I want to get a old deer to practice on. I keep in getting deer under 2 years old and I am to worried about screwing up the roasts and steaks. If I can get a older deer where it would be a lot of ground and jerky I want to do it myself.
This year I got my limit of two deer and $180 in processing just about killed me. I need to learn somehow.

I do not have my butcher make any suasage or jerky. That is what my home made double barrel smoker is for.

Have done it before.....then took to processor, whom I know well and have worked with occasionally on a friday night and helped..........but that got expensive with no time to work my tab off......I took one this year and cut my own on one this year. I appreciate cutting my own better

I do my own. For me, it is another part of the hunting experience.

Thanks for the input guys

I hang mine up, let it bleed out, skin it and quarter it (take the 4 legs off) cut out the backstraps and throw the rest away. Take the quarters inside and wash them and cut every in. of meat off i can get then usually make that into jerky. And the backstraps are of course steaks!!

When yer a teenage boy whos parents dont hunt, and a low paying job, you gotta do what you gotta do! Im perfectly fine with doin it that way and always have.

IMO i like it better cause i know who/what has touched the meat, most processors, you don't get yer own meat back, around here atleast.

Here's a pic of me skinnin my latest one.

No thanks on the butcher. Cost is too high and I don't want strange meat back.

Man, you guys pay a lot to have your deer butchered. Our local processor charges $30.00 to butcher including grinding, a little extra to add beef or pork trim to the grind.
We still do our own tho as we have been snookered and unsatisfied with the quality several times. Generally, we'll butcher 5 a yr . . .I say "we", but my wife is the butcher here . . .and I just help. I skin and quarter it, put it in an ice chest for up to a week keeping it covered with ice and water draining daily until water runs clear. The wife comes in at this point removing all fat and gristle, nerve, sinew . .anything but red meat. We bone it out, grinding the shoulders and any meat trim . .when we're thru with the carcass it looks like it's been picked clean by buzzards.
The more you do it yourself, the less you'll trust anyone else to do it , especially if you grind as there are so many times you think "do I want that in there" . . .someone you really don't know may not care.
We actually don't have a lot of tools for butchering. We have good knives and a hand grinder, plus hand saws . Our meat keeps in the freezer well, usually a yr. I believe that the trick to getting meat to keep in the freezer this long is in the cleaning process, omitting fat and any other undesirable element of the carcass. Plus, we vacuum seal and then double wrap in freezer paper.
We're wanting to better equip ourselves, but we keep procrastinating as the stuff we want is pretty expensive unless we find a deal.

$65 dollars at the local butcher $55 for a doe

Yes if you take it to some else how do you now if you are getting you'er meat back and if it is clean

YES......