How long does it take you to butcher a deer?
11-10-2009, 11:10 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Posts: 1,401
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
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
11-10-2009, 11:25 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,862
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?
11-10-2009, 11:28 AM
#3
Spike
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: CT and NY Adirondacks
Posts: 32
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.
11-10-2009, 11:50 AM
#4
Spike
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 27
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.
11-10-2009, 11:51 AM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: north florida
Posts: 1,277
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.
11-10-2009, 01:10 PM
#7
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: On an Island in Vermont
Posts: 22,605
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.
Last edited by Champlain Islander; 11-10-2009 at 01:13 PM.
11-10-2009, 01:19 PM
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,445
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.
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.
11-10-2009, 01:29 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Orange county, NY
Posts: 2,949
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.
11-10-2009, 02:17 PM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: RI
Posts: 3,073
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.