So, how many of you cut your own meat and how many take it to the butcher and have it done for them? And WHY?

Process my own here, got real tired of the quality of some of the shops around here, and this way I ensure that I get all of my deer back. Have a grinder, slicer and Vacuum sealer. I make my own jerky and my neighbor makes the sausage. Saves me about $125-145 each time I do it myself. :rockon:

do my own also. That way I get my way... And its cheaper plus I know that I'll actually get my deer back..

I do my own less expensive and alot cleaner. I had a place give me a pound of jerky once, they said I should try it. Somebody was missing a bunch of meat. That is what made me decide to do my own deer. And it only gets easier and faster easc time we do it.

I do my own. It's not that hard and gets easier the more you do. The money you save on the first two deer will pay for the equipment and the rest is just money in your pocket

I do steaks, roasts, and burger myself. The neck, rib meat, etc... I have made into jalapeno and cheese, and regular summer sausage. :hungry: The local shop does nice work, the prices are reasonable and I usually take mine in before the gun seasons. Last year I went in to pick up some finished stuff on the sunday of the first shotgun weekend, one group of hunters had 7 deer on a trailer. I asked when they were shot, "oh, 4 on friday and 3 on saturday"!! Not a bag of ice in sight, anyone remember how warm it was last year during the first gun season?? :puke: I would like to make the sausage myself, I just don't really know how!! Any advice???

We do it ourself mostly because: We know we're getting our own meat in the freezer and the cost can be prohibitive.

Also, around here anyway, butchers don't accept anything but clean, boned-out meat anymore. I don't know why that is but since we have to bone the stuff out anyway why not take it a step further and grind it with 20% pork butt roast for ground meat for burgers, chili, tacos, pasta sauce, etc...

We do take some of the boned out meat and bring it in for deer saesage, but it's not cheap. One of these years we'll try to make some ourselves. We collectively have all of the equipment, it's just getting the spices and casing and making the time to do it.

Ron

Start to fininsh, I do my own, I get the cuts I want and I know it is the deer I started with. I do it all, sausage, kilbasa, jerkey, we even smoked it a few times. Get a food saver for about a hundred bucks and a roll of bags, your done. it only takes about a six pack to do a deer start to finish.:D

I do steaks, roasts, and burger myself. The neck, rib meat, etc... I have made into jalapeno and cheese, and regular summer sausage. :hungry: The local shop does nice work, the prices are reasonable and I usually take mine in before the gun seasons. Last year I went in to pick up some finished stuff on the sunday of the first shotgun weekend, one group of hunters had 7 deer on a trailer. I asked when they were shot, "oh, 4 on friday and 3 on saturday"!! Not a bag of ice in sight, anyone remember how warm it was last year during the first gun season?? :puke: I would like to make the sausage myself, I just don't really know how!! Any advice???

Hi Mountain Seasonings sells kits for a very reasonable price with spices, cure, casings, hog rings/pliers and instructions. They sell different flavors and styles so you can make what you like the most.

Their WEB site is called www.himtnjerky.com. Check it out they have a lot of cool kits and processing stuff.

Ron

What kind of price do you pay to have sausage made at your local shop?? The place I use is like $2.25 lb. for regular summer sausage and $2.75 lb. for jalapeno and cheese. Price is determined on finished weight, I think its mixed like 60:40(deer/pork). Is that reasonable??

Hi Mountain Seasonings sells kits for a very reasonable price with spices, cure, casings, hog rings/pliers and instructions. They sell different flavors and styles so you can make what you like the most.

Their WEB site is called www.himtnjerky.com. Check it out they have a lot of cool kits and processing stuff.

Ron

Try these people also: www.eldonsausage.com

Good thread W
i take mine to tha meat man.
He is honest and vacunm seals it
For convience and because tha Bee don't want tha mess fer I really delighted in doin
it myself fer years.
It cost me $55 and this includes gittin' breakfeat sauage made.
CHOMP

What kind of price do you pay to have sausage made at your local shop?? The place I use is like $2.25 lb. for regular summer sausage and $2.75 lb. for jalapeno and cheese. Price is determined on finished weight, I think its mixed like 60:40(deer/pork). Is that reasonable??

For a 3 pound finished roll were about $8.00 for regular summer sausage and $9 for jalapeno cheese so we're about the same...
For sausage I believe our local meat locker uses 70% deer/30% pork and I think you can sub beef suet for the pork for a lesser charge. I've never had it that way though and probably would not go that route.

Ron

I take mine to a reliable cutter, it's only $60 which includes sausage. I would love to do it myself but I have never done it, and my wife doesn't really like to see it. Shes love to eat it but can do without knowing about what happened to it. :laugh:

Process our own. We built a cooler a couple of years ago. We save a lot of money. We make burger, steaks, jerky, summer sausage, brats, and deer sticks. It took us a year or two to get the recipes and down and find the ones we like the best. It is a great feeling to know that you have done everything to the meat you're eating from harvesting to processing it.

Process our own. We built a cooler a couple of years ago. We save a lot of money. We make burger, steaks, jerky, summer sausage, brats, and deer sticks. It took us a year or two to get the recipes and down and find the ones we like the best. It is a great feeling to know that you have done everything to the meat you're eating from harvesting to processing it.

That's awsome.

One of my buddies who lives in Dubuque, IA has an attached 4 car garage with a separate door for each 'car'. Several years ago he walled the last 1 car portion off, insulated it and installed a colling system built for walk-in coolers. He and his buds only firearm hunt so their season is short, but they have like 15 guys that go out every season. They use that 1 car garage to hang their meat and do the butchering/processing. In the off-season it has a pool and card table with satellite TV, refridgerator, A/C and gas heater for a 'party/smoking/poker' room...

It's pretty slick...

Ron

Most of the guys in my huntclub take there's down the road to a shop that skins and process the whole deer, ya get it back in a couple of days in trays like in a grocery store meat dept. sausage and all,any way ya want it.
And sausage: 1 pound sausage to 2 pounds deer.
Cost: $85

To much for me,I have allways processed myself,Make sausage,Jerky,what ever way i want it.
I might some day try this butcher they use, but i dont trust ill get the same deer back!:noidea:

I cut up my own deer with one exception, if it is too warm out for the deer to "keep" until I can get to it!

Hi folks this is my first post here. I also have done my own deer for years. Last year we made a deer skinner out of a 3' solid door, a piece of angle iron and an electric wench. We could skin a deer in 15 minutes from start to finish with hardly any hair at all on the meat. I saw a contraption like this at a processing place and I knew I had to have one. Me and a buddy put this one together in a couple hours. It works great.......

Depends... if the deer is over 75 pounds I'll get it done for a few reasons...

1. I don't have anywhere around my house to do it without the dogs thinking blood is good

2. its a PITA to do it manually and time consuming. A very large PITA 1 man job.

I think it runs like 80 bucks for the local place to skin, clean, mix, grind, vac seal, label, and call me when its done. Well worth the price to me.

If the deer is getting roasted on the fire we do it our selves :)

sounds like doing your own work is the way to go? :biggrin1:

We have always done it our selves...had a couple friends that worked at a meat processing place and some of the stuff they told me made me glad we do it our selves.

I butchered my own deer for the first time last year.

Reasons:
Heck of lot cheaper to do it myself.
I'm too lazy to bring it somewhere
I know what deer I'm eating

I used to butcher my own but I just don't have the time anymore.

We have a local guy that does a great job. They have the cleanest place I have ever seen. Your deer is skinned and hung right away. It doesn't sit for days waiting to be processed. His place is called the Smokehouse.

sounds like doing your own work is the way to go? :biggrin1:

if you have the time, space and equipment it is definately the way to go... but make sure you are ready to do it as soon as you bring the animal in or have somewhere to store it!

I can remember my dad skinning many a frozen deer as they will freeze quickly once dead and cleaned and that is not a fun thing to attempt to do. Deer also go bad quickly in heat so if you live in a hot area...

Its the same as everything else really...

Its cheaper to do your own landscaping, you pay for the convience of having someone else do it if you don't want to it yourself

its cheaper to do your own tune ups and oil changes but you pay for the convience of having someone else do it...

same thing :biggrin1:

I cut and package all my own venison. Chops, loins, steaks, stew, & burger. I also make my own jerky with the Backwoods mix and a dehydrator. All raw meat gets packaged with a vacuum sealer. I've had meat last for 2 years by using that method. Saves alot of money and when I get the meat back it's not rancid. BAD experience years ago at a processor. And I get more meat from my deer than when someone cuts it up.

The biggest problem we have out here is that almost every butcher that accepts wild game throws it into the same 'bin', or whatever, with every other yahoo's meat so you're not getting YOUR deer meat back. It's mixed with whatever else anyone brings in.

We had a very warm overall hunting season last year (90 on opening day, 72 on Thanksgiving among other warm days) and I didn't feel good about bringing meat in for sausage in those conditions. Too many people think they can hang deer in 70 degree weather for 2 days. NOT !

Ron

we make our own .. we got a cooler a smoke house and a big pole barn to make it in. we usually make deer sausage/ smokies the weekend after pistol season in IL then were done

Me and my buds do all of ours, loins, steaks, roasts, but mostly burger for chilli, tacos, burgers and just about everything else we eat. Much Cheaper! easily learned hard to forget.:biggrin1:

I just had a hog processed at Lock's in Rogers Tx for $59 and that comes with tenderizing and vacuum packaging. Hell, for that price I cant afford not to do it.:rockon:

I process my own just because I'm cheap. :D

i'm a meat cutter so i cut up my own deer, but i take my trim to the locker i work part time at during deer season to make sausage or ground deer, they don't charge me anything, the owner calls it my raise for the year

To me the butchering is part of it. I practice shooting,scout,setup stands,hunt long hours,make a humane kill shot,field dress,drag to vehicle,check it in,hang it,skin it,quarter it, and cut it up,package and label it. Thats what its all about to me. Never had one processed.:peace:

I do my own, im not going to pay someone to put their dirty hands on my meat.

butcher...but after reading all that i think i may start doing my own. thats nasty..you dont know what deer your getting :scared: to even eat them now.

I do my own unless the weather or work dictates otherwise.

After getting hosed a couple times by local processors, I had a freind teach me the correct way to do it. I love to do my own now. Its very satisfying to take the animal from the woods, to the freezer. then to the table:D

JIM