Deer processors - honesty?

I'll put a vote in for butchering your own. Definitely a learning experience, but provided you have patience and a sharp knife you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Vacuum sealer is a must, and a grinder. I just use a meat grinder attachment for a kitchenaid that we have and it works just fine.

That being said, I'll still drop one a year off to the butcher if I'm pressed for time or want some specialty cuts ie bologna/jerky from places that do an outstanding job.

As far as the feeling of getting shorted, there's definitely been a difference in what I've gotten back by going to separate butchers. Some of it is how selective they are with the fat, and some of it imo is just honest mistakes of packaging and being overrun with work. Witnessed a pretty nasty spat between a processor and hunter a few years back. Hunter shot a 110lb deer with a 8mm that went thru both shoulders. Hunter refused to believe that blowing thru two shoulders would affect the total weight and it got pretty heated. At the end of the day, I wouldn't mess with the butcher because I'd venture to guess the guy could make someone disappear without a trace

_JT_ said:

I'll put a vote in for butchering your own. Definitely a learning experience, but provided you have patience and a sharp knife you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Vacuum sealer is a must, and a grinder. I just use a meat grinder attachment for a kitchenaid that we have and it works just fine.

That being said, I'll still drop one a year off to the butcher if I'm pressed for time or want some specialty cuts ie bologna/jerky from places that do an outstanding job.

As far as the feeling of getting shorted, there's definitely been a difference in what I've gotten back by going to separate butchers. Some of it is how selective they are with the fat, and some of it imo is just honest mistakes of packaging and being overrun with work. Witnessed a pretty nasty spat between a processor and hunter a few years back. Hunter shot a 110lb deer with a 8mm that went thru both shoulders. Hunter refused to believe that blowing thru two shoulders would affect the total weight and it got pretty heated. At the end of the day, I wouldn't mess with the butcher because I'd venture to guess the guy could make someone disappear without a trace

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Yeah, both shoulders blown out can REALLY reduce the meat amount you get out of the deer. A butcher shop no longer around due to the owner retiring, had these slaughter house pros who did the skinning, and 1 night I hung out with them. They hated the owner and were joking about having him hung up there to skin out. The owner WAS a jerk, he sexually harassed me a couple times.

steves1911 said:

Generally i get 40-50% of dressed weight in meat. Some deer will have enough meat on ribs to process sometimes not. I really take my time to get as much meat as possible and it can get pretty tedious to process the shanks but the reward is worth it.

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If you are getting 40-50% out of your deer, you are doing a damn fine job of it.

roady said:

MeatGrinder,

Can you share some of your experience on how you process your deer. I like the OP do a little deer hunting with my daughter and when we are lucky enough to bag a deer we usually go the processor route. I am not sure how to do it correctly and probably dont have everything needed to do it myself yet but would be willing to learn and try out one day.

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Apologies for the delay. This was a trendy topic!

The main thing to remember is that it is your deer and you have the freedom to do what you think best. You don't have to mimic some book or video. I guarantee all of us do things slightly different and have different opinions and that is fine.

After gutting it in the field, I hang and quarter it. They skin much easier when warm, but still easy when cold. I cut the loins from near the spine by taking a sharp knife and working it tightly along the spine, then start pulling and freeing it with the knife. I get the tender loin from inside the body cavity, near the kidneys, and free it with a knife. It is very tender and sort of stick of butter sized.

If it looks clean, I cut the thin flank muscle below the rib for burger and toss it in a garbage bag to keep things clean. Freeing the the front quarters is easy. All you need is a knife. Just pull the leg up and start cutting it free. This is to be burger too. (It always seems funny that there is not a bone to bone connection here.)

One of my tricks is to use lopping shears (such as for pruning) to cut the leg bones off and to cut the spine above the back quarters. I also use it to cut the two back quarters apart, although a saw functions too.

I use standard white kitchen garbage bags to put the quarters in. Once quartered, you can fit a deer into your refrigerator on a shelf, or remove the drawers and it will fit there.

Some evening, then, I sit down and start cutting. I have a boning knife that works just right for me. On the hind quarters all I do is dissect out the major muscles and define each as a roast. You get 3 or 4 per quarter. Find a seam and get it started with the knife and then force your fingers in and work the muscles loose. The rest I trim and call it to be ground for burger. If it just looks too nice to grind up, I cube it and call it stew meat.

We do not usually use a vacuum sealer. My trick is to rinse the meat and while it is still wet, we wrap with Saran and then put it in a labeled baggie for the freezer. Air is not your friend and the point is to ensure that there is no air contacting the meat.

My wife is anal about weighing each package of ground meat so that they are all uniformly one pound. We wrap those in saran also.

When we cut for burger, I am picky about trimming away every bit of fat I see. I assume its healthier that way. Tastes better too.

I use to use a Kitchen Aid mixer with a grinder attachment, but found it too slow. The opening was small and limiting. We have an electric grinder now.

I am up for discussing this more if you like. Like I said, its your deer, feel the freedom to cut it your way.

I saw an interesting video on youtube, which I am sure some of you have seen. It was a British guy who said he did it more like you would butcher a Lamb. Instead of the Tenderloins most of us are used to, he made them into thick chops by using some of the rib bone. While I am not sold on that part he seemed to have a really good way of butchering where he had pretty much everything down to the bone and seemed to get a good variety of cuts. If I think about it when I get home, I will put a link to the video.

I recently got my first deer and my buddies showed me how they process it and while it worked and it didnt cost me anything and I learned somethings, I don't feel it was all that efficient. Not sure how it would compare to a butcher. I found the video showed some good ways to really breakdown the quarters with some thought. Not just trim what you can get off here and it goes in the ground pile.

hi3cho said:

I saw an interesting video on youtube, which I am sure some of you have seen. It was a British guy who said he did it more like you would butcher a Lamb. Instead of the Tenderloins most of us are used to, he made them into thick chops by using some of the rib bone. While I am not sold on that part he seemed to have a really good way of butchering where he had pretty much everything down to the bone and seemed to get a good variety of cuts. If I think about it when I get home, I will put a link to the video.

I recently got my first deer and my buddies showed me how they process it and while it worked and it didnt cost me anything and I learned somethings, I don't feel it was all that efficient. Not sure how it would compare to a butcher. I found the video showed some good ways to really breakdown the quarters with some thought. Not just trim what you can get off here and it goes in the ground pile.

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I can testify, chops done this way are fantastic. The bone conducts heat and sears the meat perfectly. Like deer porterhouse steaks.

If you ask, your processor can do this.

hi3cho said:

I saw an interesting video on youtube, which I am sure some of you have seen. It was a British guy who said he did it more like you would butcher a Lamb. Instead of the Tenderloins most of us are used to, he made them into thick chops by using some of the rib bone. While I am not sold on that part he seemed to have a really good way of butchering where he had pretty much everything down to the bone and seemed to get a good variety of cuts. If I think about it when I get home, I will put a link to the video.

I recently got my first deer and my buddies showed me how they process it and while it worked and it didnt cost me anything and I learned somethings, I don't feel it was all that efficient. Not sure how it would compare to a butcher. I found the video showed some good ways to really breakdown the quarters with some thought. Not just trim what you can get off here and it goes in the ground pile.

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Scott Rea. Post #14 and Post #20 in this thread mention him. Post #14 has links to some of his vids.

danb said:

I can testify, chops done this way are fantastic. The bone conducts heat and sears the meat perfectly. Like deer porterhouse steaks.

If you ask, your processor can do this.

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^^^Second this. I used to do this a lot. Now I prefer to grill them ala filet mignon style with a fat strip of bacon wrapped around a 3'' thick chop(boneless) cooked med-rare.

I was fortunate to actually get a deer this year. I used the mail truck as my weapon of choice.

We processed it ourselves and although this was the first time it was not that hard. We cut up the roast, took the backstraps out and then the rest went to stew meat and ground the rest. I got 10lbs of fatty ground beef and 2 lbs of ground sasuage and came out with like 30lbs of ground meat. No one even knows its deer.

Im sure you can get prime cuts as you get more experience but even for a novice like me it wasnt that hard to get meat in a useable format.

I might give this a try since I got some room in the garage and the wife does not go out there anyway. Is there a good source for meat processing equipment, thinking of a good vacuum sealer. I got my mother's old meat grinder around the house. It is one of those old antique jobs, but very solidly built with the big hand turned lever.

54rndball said:

I might give this a try since I got some room in the garage and the wife does not go out there anyway. Is there a good source for meat processing equipment, thinking of a good vacuum sealer. I got my mother's old meat grinder around the house. It is one of those old antique jobs, but very solidly built with the big hand turned lever.

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I use cabelas processing "tools". I'm satisfied with them. 1 hp grinder, slicer, and vacuum sealer. The grinder is a beast, it seems like you could drop the deer in there whole.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...slicers/_/N-1101294/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104577480

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...rinders/_/N-1101293/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104364180

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...sealers/_/N-1101302/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104668380

ChrisD said:

I use cabelas processing "tools". I'm satisfied with them. 1 hp grinder, slicer, and vacuum sealer. The grinder is a beast, it seems like you could drop the deer in there whole.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...slicers/_/N-1101294/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104577480

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...rinders/_/N-1101293/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104364180

http://www.cabelas.com/product/home...sealers/_/N-1101302/Ns-CATEGORY_SEQ_104668380

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how good does the slicer work for you? I was thinking of getting one.

wilcam47 said:

how good does the slicer work for you? I was thinking of getting one.

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I was impressed with it for the little bit that it cost. They are frequently marked down to a sale price. I've only done two deer since buying it, but no problems. I separate the muscle then cut it into pieces that will fit on the slicer table. Then get them half frozen before slicing. I like to slice the meat very thin, for making steak subs. It will slice all the way down to the end of the meat, very little "wasted end". Clean up is a snap. For a lower end slicer, it is way better than the last one I had. I only use it a few times a year, so I would think it will last me for a while.

sxs said:

FYI, I was once a meat cutter....worked my way through college doing that. However, my former and current wives don't like seeing the deer in it's skin....so I have used processors for a number of years. Also, used some guys on the Eastern Shore. Listman's and the Eastern Shore processors used cold walk-in boxes, and on the Shore that was a particularly good deal since our weather isn't always that cold and I didn't want to run home just to process my deer. It is different when you hunt near your home or just a day at a time here or there as I did many years ago when I had little or no paid vacation and couldn't easily afford processing fees.

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Perhaps this is your problem...

I heard about a processor who recently had problems with his son (hearsay on hold for now) but definite problems, many upset customers missing entire deer! I forget but it had a two word name maybe? And possibly drugs involved. But entire deer being "owed". This comes from someone which I most definitely believe all his hunting stories!!, I've been lucky enough to be involved in some.

What are some average times you guys see as far as turn around for processing? My normal processor is done for the season so I went to another processor. Was curious about various processing times everyone sees.

A week normally, perhaps a little more during the busy times (gun season). This is good.. means my deer has hung and aged for at least several days and will be nice and tender when I get it!

10 days.

Like these guys say, except maybe a bit longer if you put one in on opening day firearms season.