Here is my other.

www.wilkinsknives.com

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher my own no matter what game it is, from elk, to whitetail to mule deer to antelope, etc. I use a couple of Old Timers knives and have an old steel to sherpen them as needed. I will use a cloth bag sometimes, I let the temp and situation dictate how I age the meat and for how long it is aged. I prefer to hang the whole deer, elk, etc. for several days at about 45 degreees, but have had them hang longer than that and I have butchered antelope with in hours of shooting it, and I haven't had any bad meat to eat. I also use my own meat grinder and meat slicer to slice jerky meat.
It is not hard to do and saves a lot of money doing it yourself, and it gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing that I did it and I got all of my meat to show for it!:D
Also, I don't use a meat saw for any thing.

RE: Butchering?
 

Yes I (or we)as a gang butcher our own deer and we love it.We get great satisfaction out of it.During regular firearm season we have 9 guys in the gang and we all know a little something about butchering.I myself and another member will do the skinning and others will butcher the deer and others will clean the bones for hamburg and others will wrap the meat as well,and so on.One of the senior members is a butcher by trade and has taught us all alot.We will have 10 deer skinned,cleaned and wrapped(no bones fat or grizzle)in about 5-6 hours,and thats joking around and having a few drinks inbetween.
We prefer to gut the deer out and have it hang for atleast 3-4 days in the sub-freezing temperature.That gives it lots of time to tender up.You know that old saying"the longer he hangs,the better it will taste"
The average temperature here in november is around 5c in the day to -0 to -10c in the evenings so we have no problems with the flies,in early october,the weather can still be pretty warm so we would just gut the deer out and take it to a meat freezer,and have hang for a couple days.
Any specialized work like making burger,sausage,pepperets or have you our butcher in the camp will take it to his shop and have it procesed within a couple days.
It is so fun doing this ourselves,we would do this on the sunday of the end of the season,its the last day the "Gang" would get together for some time.We also do our awards---Biggest buck---Biggest doe,and a "JOKE" hat we would hand out to a certain member each year.

RE: Butchering?
 

My wife and I cut up all of our own meat, process it and then vaccum seal it. My uncles a butcher, and he has given up some nice skinning and de-boning knives.

I hang my elk and deer up to 3 weeks if its cold enough outside in my garage. I like the temps to stay below 45 for this. This usaully means sub freezing temps during the night. I have often cut up meat after hanging that I have to let thaw out a tad just to cut it up.

As for early archery season animals in Sept, I have a completely different approach due to warm temps up in the 100's somedays. I have an extra fridge that I have hollowed out and use to stand quarters up and lay out any backstaps and other meat on the racks that I immediatly bring in from the field. I let this meat cool and bleed out if needed by placing a catch pan in the bottom of the fridge. I plan on building a walk in cooler someday, but for now the old fridge works fine. I can put an entire elk in that fridge for cooling.

I have a 2 small freezers and then one large chest freezer for storing the meat once we have it vaccum sealed and freezer ready.

Good luck
Shed

RE: Butchering?
 

But do you waste the fronts?

RE: Butchering?
 

Here we go again!![:@]

RE: Butchering?
 

I'm terribly sorry. I'm bored and just couldn't help myself.

I do butcher 90% of the game I kill. I'm by no means a professional but I pick every last little bit of meat off the animal. If it's no good for a steak, It'll work as stew meat.

RE: Butchering?
 

Have butchered every deer I've killed (except for one) myself. Let them hang for about 2 days, then take care of business. I usually take the "scraps" up to the meat locker for burger, but last year I bought a grinder and did my own. Took a while, but I got it done.

As far as temperature goes, if it's warm (anything over 50) I constantly keep ice inside the cavity...it keeps the meat cool enough. The only time I took a deer to the locker to get processed was a few years ago when it was unseasonably warm in Nov...didn't want to mess with it.

If I happen to kill a deer when I go camping, it gets quartered then put in a cooler on ice.

RE: Butchering?
 

I use to use what ever knives I had around the house to butcher with. I now use a processing kit i bought at Academy. Same thing as my kitchen knives, just have a seperate set for butchering. The kit also has a bone saw, and cleaver.

As for aging, I like to let mine hang for 5 days to a week. I am lucky enough to have a seperate fridge i use to hang them in if the weather is warm. I quarter them, cut the larger cuts (like backstrap,chops, and loin), remove all the meat im going to grind, then put it all in the fridge to age.. I like to set it on racks I made for this purpose. It works great. After about a week, I get to it.

RE: Butchering?
 

Shedd33/Burniegoeasily,

Just curious as to how your spare fridge is set up to hang or lay the deer quarters in? Recently purchased an older fridge for $20 to do the same thing and am looking for ideas on how to modify the inside. Any ideas/designs you would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

MD Piney

RE: Butchering?
 

I don't hunt deer but I've butchered hundreds of goats and pigs that me and my friends have caught. I even helped to butcher a buffalo once. Usually I will cut the meat from the bones and separate the individual muscles.

I wrap the muscles in suran wrap so that it is air tight and then wrap it in freezer paper. I write on the paper so I know what pieces they are and when I froze them. They last for a long time in the freezer paper.

My knife is a Gerber Freeman. There's a picture of it at this page.
Freeman Hunter

RE: Butchering?
 

My buddy and I have butchered the last few deer we've shot. It started out to save the money and get the meat back quicker. Now it's fun and it's nice knowing it's your meat and how it was taken care of. For knives so far we've been using Rapala fillet knives and they seem to be working great.

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher my own. I skin, bone, and all that with a small pocket knife, Gerber Gator with a straight blade. I have a little larger knife I use to cut the boned meat and clean off the silver etc.

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher my own deer. Years ago when I hunted at a friends we had a home made butcher shop. We bought a big freezer paper dispenser from a hunter clearence mag($89. I think). We made a grinder from an hand crank chummer bought from a yard sale ($5). We had the handle removed and replace with a big wheel($30). We then made a stand and mounted an old washing machince motor to turn it (scrap). With a belt from NAPA we were in business($10). In my own words as the former President of SORE, Society of Redneck Engineers, "It might be an EYE-SORE but it worked". You can put a hand full at a time down the mouth of this beast. It burgers the meat quick.

Now, I cut the back straps and give them away. I bag what's left and freeze into 1-2lbs bags to be turned into jerky as I can. I have made sausage in the casings and do when I have a chance. This is made posssible from my Kitchen Aid mixer/grinder and just ask the local butcher for casings.

The key I have found over the years is to bag in chuncks at the time of butchering. This makes it easier because you can process it into the final product without loosing anything on your own time. Don't do the whole thing at once. Just make a bag of jerky or Slim Jims at a time. When your finished with that batch take another bag out of the freezer and process it.

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher my own. Can't waste 100 - 300 on processing fees.[:@] I have my own manual grinder which I use to make all my hamberger and sausage. I also use the weather (temp) to dictate whether I let it hang or cut it up fast. I need it between 20 night time to 45 daytime temps. If its warmer than that, I butcher them as soon as I can.

I use a buck zipper and buck woodsman to do all my chores. Oh, and I also use a fillet knife for cutting up my steaks. And yep, I use the front shoulders because I'm a deer jerky junky!:D

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher all of my own deer. I use a gerber gator for field dressing and deboning. But i usually use my fillet knive for cutting steaks.

RE: Butchering?
 

Well to start off with my dad amd uncle own a bucther shop use to work there summers when I was younger . The one thing I have to throw at you guys is the knives you guys use for skinning and cutting your meat with are to hard of steel any thing stainlees is very hard to sharpen I am not trying to tell you guys what to use but if we had to use them kind of knives to cut meat and make a profit at it it would be hard to do .

So what to use go to your local butcher shop ask for a knife catolog. The usaly sell them five to a box but there alot cheaper than any knife you would buy at Wallmart. I use what they call a sheep skinner for skinning it has a softer steel easer to sharpen you can bring the edge back faster with just a few swipes on your steel.


My .02 cents

RE: Butchering?
 

A filet knife is my best friend when cutting up meat. I use a Gerber. I also use a Buck knife for skinning but mostly use the filet knife. I usually let my deer hang 1 to 3 days and then butcher it up. It all depends on the temp!!! I have butchered every deer I shot with the exception of the first which was a lesson that I have been trying to perfect over the last 16 years. I also butcher many others during the season for people, a little extra side cash!!!

RE: Butchering?
 

My grandpa was a butcher and he has passed it on to his son and grandsons. I can remember helping since I was old enough to sit at the butchering table. Even if I didn't know I would learn. Because I heard too many stories about getting the wrong meat back, or wanting it cut up one way, but reciving another. My brothrer in law shot a moose 4 years ago and took it to a local bucher shop. He told them he wanter roasts from the hind quaters. Steaks from the backstraps and the rest hamberger He only recieved 2 roast and a handfull of steaks ther rest of it was made into hamberger.

RE: Butchering?
 

Idahoelkinstructor..

That sounds about right... that is after the butcher took his "cut"...

:D[:-]:D

RE: Butchering?
 

Kbacon you are 100% correct!

RE: Butchering?
 

I butcher all of my deer. I let them hang for at least a day, a couple of days if the temp allows it. Also, skin your deer as soon as you get home, it is a lot eaiser to skin a deer when it is still warm and you will have much less hair to pick off later!

As far as knives go, I just use sharp kitchen knives. Good luck!!!

RE: Butchering?
 

Davidmil taught me his process and I can't thank him enough. I do all of mine now as well. Deboning and getting it into a cooler/refrigerator as soon as possible is my system. Then I can let it sit for a while until it drains. If it is cold outside, letting it hang for a while is nice. We usually don't get temperatures cold enough until late December.

As far as knives, I'd have to agree with "justhuntitall". I got this knife set in a box, 4 knives and a steel sharpening device. Yes, I have to sharpen them more often; but, they do a much better job for the purposes intended. There is a skinning knife, a filet knife, and two butcher knives, if my memory is right. In the field, I use a standard gutting knife with a gut hook.