Do you process your deer or take it to the butcher?
 

Step by step how do you process yours if you do it yourself?

Id like to start doing mine myself to save some money.

How long do you let them sit in the cooler on ice or do you prefer to hang them if the weather permits?

If I get a doe or a buck, I am going to spend a doe or a buck at the butcher, And have it done right. I don't know how to do it my self.

I've tried on smaller game and I was ok with it, I am not going to mess up a tenderloin!!!

I hang un gutted deer up by hind legs. I cape and pull hide down to neck. I cut out back strap. I ease in and get tenderloins, cut out front shoulder sometimes...most of the time that area is mulch and not worth the hassle. I then cut around the hip bone untill the carcass guts and remains fall into a 55gal drum cut in half. thats it 30 min job

I just last year started cutting the ham meat off the bone while hanging makes it a little easier when it comes time to cut up.

I then put in cooler of ice and salt for 3-4 day's before cutting up. Draining water out and refill with Ice every afternoon.

Grind with high fat beef for burgers,sausage and sgetti sauce. I keep some big hunks of ham for smoking, I butterfly backstrap for bacon wrapped steaks etc.

we have doe problems and I take 6-8 does a year, my wife take 2-3 does

I do mine myself, just hang and bone out while cleaning...Throw in ice chest for a few days, keep the water drained off and package up the cuts...

If I need burger, I grind as I need...

At our camp, we do it all ourselves. You can leave a deer for a while if it's cold enough, by why bother? Skinning is much, much easier when the deers body is still warm. It peels right off. Skinning a cold deer can be a huge pain.

Don't be too worried about messing up those straps. They're not hard to remove, at all.

Better you nick your straps and hams up a little than drop the whole thing off at a butcher where it'll be run through band saws and whatnot.

I do my own up to a point. Hang, gut, and quarter them. After that, take and soak the meat to get the blood out. Depending on the processor and what the meat is going to be made into I may even debone it myself to cut down on cost. After that it is off to the processor.

I hang it from a Cottonwood limb and skin it out.
Then off come the backstraps.
Then the woman tells me how many roasts she wants off this one. Off come the roasts.
Then all the rest comes off the bone and mama gets to work with her meat
grinder.

I hunt on my own property..
Pick up the kill with tractor bucket and transport to outdoor table.. Gut it, collect heart and liver for dog, lungs for chickens. Digestive tract into 5 gal bucket. Dog/Chicken stuff into large boiling pot w/water.
Have 2 inch steel pipe 10ft tall with L on top and pulley.. Hang dear by hind legs and use garden hose to wash out insides.
Skin it and chop off head. Hacksaw takes off ribs and into boiling pot for dog.
Take shoulders, back straps, tenderloins for us. Chop off spinal column assembly and throw it into boiling pot for dog. Cut and take hind quarters for us.

Once inside the house, meat for humans goes into spare fridge set at max cooling to bring meat down to almost freezing. Heart, lungs, liver goes into small boiling pot for dog and chicken.
Dog gets heart as soon as cooked and cooled.. Chickens get lungs whenever.
The next day I will bone out the meat.. All scraps, bones, fat, cartilage, tendons, and other non-desirable stuff goes into boiling pot for dog and chicken feed.

The next day, when boiling pot has cooled, the fat floats to the top and gets skimmed off for the chickens. Meat for dog will have separated from bones and will be frozen for later treats. Small bones go to garden to add phosphorous and calcium to soil, large bones become dog treats.

All edible meat for people is usually processed into venison jerky and hamburger.. and soon I'll be making summer sausages. I am really good at making jerky.

Each year, we waste less and less of the animal.. We currently only throw out the head, skin and fur, and legs below the knees. I am always looking for ways to use more and more of the harvest.

Doesn't sound to bad of a job at all. Youth season is this weekend and I've got a spot set up for my nephew where I've got does on cam at the same time everyday. Should be able to get one pretty easily. And I'm gonna try and see how I do at processing myself. I'll let you all know.

You guys prefer wrapping in paper freezer paper or plastic. Don't have a vaccum sealer.

How easy is it to make jerky?

I wrap mine in freezer paper...

There are two ways to make deer jerky...You can cut it in thin strips, season and smoke it for several hours or grind it up, season and dehydrate it...