How long does it take you to butcher a deer?
 

Pretty simple question I guess. I was reading the other thread about butchering other people's deer for money and it got me thinking. Either I am SUPER slow or some of the folks on that thread are super fast or somewhere in between.

Butchered my deer last night. I already had it quartered out in coolers and I made steaks, jerky and hamburger. Start to finish including grinding, vaccumm sealing and clean up was 6 hours. My wife helped me put the burger in the vaccumm bags and clean up which saved me at least an hour.

If I'm cutting roasts and stew meat it doesn't take as long and if I'm not making jerky it doesn't take as long, and on a standard sized whitetail it doesn't take as long, but I would guess on average it takes me 4 hours start to finishing including clean up.

I spend a lot of time cutting each muscle group apart in the hind quarters and taking most of the sinew off. This deer was a fat pig and had nearly 2" of fat on it's backside so that took some extra time. I generally end up quartering the deer in the field so I spend a little time picking hair, etc. off the meat but this deer was pretty clean so not much time on that.

My grinder isn't huge, but it chugs along pretty good. It says it's rated for like 4.4lbs per minute, but it typically takes me about 30 minutes to grind 30lbs of meat, maybe a little lesss.

Jerky is time consuming. I don't do ground jerky, I take the less desirable steaks (ends of the backstrap, some of the medium sized muscle groups in the hind quarters) and slice them thinly across the grain of the muscle. It's not difficult but it is time consuming.

I had 1 blown up shoulder on this deer and I spent some time messing with that. The end result was not much meat salvaged off of it and probably 30 minutes spent messing with it, but I hate to waste good meat.

My guess on the deer was 250lbs on the hoof, I ended up with 32lbs of ground meet that I mixed with 20lbs of 80/20 hamburger to end up with 52lbs of burger, 15lbs of wafer sliced steak strips curing for jerky, and 10lbs of really nice steaks, for a total of 57lbs of boneless meat off of him. I didn't save much off of the one shoulder so that seems about right to me. He was such a fat pig that I ended up with close to 10lbs of fat and scraps off him! I usually make more roasts and stew meat, but we still have some roasts in the freezer from last year and we are almost out of burger so I went heavy on the burger this time.

Oh well, this turned into a long rambling post, but I'm curious how far out of line I am with my time that it takes and how much boneless meat you end up with off an average deer. I don't butcher my own deer because I can't afford to hire someone else to do it, and I don't butcher it because I enjoy it, but I do it because I would like to think I spend more time and effort making sure that the end product is going to be the best that it can be when my family and I sit down to eat it. I'm curious if I'm that far out of line on the time spent though, one guy posted that it takes him less than and hour to butcher a deer and it takes me 6 times that long!

Thanks in advance for any input.

Nathan

To do the job right I think it will probably take most of us 6 hours or so to process a deer. We do it once a year and we surely won't be as fast as a professional butcher. It does take a good amount of time, but the knowledge that you are eating your own meat that was cared for from the minute the animal was down is worth this effort. I have seen these deer processing plants and I have absolutely NO way of knowing that I will be getting back venison from the deer I brought in. I hunt basically to bring home some good tasting venison. Why would I trust someone else with it if the meat is what I treasure most about hunting?

If I'm going to grind the animal, skinning and boning takes about 20 minutes, then cleaning all the meat takes an hour or two. Grinding and sealing is another hour. If I plan to steak everything and separate muscle groups, it will take me at least 6 hours for the whole process.

You're not slow, just doing it right. Skinning and quartering are the easy parts. De-boning and trimming the sinew takes time to do it right and not waste meat. I usually quarter, put it in meat lugs in the fridge, and do the tedious work the next day. I grind and bag for meat loaf, spaghetti sauce and jerky, slice steaks from the largest muscle in the hind quarter and run them through the cuber, slice one backstrap for frying and keep one whole to smoke, and slice the tenderloins for frying and putting in a biscuit. YUM!! Everything gets vacuum sealed except the grind. All this will take 4-6 hours depending on the size of the deer.

Tailgate to finished quartering maybe 20 mins tops. I learned how to clean a deer fast in south Georgia at a young age. I would watch the older guys and my dad clean literally 100s of deer every season and it just because second nature to me. I just keep the backstraps and tenderloins, and give away/donate the rest of the venison.

About 5-6 hours from skin to vacuum seal

4 hours for me to skin, bone, trim, package and clean up. I was taught by a neighbor who was a butcher. Pretty simple when you know how it is done. I like to hang them for 5 days minimum if I can. Way more flavor and more tender.

I can skin one, butcher, and get into the freezer in less than 2 hours. BUT, I'm not cutting anyting into steaks or grinding. I do remove most silverskin. I double-wrap in plastic, then once in heavy duty foil.

When it comes time to eat steaks, I'll thaw a couple days in advance and then slice into steaks. Many times I roast whole pieces on the grill, then slice to eat. Larger pieces keep better in the freezer too.

Takes me about 45minutes to skin, quarter, remove backstraps and scraps. I like to take my time as well, cutting it up and bagging it. that takes me about 2-3 hours, depending on how big it was. I dont grind the scraps when I butcher though, I just label the bag "scraps for grinding" and grind it when Im ready to eat it.

I'm pretty slow at it, I have to say it probably takes me about 6 hours start to finish, maybe a little longer to grind the scraps into burger. If I remember, I'll time myself this weekend when I get last Saturday's deer out of the walk in to process.

Sounds like you're doing a fine job! The cutting, grinding, cleaning and packaging takes a while. Thats why I just skin and quarter them or take all the meat off the bone. My part only takes 20 minutes and the wife does the rest while I hunt. She thinks she has the easy part cause she doesn't have to field dress or skin it, or sit outside all day trying to get one. She just has to deal with the clean meat.
I guess she's right, I do spend a lot of time hunting! It just isn't fair!! And,will the steaks be done soon dear? I'm awful tired and almost outta beer, do you mind going to the store while I take a nap before supper?

Nothing wrong with taking the time to do the job right, after all, you're the one eating it. It generally takes me between 5 to 7 hours I would say once I get it hung and start skinning. I am very particular with skinning to keep from getting any hair on the meat. I always end up with some but hey, I try. Some people say I get a little to carried away with trying to save every little piece of meat but it just tastes so good!!

I do all the deer in my family, so that means I get some practice. LOL! Last time I did it, I believe it took me around 4 hours. Not sure when the clock starts, but last time I dressed a deer, it took 15 minutes. That's a little slow, but I don't rush that. Then drag time and getting it to the registration and back to the house for cleaning. Skinning doesn't take much. Either use a knife, pull it off with a pickup or winch, then get to cutting. Backstraps only a few minutes, the neck roast, the meat under the shoulders, the backstraps, split up the hind quarters, salvage the little meat on the front legs and carefully remove the loins inside the chest cavity. I don't use freezer paper, but freezer Glad zip up bags. I can put the meat in them, press to remove air, then seal and mark the packages.

What takes the most time is separating the muscle groups, the removing all the tendons and sinew. My steaks have 0 sinew and membrane on them as I cut it all off. It's one of the major contributors of the "gamey" taste people refer to.

Usually I can get someone else to package the meat while I'm cutting. Oh, and my hand grinder for the hamburger works ok, but I need a larger one as mine is too slow for my fast paced world. LOL!

iSnipe

It takes me about 5 hours to butcher and package a deer. I've seen people do it quicker, but they just bone it out make sausage.


iSnipe,

I have a hand grinder that I modified into a power grinder. Just replace the hand crank with a 3 or 4 inch long bolt and use a power drill to crank it. Saves me alot of time and effort.

My hand crank grinder only cost about $20, but I hate replacing something if it's not broken.

Its not a race, like mentioned if you process only a couple times a year and do it all in one stage then expect it to take some time. The most important thing is the end result! Sounds like you did AOK to me.

Friend of mine got 9 deer last year between his 3 hunting aged kids and himslef, I got 1, couple neighbors got 1 a piece. We had it down to a science. about 2 hours and we had steaks, ground meat, jerky slices, and roasts bagged and in the freezer. 2 of us cutting.....

I thought about making a platform to hold the grinder and electric generator so I can move it around easily... and of course, to grind faster... then I heard the idea of using a drill. I passed that idea up too.

My concern is the small hopper. It helps to have the meat in strips to feed it faster, as small chunks have to be pressed into it and the small shoot that accepts the meat is a pain.

However, in regards to your drill tip refreshing my memory, I should just give it a shot before knocking it. LOL!

Thanks,

iSnipe

When grinding the meat I have found that meat cooled in a refrigerator overnight will speed up the process and won't clog up the grinder nearly as much. Room temperature meat can gunk up the grinder way to fast.

It really works great. The hopper is the issue. I had to feed it as fast as I could to keep up w/ the drill.

I no longer need to use this method. My wife got a KitchenAid (the big one) for her bridal shower this spring. We just bought the meat grinder attachment tonight.

In my initial response to this thread said that it takes me about 5 hours to finish butchering my deer. Hopefully now with this horse of a grinder I can get that down to between 4 or 4.5 hours.

I'll find out tomorrow.

I found an easier way, for me anyway. I run the legs through a band saw, both front and back an package up. Later when I want to do something I take some sliced steaks and do whatever I choose, maybe I'll just make a steak or maybe I'll cut up for jerky; or grind some up. plus a sliced steak is easier to cut the sinew off.

I must be the slowest cuz I started at 2pm today and stopped at 7pm and I figure I still have another 2-3 hours to go. I have been processing my own deer for the last 15-20 years at 2-3 a year. The deer I got yesterday "in the avitar" weighed 173lbs and there was no meat lost at all. I do make a lot of jerky and chuck a lot up for grind mostly for sausage. The backstrapes I cut into butterfly chops and this deers strapes were 32" long. Seemed like they went on forever! The tender loins I wrap but won't freeze cuz I like them fresh so I'll have them tomorrow. But mostly everything else is either chucked for stews or it will be ground for sausage, chillies, sauses, or to be canned. But a lot is for jerkey cuz every year there is a long list of friends who love my jerky. I think the next deer might have to be all jerky! :s201:

Id say it takes me about 4 hours from the time I start skinning to the time I am done cleaning up. I wind up taking the meat I am having ground up to our butcher. We have enough things made that he doesn't charge us for ground. We also know we are getting the same deer back, he is a real stickler about that. A real class act, which is why we drive and hour and a half to get sticks, sausages, etc made. I don't mind the drive when Im eating good for the rest of the year!

6 hours, including skinning, quartering, boning, trimming, steaking, packaging and clean up.

It doesn't take me that long because I cut and grind most of the meat. Only the back strap I cut into steaks.

Now making sausage is a complete different story! I actually hate the whole sausage making process, but it's so GOOOOOOd.

It takes maybe an hour to hang, skin, gut, and clean up a deer and get it hung in the cooler. Then it hangs for 2-5 days. I am set up pretty good, so it takes 2 of us about 2 hours to cut up steaks, tenderize the steaks and package, grind up the trimmings and front quarters, and clean up. My grinder could grind up a whole deer in less than 5 minutes.

Depends on the size of the deer. The last two bucks I have shot have been larger than average. The one I shot in 06 took a total of 8 hours and the one I shot this year took a total of 7 hours. The normal for me to butcher an average sized deer weighing roughly 150-170 about 2 hours to butcher not including skinning time. But again this depends on how much work youre willing to do and what you want made out of it.

Seeing as how most people are saying 5-6 hours, I cannot justify giving up 6 hours of work at $25.00/hr when I can have a quality stand up guy do my deer (better then I have done in the past) for $60 a deer. But that goes with being an incomplete hunter I guess.

Must be hard working 7days a week 24 hrs a day:rolleye0011: whats next? "the dog ate my freezer bags"?:happy0157: