Who does their own butchering and who drops them off for processing. If you have them processed how much does it cost? I do my own but I think I'm the exception.

With a sharp knife :D

OK, couldn't resist.

Mostly do my own stuff, except for a really big hog, and for those critters I want made into dried sausage.

Couldn't quote you prices as I don't have the dried sausage made all that often. Maybe once a year.

Backstraps can be eaten as-is, same with tenderloins. Usually grilled. Shoulders are for grinding, same for any neck/rib/belly meat, and scraps.

Hams... either bone them out and make several small roasts, or slice the bigger pieces for jerky. Pig hams sometimes cured - surprisingly easy to do at home.

Deer + hogs = sausage, usually links.

That's it.

I must admit hogs are awful.
We do our own and make our own sausage and cheriso.
We bone out all meat and my wife uses the bones to make stock - this make the house smell very nice.
Is it just us or do you invariably find yourself gring meat at 10:00 pm?

I butcher my own deer. If we had hogs I'd butcher them to. I know what I'm getting when I do it myself. Had a few too many "surprises" when people give me their "professionally" processed venison. Bandsaw butchers are the worst!:eek:

I do all my own... I paid to have it done once, $150 for a doe, all I got was some sausage, jerky, and pepperoni sticks. A smoker and a grinder for under $100... I do use commercial seasonings, but they are very tasty and inexpensive. I've made mostly jerky in the past, but I made some fantastic summer sausage this year and I ordered up the stuff to make pepperoni sticks from Cabelas. I bought one of those motorized cookie makers at a garage sale for $2, the one from Cabelas was $90.

I like MikeG's answer, I'm still chuckling. I've been doing my own processing for lots of years, but as I got older I have been taking it to a friend whom runs a small game processing business. Most of mine is made into jerky for the kids and the rest into berger and steaks.

Maybe I'm not the exception. Several years ago we took a load of steers to the butcher at about the end of deer season and he had like three 4x5 pallets draped with deer hides and they were each in the 4' high range.
Anyhow I crossed paths with a nice fat doe last friday, cut the tenderloins into steaks and canned the rest. 28 quarts of meat off that deer. I don't know how much fat we trimmed and tossed but It reminded me of butchering the fatted calf. I know that there is nothing like canned venison over pancakes.

If it is a zip-loc deer I do it myself. That is one that I don't need burger or special cuts or cube steak. Did my last one that way. Roasts steaks and stew beef. I skin and dress the rest before dropping off at the processor for cut and wrap. That gets me down to 45 bucks.

I guess I am having to adjust my avatar. Too big.

I think I got it now.

Great poll question.

If all I want is ground venison and backstraps I'll do it myself. I do take a deer or two to the processor every year for some of his bratwurst and smoked sausage though. I pay by the pound for this stuff with it usually being right around $75. A little more expensive if I didn't gut the deer.

I like to do my own when I can. I shot my doe on 2 Oct this year and it was too hot to let it hang. (No cooler). So I had it done by a guy who does it on the side. I just had him bone it out and I did the rest. Turned out great. Thats the problem with early bow season its too hot to let em hang for a couple of days. I nosed around some of the antique stores last year and found an old cast iron sausage press in mint condition, a couple of big bone saws, and a grinder all for under a $100. Its paid for it self. God bless the internet for sausage recipes and "how toos". Trying to figure out how to jerry rig an old refridgerator into a meat cooler to hang deer sides. Any suggestions or other home made rigs would be great.

I kept an old frig. for years thinking I would do that and never did. The idea is to knock out the freezer section and put a closet clothes hanging rod through the top of the thing. Squirt silicon in around the hole and crank it up. You put a bucket in the bottom to catch the blood and drippings as it ages. I think the fire ants would take it over pretty quick around here and you would have a big mess.

Bone out and breakfast sausage. Thats the only way I can get my family to eat it. I'm gonna try to smuggle in some burger. If I don/t post for awhile, you'll know I got caught.:)

I only freeze the tenderloin and ribeye steaks and bone out, cube and can the rest of the deer. We use a lot for chili or heat up a jar with noodles for a quick meal. When canning we brown the pieces in the skillet first, then pack in jars, add 1/2 tsp. salt and process in the pressure canner. Saves freezer space and no worry about freezer burn or spoilage.

I'm picking up some good ideas... RDKNG your family won't know what hit them, the tastiest burger you've ever had... I throw a little grated parmesan cheese, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, peppercorn, 1 egg and 5 crackers and I can't keep my friends away from them.

I like the suggestion about canning. I have a pressure canner and put up a bunch of stuff out of the garden back when I had time for it.

I bet it would be good to cook up a huge stock pot of chili (sans beans) and put it up in quart jars and then you could eat it as is or add beans.

I'm gonna have to get up off my butt and go shoot a deer.

Maybe I'm not the exception. Several years ago we took a load of steers to the butcher at about the end of deer season and he had like three 4x5 pallets draped with deer hides and they were each in the 4' high range.
Anyhow I crossed paths with a nice fat doe last friday, cut the tenderloins into steaks and canned the rest. 28 quarts of meat off that deer. I don't know how much fat we trimmed and tossed but It reminded me of butchering the fatted calf. I know that there is nothing like canned venison over pancakes.
I butcher my own too and after I've boned the hind quarters and put them in ham bags for cooking on the spit, I fillet the backstraps into boneless medallions, and then I bone the rest of the deer and take it to a guy who makes baloney. About every other year I can everything except the hindquarters and back straps. I think it is becoming one of my favorite ways to eat deer. I never tried them on pancakes though! What is your canning process and cooking process when you open up the can?
The procees I do we call cold packing. I fill the jars with uncooked meat, add some salt if desired and put in the pressure canner for 90 minutes. Hmm! this is making me hungery and I haven't shot a deer yet this year!:D

Hmm! this is making me hungery and I haven't shot a deer yet this year!:D
Do we still have deer in PA? :D

Jb, there are not as many but there are still deer in pa. From what I've found predator counts are up.
This morning I had some fresh snow to track with. I have only a buck tag left so when they headed into a large autum olive / multiflower rose mix I left them go. Was not any decent deer in the bunch anyways. I was more looking for coyote sign anyhow.

As for cooking methods, 15 pounds pressure for 55 minutes is what mom has in her book for processing meat. After canned its stored at room temperature until open, after that its refridgerated. Once opened it only needs warmed up. Last night I had some mixed in with shells and cheese, that was good. Basically it comes out like you left it in a crock pot for several hours stewing. Sometimes I take the fat off the top and fry some home fries in it, after the taters cook mostly, add green beans and a can of meat. Once uniformly warm, dinners up. It takes no more than 20 minutes start to finish. Eat up.

It makes me fell like a man and I can stand back and pound my chest and bark at the moon after processing my own deer & elk, but sometimes it is all so tedious. I do as much of my own processing as I can. By the end of the season though I am completely wore out. Here in NE Montana we can buy 6 over the counter whitetail doe tags. So this year I shot 7 deer. After processing the 4th one myself I gave in and took the last 3 does to a butcher to do burger and summer sausage. He charged me 40 a deer with all vaccume sealed packages. I wish I had a better setup at home with more room to lay some quarters out for cutting up. Well maybe when I grow up I'll get a bigger house, no probably not.

After I'm done butchering I'll take the chunks of fat and put them in an onion sack and hang it in a tree for the birds. Chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, you name it they feast too. Have to hang it high enough so the dogs don't jump up and run off with it.

JB12string, I got to ask is that the mighty Susquehanna your on?

Yup, north of liverpool by the looks of the terrain.

Antelope and deer are running $100 here, and elk are now $200 or higher. I cut up my first deer in a very long time this fall, a big fat muley. I hate cutting up meat, but I sure got some good quality burger and steaks from doing it myself. Seriously thinking of getting one of those walk-in coolers and all the proper knives and grinders to take all the uncertainty out of it. The uncertainty being, am I getting my own meat, and is the processor saving some for him and and his friends?

It's all me. From steaks to jerkey to snack sticks.

Mostly Jerkey, with Snack Sticks and prime cut medallions & steaks following.

I'm going to pick one up my son shot last weekend. We skinned and dressed it and they will make 10#s of breakfast sausage and do some parts into cube steak with the loins whole and the rest in burger. That will be 45 bucks and was well worth it that day. It will have to go to my inlaws because my little freezer is full.

I will make sausage balls for the holidays today. No one will know it is deer. No one will ask and no one will care. They will go on and on about how good they are and I will just say thank you and smile.

After taking out any animal, I gut and skin the animal as fast as I can, to keep the meat sweet. I cut all the way up the neck, to remove the windpipe.

I am careful around the bladder and rectum not to get anything on the meat. I spit the pelvis, for best cleaning.

I keep the meat off the ground at all times.

While skinning, I keep a large container of fine ground pepper handy. I keep peppering as I skin. This keeps the flies off, on account about a million of the show up about the time I start. For some reason, the flies will not land on a peppered surface.

After the animal is skinned, I spray the meat down good with olive oil spray. This keeps the strange "second skin" from ruining the outer layer. This really preserves the meat.

I carry an ice chest full of frozen one gallon jugs, solid ice. I place these around the meat, and wrap the whole thing in fresh washed canvas, for transportation.

I cut the meat mostly into roasts. Wild game is not so fat marbled, and tastes too dry to me, so when I roast it, I ever pack the meat in split apples, and spice to taste. Pieces to small for roasts get cut up into stew meat. Only the back strap gets cut into steaks. The ribs I save for barbecue.

Cool it fast is important. If you did everything right, you will have better meat than you can ever buy.

I salt and stretch the skin with nails on the barn wall. Tanning is another story.

I take mine to a local packing house that does really good work. They charge $5 to skin the deer and $5 to gut it. (that is worth $10 to me) Processing is 85 cents a pound. They age the deer before butchering and tenderize all the steaks. I have mine cut into steaks and ground meat. My mother refuses to eat deer meat but has been eating it for a couple of years and doesn't know it. As for seasoning, I need to send mattsbox99 some Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning for his deer burgers. Tony's would make a sawdust casserole taste good.

As for seasoning, I need to send mattsbox99 some Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning for his deer burgers. Tony's would make a sawdust casserole taste good.


You are very right! I use that stuff in practically everything.

I hunt in warm weather a lot (SC season opens in Aug) and the key is certainly double quick to the cooler. I use a commercial processer that hangs the deer in his cooler for about a week then cuts it to order, usually ground, cube and roast (loins and backstrap). Skinning and gutting is $25 and processing is $40 but I skin and gut my own. He has an excellent place for doing it, with fans to keep flies and yellow jackets at bay. They also make sausage too but I do not care for it.

We eat ground venison a lot, in almost everything but burgers. I don't mind it in burgers but family does not, however they will eat almost every ground beef dish with venison. We cook the cubed on the grill, in the oven and fried with onion gravy, my favorite. Usually marinade loins in Italian dressing, wrap in bacon and grill to medium rare. We'll eat 3-4 deer per year but they are small here, probably average 35-45 pds of boneless meat per kill.

That is the skinny for around here, just like O'Connersun said. I alway field dress immediately if not sooner. Hide comes off too if I can hang it to do it. Then to the processor, but mine have all gone to 45 bucks for hang cut and wrap.

I do my own butchering. Had too many bad experiences getting gamey meat back when using commerical processors. Most grind batches of burger together and split among customers by weight... all it takes is one rank animal to screw up the whole batch.

I pick my shot placement, within seconds after dropping the animal is field dressed and as soon as possibile the hide is off. If it's below 40 degrees I let hang for a couple days in the shed. If it's warm, the animal is quartered, bagged over ice in chests. It's then deboned, trimmed and worked up right away. The back straps and tenders are steak. The rear quarters are roasts and steak. Front shoulders usually jerky with scraps and neck meat are stew or ground for burger and sausage. What's left over is packaged and frozen for dog scraps.... Turbo has to eat too...:D

I'd like to get the stuff to do canning. Haven't done it before but sounds like a good way to go.