Was taught by my grandfather how to butcher and have almost always done it on my own. The only time I didn't was a couple rifle seasons ago and only because I had to work and didn't want the deer to spoil.

The guy that did it was a friend of a friend, $40 and he cut and wrapped it up he was the manager in the meat dept of a local grocery store. Didnt have to take it anywhere except a buddies garage. Other than that I butcher my own and make my own sausage.

If it were myself, I wouldn't let on I'm as pissed as I am, but I would let him know clearly that I'm upset and remind him that he did say it shouldn't be more than a couple of days. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Good luck,

iSnipe

I probably wouldn't hunt if I didn't process my own meat. Your butcher is probably waiting til he gets a bunch of deer so he can do them all at once and mix it all together. You probably won't get your own deer back. That's why I wouldn't take one to a processor.

I'd be a little upset if he said a couple days and it has been this long.

Like others have said, read up on cutting it up on your own. It is pretty easy and will save you some money. Where we used to take our deer it was $75 just to cut it up per deer. My dad and I would each get 2 so that is $300 right there just to cut them up. It takes both of us a couple hours to cut up our deer. Then we take it someplace and have them make it into sticks and such.

Now is the time to learn to butcher your own deer. It's not that hard and it gives you all control from field to table. My only problem is not having a cooler to hang the carcass. I now have a refrigerator in the garage that I can at least use to cool the quarters. If the temperatures are cool enough, I can let it hang for several days. A couple of years ago, we ate 3 meals off of a buck that was hanging in the garage before we ever butchered. When you butcher your own, you get your meat with no hair!

my processor gets my deer back to me in about a week.

Well he either did something wrong.Or the food inspection guy told him to throw the meat out.Which means he did something wrong.
Had that happen to us a number if years ago.Took it into acommercial processing plant. Where they do cattle. On the other side side he does wild game.We took a moose in well cleaned considering things,The owner/ butcher complimented our work.I guess some employee allowed a dirty one in,dirt, leaves, twigs, just to name a few things dangling off the animal.Between the time we were to pick ours up and food inspection happened by that afternoon,came in and told him to destroy all meat hanging disinfect and reinspect before the next cattle shipment could be butchered.The guy was upfront honest and the place was spotless but this one mistake his emplyee made cost him huge.Good Butchers do not allow bad field cleaned animals into their shop. This may or may not have happened I don't know if he does commercial work.

Two weeks sounds about right to me. The main processor I use handles about 2,000 deer a year and does a good job. I wouldn't worry about it, remember he is in business and doesn't get paid till the hunter picks up the meat so he is probably doing as best he can. He may have had sickness, broke down equipment or lost an employee or something.

I haven' used a processor for years, because I realized he was mixing deer meat.
My old processor I knew didn't, but the new one did. Now I think they all do.

Also, several times, I had to call him out, and say "wait a minute, that was a huge headshot doe( I would then produce the weight of the animal from HIS scale), there was NO damage anywhere, REMEMBER? You even said so yourself it would make a lot of meat. Where's the rest of my meat?"

At that he'd say "oh, yeah", and give me some more. ?

That and his prices kept going up and up, and up.
He hired a skinner, and you HAD to let him skin the deer, for more $.
It was getting cheaper to go the grocery store.
That was it for me.

In his defense though, it was made known up front, that deer would hang for
several days. I agree with this.

I know some people just don't have a place to cut up a deer. Apartment dwellers, crowded developments, etc. If you tried to work a deer there, they'd arrest you.
They are kind of in a pickle.

My processor will, cut, grind and wrap in a few hours. Sausage takes some time as he waits until he can fill the smoker.