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...

First off, skin while warm - much easier! And it allows the deer to cool that much quicker.

If it is 45 or warmer, I quarter it up and place the large pieces in the freezer. The next day I debone most of the meat, making sure to clean my tools and table with a little diluted bleach solution before using. Other than deboned meat, I will cut steaks off the hind quarters and some loin strips and maybe save some other meat for stew. Also, carefully remove and discard any bloodied up or shot up meat. The rest of the deboned meat is immediately put back into the freezer to chill down and then I take the meat to a (reputable) butcher shop to have made into burger - I have them mix in 20-30% lean beef. I have to spend a little money, but also, I salvage more meat than a butcher would typically salvage since I trim off meat around the ribs, neck, etc. One deer can go a long way. Make sure to weigh the meat before you take it in - last time my (former) butcher tried to short change me on the weight but I caught him. There really is no way you are going to mess things up yourself as long as you keep it all clean and cold.

If it is under 45 degrees, I will let the deer hang for a few days. Then process.

I have also ground up my own meat, but it is a hassle if you do not have a top-notch grinder due to clogging and also it can be very costly to add beef if you buy it yourself.

I store my hamburger in bes-pak containers: http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...ductId=1390293

They are square so they use space efficiently, air/liquid tight so no freezer burn, they stack neatly when not in use, and made of HDPE so they are dishwasher safe.


Not difficult at all but you'll need a food slicer like the type with the rotating blade and you'll need a food dehydrator with a fan and heating element and temperature control.

1 cup soy sauce
1 cup worchester sauce
1 cup water
Everything below is optional but I use it all...
1 to 4 tablespoons liquid smoke.
1 to 4 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 to 10 tablespoons of red-hot Tabasco sauce (don't worry, most of the hotness gets neutralized in the process)
1 or 2 tablespoons mustard
2 to 5 tablespoons A1 Steak Sauce

Put all that stuff into a container and shake the crap out of it until thoroughly mixed.

Slice meat strips 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick.. make a pile and then take each piece and trim off the fat.. The less fat, the longer it will stay in storage. Throw each piece into the magic sauce above.. When the container is full, put it in the fridge for at least over-night so it soaks in.

TIP: Using woodworking terms, cross cutting the meat makes for a tender and easy to eat jerky. Rip cuts makes it chewy and long lasting.

Lay the strips out in dehydrator trays one at a time.. when tray is full, sprinkle on some pepper, any spices you like. Pretty much any type of non-salt steak seasoning is good here. I also like to brush on a final coating of Tabasco sauce.. (when it dries, it gets largely neutralized).

Put trays in dehydrator at 155 degF and let it run for about 12 hours. A few hours less in dry climates.

The jerky is done when you pull out a thick piece, let it cool a bit, then bend it over.. it should crack where it bends but not snap in half.

I turn my whole deer into jerky.. its a healthy wholesome snack that provides lean protein and it keeps for years if you put it in air-tight containers in a freezer.

If you plan to make a lot of jerky, DO NOT throw out the magic sauce.. Put it in a small pan, boil it, then re-use the sauce for the next batch.

Also, make sure that EVERYTHING that meat will touch has been cleaned with bleach or sanitized at high temperature in a dishwasher. Make sure to wash your hands every 15 or 20 minutes and if you touch anything else. Remember that you are not cooking the meat so you don't get the added benefit of using heat to kill bacteria. (although the magic sauce brine mix does a pretty good job of it)

Hope that helps,

Sounds easy enough.. But i do worry about the tabasco sauce, i dont think it would be hot enough to my liking lol.

What about using some habanero hot sauce instead? You ever tried that? (the el yucateco kind, green or red). Or would some cayenne and other pepper seasoning work just as well?

How cheap can you get a dehydrator for? Ive got a smoker i could use.

Any spice will work.

Smoker should work fine but you have to control temp and keep it at 155.. any hotter and the meat will cook.. (don't want that).. any cooler and some of the bacteria might survive.

But ya,, a smoker should work fine if you don't let it get too hot.

I have taken meat to the butcher...depends on your area some charge to skin the animal. last year I gutted and skinned and took to the butcher...he made ground and breakfast sausage and tenderloins/backstraps...all was ok but the breakfast sausage had some small bone chips in it...which is annoying. this year I have a friend that has a cooler and we skinned and gutted hung in the cooler for a few days and we processed it to burger. I kept the tenderloins and backstraps separate. Its not a bad job if you have a grinder. meat slicer etc...you don't need a meat slicer but it helps... a grinder is a must! If you don't have that its best to find a processor.

best way to wrap in my opinion...is tightly wrap in plastic wrap then wrap in butcher paper.

Jerky is easy...you can use ground or sliced meat. Find some seasonings you like and follow the instructions. for ground it helps to have a jerky gun.

I do it all myself. I have access to a walk-in cooler, which is very nice. Otherwise, I'd hang it.

It's not hard to learn how. I had an experienced man do it with me the first time, and done it myself ever since. The biggest thing is the trimming--it takes a while. Normally, I butcher, de-bone, and convert roasts to steaks in an evening, then trim the grinding meat the next day.

Years ago, when we purchased our current house/farm, I cut the ceiling out in the milk room of the barn, welded a steel 6x6 frame and placed that on the roof of the milk house (it was a hay loft originally). That allows me to hoist the deer up and hang if temps allow. For the past few years though, temps have been warm so I process the same day. Installed a stainless steel work table and use the floor drain that came in the room.

Very seldom have I taken any of my deer to a processor. Only if I'm pressed for time. Personally, and I know not all can do it or have the tools to do it, but processing seems to bring the whole hunt full circle. I enjoy breaking down the carcass, separating the muscles and packaging the animal.

If its cool we try to let our deer hang for a few days. We then skin it, cut out the back straps and roasts and put them in a tub of water to soak for a little bit. Then we debone all the other meat we can and store it in large bulk ziplock bags and freeze it until we can take it to our butcher who will make the brats, summer sausage and burger. We also have him cut our burger with beef fat as well.

We will plastic wrap our roasts and straps then wrap them in freezer paper. This process works pretty well for us and really isn't to expensive.

Well said.

There's so much to hunting beyond...well, hunting. In the process of becoming hunters, many of us also become farmers, animal behaviorists, etc. --as well as butchers. These ancillary jobs can become nearly as rewarding as the actual hunt. I definitely feel that way about skinning/butchering.

Once you do a couple and get the hang of it, you'll never go back to the neighborhood processor. I guarantee that by your third deer or so you'll be genuinely impressed with what a nice job you do with it.

I must be an idiot then... I've processed about 20 of them myself and still can't figure out where to cut most of the time. I pretty much got the shoulders, backstraps, tenderloins and can remove the ribs and head..
Still can figure out where to cut to get the rears off clean.. I always seem to be cutting thorough good muscle.
I've watched every youtube video on it there is but it just doesn't seem to work the same way in real life.

And don't even get me started on taking the individual groups off the bone itself. Its kind of like a "slice and pray" technique for me.

Not that it matters much.. I make mostly jerky and hamburger. Getting a full muscle just means larger and easier to handle jerky pieces.

After harvesting my deer I immediately gut it get it back to camp and skin it. Make sure I have the pee bag, anus and esoughogus. Trim any excess that doesn't look good, and rinse it out with clean water. I Cut the head off and I cut the legs off right bellow their knees. Then get my giant igloo cooler, we call it a deer coffin. Stuff the body cavity full of ice and all around it. Then I take it to the proccesor. Add 10% beef fat to the ground meat. He does a great job for a great price. But that's just how I do it, there are many ways to skin a deer.

Sounds like you're doing a decent job to me. Maybe you're being too hard on yourself.

For what it's worth, I found/find boning out the hams cleanly to be the biggest challenge, too. But I still find the results I get on my own to be far superior to virtually any commercial job I've seen.

I typically butcher my own, but I have a processor lined-up, just in case I don't have time, it's hot, etc. Butchering is not a hard skill to learn. Read a book, watch some Youtube videos on the subject, and take a stab at it. Trial and error is a fine approach. Worst case, you do a less-that-ideal job on some of the loins and you have more grind/sausage/jerky and less steaks/roasts.

I do my jerky in a dehydrator, both ground and strips. If you want to cut strips by hand, stick the meat in a freezer for half an hour to firm it up, then cut it carefully with a good knife. If its too thick, press it with the palm of your hand on a cutting board.

As for spices, in addition to what's been mentioned, I've used: teriyaki sauce, whiskey, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, pepper, onion powder, sesame oil (gives a smoky taste), wine vinegar (a little), chili powder, cumin, bbq sauce, Heinz 57, and oregano (didn't like it myself, but my wife did). Next time, I'm going to add Zataran's Blackening Seasoning. I don't use a recipe, just whatever strikes me as I'm putting it together.

I live in Kentucky and we are lucky enough to have a program here called Kentucky Afield. You can go to their web site and purchase a cd on how to process your deer. It is done very well with a professional butcher, I think. He explains and shows how to skin it and take the meat off the bone.
I do not work for KY Afield but it is a wonderful video at a reasonable price.

As it so happens I am a meatcutter by trade so it is a no brainer for me can do this stuff in my sleep. I do take my misc ground stuff to a friend who makes the beef sticks but the rest I do and my jerky is done by me. Just part of the overall hunting experience it is satisfying to make the harvest into something that tastes great.

I've been doing my own since 1965 when My mom taught me how it is done.
Here is a link to a fourm I belong to that has a step by step with pictures.

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/...hp?f=8&t=87556

Since Michigan has a cottage honey house law I have the stainless sink for clean up and a nice clean place to do the work. I don't have my own grinder any more so I've been taking it to a meat store who grind it for me at a resonable cost usally while I wait.

:D Al

I have a friend that doesn't deer hunt, but who's hobby is making sausage. Once we realized that he had all of the stuff (commercial grinder, etc...) we started skinning and quartering up north, then boning out and vacuum sealing and grinding/making sausage at home.

It is actually pretty easy to do, and it saves a lot of money. I could buy one of those Savage Axis package rifles with what I save processing my two deer each year.

I do my own,I grind a lot of it and keep the back straps and part of the hams for my wife to cut up and cook.Country girl who knows how to make it good.

I skin and quarter them myself. I'll pull the backloins and tenderloins out and wrap those myself. The quarters take to my butcher where he either makes sticks, jerky or grinds it. We get enough steaks out of the back loins and I really like the ground. Plus, its pretty simple for me to skin and quarter it, especially if I have someone helping me/keeping me company/holding my victory beer. Bringing in just the quarters to my butcher also saves me about $50 a deer too and when I'm at camp, I don't mind skinning and quartering them myself.

I always cut my own, even when a kid (Pop helped and showed how). In later years I got lazy and started to drop them off. Then about 25 years ago I started hunting out of state. I don't know for sure, but people tell me the average butcher charges over $100 just to cut up a deer now. Multiply that times 3 or 4 deer! We camp for the week and sometimes it gets warm (70's once). We take coolers and 2 gallon zip lock bags to rough cut. We hang the deer and cut everything off the bone and stick the meat in the bags, and then pack in ice in the cooler. If it is really hot, we drain the melted ice every day and make sure we put more ice in. I have taken meat home after 6 days and it made my hands numb trimming and grinding it. We don't get fancy cutting when we take it off the deer. I have plenty of time to trim the meat once it is in coolers. I don't like soggy meat so I use the zip lock bags. I do have a heavy duty electric grinder, but for years we used a hand grinder I bought at a yard sale. To freeze the meat, I double wrap in Saran Wrap and then put it in big zip lock bags. Never had freezer burn that way. I tried a vacuum seal machine someone bought me, but we do a couple deer and it would overheat and shut off all the time. Look up LEM Products on line.