Deer butchering cost?
 

What is the going price to have a deer cut up in your area of Pa?

Why would you pay someone to do it? Butchering your own deer isn't difficult and it only takes about 2 1/2 hrs to do it once you have some experience. Plus by doing it yourself you know how it was cut, if it stayed clean and you know for a fact you're getting your meat. When you take it in you don't know any of these things.

I butcher my own deer. But all reports I've gotten are anywhere from $70-$100+. The closest processor I know of is at least 20 miles away, most processors have retired in the area (including myself).

My butcher charges $52.00 to process a deer, an additional 6 bucks to wrap in paper and .38 a lb to vacume pack. He also makes a lot of good products, sausage, dry venison(think dry beef) hot dogs and others, they cost by the lb. I always know I get my meat back. There is a minimun of 10 lbs for sausage, his recipe is for 10 lb batches, that way no one elses meat gets into yours. He also will hang mine, skinned when I bring it in, and I mean now, for 6 to 7 days in the walkin. I also have my meat vacume packed in the amount I determine. I know how to butcher a deer, I butchered in a grocery store when they actually butchered meaty with a meat saw knife and cleaver. However, I have no place to hang my deer to age a bit and I do not have the equipment needed to make some of the things I like nor do I have a decent place to process the deer. I am perfectly happy with the guy I use and I am confident that I am getting my farm area deer back and not an upstate deer, and I think his prices are more than reasonable. I also take my wild hogs to him. If you have the equipment and the place to do it right, doing your own deer will add a lot to the experience, however, not all of us have that.

Hard to do anything...
 

you never did before.
Easy for you when you've done it a couple of times.

I was interested in a current price. I haven't done it in decades. Wanted to know, what I didn't know. A price.

$35 .

$75 around here.
I don't have any where to do it now days! The last few i've shot i gave away. The only thing i will shoot,at this time,is a deer with a good sized rack.

I still do a few for friends & guys I hunt with...I wouldn't even bother with one for less than $70. My time is worth more than that to me. It wasn't always that way, when I was younger and just starting a family, money was tight and it helped me get through some rough patches. A young guy that's aggressive and willing to put the hours in could have a nice side-business in my part of the state (Montgomery County).

Uncle Nicky, What you say is very true but i have not come across any one aggressive enough to want to put in the hours. It seems like everybody wants the easy money jobs?

I am not saying the seasonal pop up deer deer processors can not do a good job, but I have not seen many good ones around here. These shops open up in garages and sheds during deer season and are no way prepared to do a decent job. They don't have commercial refridgeration or freezers, they don't have enough help to get the job done and even worse most are filthy. I have been in many of them and I would never allow any of them to work on my deer. Deer are stacked up on the ground like cordwood wating to be skinned, they can't get them skinned because they don't have a walkin and they can only work on one deer at a time then move on to another, on top of that, because they stack them up, the last deer are the first to be skinned and butchered. I really can't believe anyone could drive up to those operations and give them a deer to process. Fortunately, they seem to be few and far between today because people have learned having your venison ruined by poor handling is a high price to pay to save a few dollars.

Truth is...it's dirty work. Every processor I know has gotten Lyme disease at least once. I know this is a hunting site, and I probably shouldn't say this, but some of the customers I had, were the biggest morons I have ever met...showing up at my house drunk, all hours of the night, dropping deer off without calling first (I had a regular job during the day), showing up with untagged deer, leaving deer in my freezer for months before picking up, showing up during dinner (wife loved that), shooting deer 4 times with buckshot then asking "where's all my meat"? (left it in the woods, nimrod).

The final straw was a guy who had left deer multiple times and waited 4 months to pick up his deer, I called him at least 6 times, each time he promised to show, and never did. I finally had enough and donated the meat to the food bank. He calls in March for his deer, I told him I had donated it. He threatened to come over and give me a beating, yeah, thanks for the warning pal, I'll be waiting.
:D Again, this didn't go over real well with the Mrs. I sold a lot of my equipment and whittled down my customer list shortly thereafter.

I don't know where in NE PA you are located, but I know there are quite a few guys doing deer in the Souderton/Quakertown/Allentown area. Maybe go on the PA hunting forum and ask? I'd guess you'd get quite a few responses by asking there.

I worked for the biggest processor in the area at the time just to learn the business, he had a large walk-in refrigerators and walk-in freezers. All this you mentioned above went on at his shop. Even worse, all sausage & ground meat was made in batches, everyone's deer mixed together and portioned out afterward. First week of deer season, he was leaving deer outside in piles, we couldn't get to them fast enough. Appearances can sometimes be deceiving.

Yep, things aren't always what they appear. I was inside every deer processor in my area, it did not take long to know where not to take a deer. There are a lot of professional shops that mix the meat from many deer to make product. My guy makes small batches and you must order at least the amount of his batch because he only uses the meat from your deer. He has an army of help, deer do not lay around. Deer are skinned when they arrive, cleaned and put in the coolers. My deer is hung for 6 or 7 days before it is cut up. Try finding a butcher who will do that, although it is probably to his advantage that I am in no hurry to get it back. It took me a while to find this guy after my previous butcher retired because good ones are few and far between. I take my wild hogs to him as well, If I get back from SC after dark, and they do not come out to the shop when I get there, I put my cooler in the walkin with a tag with my name on it so I don't have to worry about holding it over night and the ice melting, then tell him what I want the next day. Not many places give that kind of service.

No, not for $58. Sounds like a diamond in the rough. Just FINDING a processor around here is a task. Hope you tip the guy well. ;)

Yes, but what is the cost in your area of PA?


Same here, though I worked through high school in a butchershop which helped!
I'm always amazed people don't/won't "process" their own deer. Last I knew, locally, a professional shop was charging $120, vacuum packed.
When I hunted w/ friends in the southern tier, and some of those guys would hunt in PA, I never saw a pro shop but the seasonal garage guys were @ $75 cut & wrapped.

I have a cousin here in Indiana county that did mine for $50 this year. that price only included skinning and cutting up.

I pay $65 to a butcher up the street. Close to home and they don't get slammed with deer to cut up. Worth every penny. Even if I had the space and tools to cut up my own deer, I would still drop them off.

Nothing against those that do process their own deer. More power to you. I just hope you take every precaution necessary for properly sanitizing your work space.

For me, it's worth it to have the butcher do it just how I like it and vacuum seal the packages as well.

In Atlanta area, $95 for a deer including sausage upcharge.

Flags - DIY is good if you have the space but many people may not have the facilities to age venison for 2 weeks after its harvested.

No need to age venison for 2 weeks and I doubt seriously that there are more than a few places that have them up for more than a few days unless they are just too busy to get at them sooner.

yep. amazing how many people think deer (or any meat)tastes better if it hangs longer

Yeah, it is amazing how many people are correct about dry aging mproving the flavor and tenderness of venison . It does both. As far as venison not having marbled fat, fat does not have a thing to do with dry aging. It is the enzymes in the meat that start to break it down and that is what affects it on the table. All the top chefs must not know what they are foing because they buy dry aged beef and venison or they dry age it themselves. I have killed, cared for cooked and eaten venison for in excess of 50 years. I have eaten it both ways, there is no doubt aged venison is better than venison that was shot on monday and cut up and frozen on tuesday. Good flavor however starts in the field immediately after the kill. What you do from that point forward will determine if you have lousy meat. Most of what people call a gamey flavor is the taste of improperly handled meat. If the beef you bought in your butcher shop was handled like most people's deer, and you knew it, you would't eat it.

No doubt that it makes a difference if you know anything about how enzymes break down tissue. However, most people have no means of doing it properly in a controlled environment at the proper temperature and humidity and that's why I stated what I did.

Top, I agree with you on that. I am lucky enough to have found a guy who will hang my deer for a week in the correct climate. If he would hang it for 3 weeks, I would have it done. My response was more to those who said it makes no difference than to your response. Everytime this subject is broached, someone comes along with the nonsense that venison has no fat marbling so aging will make no difference. That is a load of male bovine excrement. That is right up there in the BS catagory as you have to remove the scent glands from deer legs. If the glands are going to taint the meat after the deer is dead, it would have when the deer was alive. Not to mention, you saw off and toss that part of the deer. I used to have to checkle when I saw people who were brought up being told the first think you have to do is to remove the glands after you kill a deer. Ten they take that stinking knife and open up the cavity to gut the deer. I stopped trying to talk sense to people because it just led to an argument.

100% accurate.

Especially cooling it down as quickly as possible.


Also accurate-
With humidity levels being as, if not more, important than temperature for dry aging.

If you're not hanging your deer, you are missing out on some wonderful flavor!

Meat is not as delicate as we are inclined to believe.


edit: obviously this is a little OT however, if you are paying to have it done, is it being done right?

I cut mine up 90% of the time and I do age the meat in a fridge for at least 7 days.I actually took three to a butcher this year.The guy charged 50 bucks and did a nice job.I hate paying money for something I can do myself but I got overloaded with dead deer the last two saturdays.It was late when we got home both days and I was beat from walking all day and dragging deer out.It was money well spent.

Aging venison makes a huge difference.

I hang it 2-3 min , if it's nice and cold I'll a little over a week depending on my schedule. I have butchered into muscle meat and let hang in the fridge for a few days. But also eat some(tenderloins) as soon as I get it home. All depends on the temp. I regulate it by opening my garage door at night and closing during the day. also it's attached so seldom goes below 32, in which cas the hide keeps the deer at about 38. I must say I got some from a friend and it was skinned quarted and given to me 1-2 days later and was great, ate it all week while making time for butchering.

I"ve done it both ways and can tell ZERO difference in taste or tendernace. I believe it is just an old wives tale but to each his own.

does are supposedly better tasting then bucks . I think this is also B.S. WHILE IT MAY SOMETIMES BE TRUE ,IT IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE.

I have noticed however that a desert deer seldom tastes as good as a mountain deer. jmhonmnl

I've definitely found Does to be tastier than bucks. Cows tastier than bulls too.

that's why I added the just my humble oppinion,no more no less.