$150 is very steep, but it sounds like it was more than butchering, he got lots of jerky which is not included in a normal butcher job.

Took me and my two boys (helping for the first time) to butcher, wrap and cleanup about 2 hours.

--Bob

Your exorbitant price came from 20 lbs. of jerky slice. It can run as high as $3/lb. here. What you have to understand is they process it with the normal cuts first (that is one price), then they slice those normal cuts into jerky slices (that is another extra price). You have to make jerky slices off of a good cut like a roast. After 20 lbs of jerky all you have left is trash for hamburger. To make a long story short, you are paying to have the same meat processed twice.

A lot of people have learned from this. Any extra cuts or sausage you have made is in addition to the normal processing fee.

20 pounds of jerky?? Thats easily 40-50 pounds of steak/roast/chops etc.. Thats alot of jerky. Honestly I would say you got all your dseer back and then some. If you had beef fat put in the burger and all that jerky made I would guess that would run around $120.00 here in Missouri at most places. So you didnt get the best deal but didnt get ripped off either. If the jerky is good you did fine. Just ask more questions next year when placing the order.

Sounds as though they may have missed something when you picked up your order. The price seems a little high, but I know how much you can spend on Jerky and snack sticks so it may be o'kay. I chop my own steaks and stew meat packs, but I take all the burger/scrap meat to the butcher for jerky and snack sticks and I can easily spend over $75 for this service. But the jerky/snack sticks are so good I don't care. Family that say they hate venison seem to like the items I get from the butcher and can't believe they've eaten venison. So spending a few bucks on a good job is worth it. Give a call and find out what happened with the other meat, but keep in mind jerky takes quite abit of meat to produce, so maybe it was just a misunderstanding.

Good luck.

The jerky amount is the reason for the lack of steaks and chops, as well as the high cost. Whole muscle meat jerky comes from the rear hams (steaks/roasts) and backstraps (chops). So when you ask for 20 lbs of finished jerky, your asking your butcher to pull approx. 40lbs of boneless meat. The grind will be the rest of the deer and even a large deer will not amount to a huge amount of straight deer meat. Like mentioned hanging weight will equate to 50-60% of boned meat, if hide/head/legs are left on then 40% range. So if you had an average deer hang weight of 100lbs you should expect 50-60lbs of pure meat return. Also dependant on the shot damage/location/etc. All in all I would say you got what you brought, just the butcher could not make 20lbs jerky without removing the steaks/chops portions.

NEVER LEAVE YOUR TLOINS IN A FIELD DRESSED ANIMAL!! First of they are small to begin with, they skin over and dry very quickly. The second reason is most butcher saw and section which will leave the tloins cut and often they will end up in the grind to being split and small. A Tloin will not get tender with age so their is absolutely no reason to keep it in once the guts are removed, removal is very easy and you'll always be assured you can enjoy these little tasty devils!!

Butchering yourself isn't that hard....really all that is required is willingness, sharp knives, butcher wrap (brown) and some spare hand don't hurt. Remember when butchering their will always be a grind pile, so missed chucks are not lost or wasted it just means you have a bit more sausage or burger! As time goes on you will only get better and you will be 100% assured you got what you brought! For a small fee most butcher will grind large portions, but a hand grinder, small electric or attachment for your kitchen aide will all work for a few deer/year operation. A electric Dehydrator will also work fine for whole muscle meat jerky or even grind in small portions. If you really want to get fancy small smokers can be had pretty reasonable these days that operate on propane. It is a very rewarding, enjoyable experience and I know those who you feed your meat to will never complain...as a self butcher you can take the time to trim choice cuts and get the best quality that a meat locker simply can not afford to do.

My gosh, have you ever made your own jerky, you might change your mind. You know how time intensive it is to make 1lb of jerkey. Most people I know charges 4 to 5 dollars extra/pound of jerkey plus 45 dollar charge for basic butchering. So 20 lbs is like 50 or so pounds wet. A 150lb deer will yeild 50lbs to 65lbs of good meat to do jerky. Of course people can get more but I don't know any butcher that takes the special time an care to get this extra 10lbs of meat.

I think many are missing the point. He didn't just order jerky and burger. He ordered several choice cuts. Now, it may take a lot of meat to make 20 lbs of jerky, but the butcher should have caught this and at least let him know that the amount of meat he brought in wouldn't give 20 lbs of jerky plus the choice cuts plus the burger. He got ripped off. He may have received all the meat, sure...but not what he ordered and if the butcher couldn't give him what he ordered then he should have told him and either made a possible alternative suggestion or else simply told him that he was going to have to use it all in order to get 20 lbs of jerky. Now...I do all mine myself with whoever I'm hunting with. It is easy and fast, and the best part is that you know you are getting your deer back. A butcher may give you the right weight, but it might not be the exact deer you harvested, which might also mean you receive meat that was poorly handled in the field. Would you like to handle a deer with utmost care and then get a deer that was poorly handled in return? If you do it yourself, you can insure that your deer doesn't sit in warm weather too long or wasn't tainted in any way. It is hard to ruin meat, I know, but it can happen. I'd rather not take the chance of a butcher just giving me a bunch of meat from his freezer that may or may not have been dressed and hauled out correctly.

It costs $40-$50 in SC to process a deer. Sausage is an additonal $.50-$.60 cents per pound. I have cleaned many deer the old fashioned way but no longer have the desire to do it myself. The pleasure is in the hunt and the kill. My days of cleaning one myself are over. It is well worth fifty bucks to process the deer. There are several very reputable processors around here that do an excellent job. Find a good processor and stick with them.

I paid $60 for my deer. The place I go to charge $60 (skinning included) no matter what the weight of the deer is. This is basic cuts - steaks, chops and burger. I got 43 lbs. of meat including 8 large packages of steaks. Now, if you want sausage, bologna, 'beef' sticks or jerky then the price goes up. I'm not sure what they charge for that but I do know that they require X amount of meat to make the jerky - a minimum per se.
For a small deer their price is a little high, so then you gotta make sure you shoot a bigger deer For a large deer it is a bargain. I've been very happy with the processing - the meat is terrific, not gamey at all.
I would like to process my own but I will definitely have to see it done by someone else first. Plus, I have to gather the equipment...

I can't tell you if you got cheated or not, but to me it seems a bit high....

WalMart has something called the do all buck buster.

Its not very much and has a CD that shows you how to do your own deer.

Good Luck

jrbsr