BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[buzzbomb]

I like to hang mine head down (in halves or quarters) in my friend's garage for 3-4-5 days depending on the size of the deer and the ambient temp. By Nov. it's cold enough in Saskatchewan. I butcher them on a table, wrap in butcher paper and put it in the freezer. I usually make about 80 lbs of sausage with 2 deer and eat the rest as steak, roasts, kebabs, jerky, ground round, etc. The last few years I started to make pate if I shoot a young one as liver and onions gets boring after a couple of feeds. I bought a commercial saw, (Biro model 11) last year but don't have it set up yet so I do it all with a saw, cleaver and a good set of knives. I like to cool the chest cavity quickly by propping it open while I go get my car, and then skinning it as soon as i get it home and washing it off well with water and a clean towel. The most common comment I recieve is that my deer meat does not taste a bit gamey so I don't think I'm going to change anything. I've been doing it the same way for 36 years now so I'm not sure I could anyway! :lol:

[Thibodeau]

bdvictor wrote: Kentucky F&W has updated their deer processing show and now have it available on DVD. It's an hour long and covers everything from field dressing/gutting, skinning, deboning and meat processing. The video is produced by the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife and is available online at www.fw.ky.gov

http://fw.ky.gov/video/dvdspec.....h=C105C191


An hour does'nt seem to long for this type of video. Have you seen it? is it worth buying? Does it leave you will more questions than answers after seeing it? ::-k

[Old Professor]

I have been butchering both deer and bear for myself and others for nearly forty years. I had a good introduction to butchering through a butchering course offered by Community Schools. Over the years my techniques have evolved. My son-in-law and I are now operating a small scale butchering service. We have electric hoists to hang deer and bear for skinning and butchering (in a garage with fourteen foot celing). We hang most deer head down if they are still warm as they skin easily. For a cold deer, we hang by the head and use the hoist to pull the hide off, then hang head down. We remove the front shoulders while they are hanging and usually remove the back straps and inner loins as well. The carcass is then moved to a wooden butchering block for further break down. Since we are not far from Wisconsin and even though CWD has not showed up in Michigan, we bone out all meat and use a saw as little as possible. If we are both working, I am usually boning out the front shoulders for stew or grind and trimming off fat and connective tissue on a seperate table.
We use a vacuum sealer to package meat. We have found that this prevents freezer burn. We have a commercial grinder and grind meat for our clients, packaging it in plastic tube bags. We only make sausage for our own use.
Auctions and going-out-of-business sales are good places to buy commercial butchering equipment. Working alone, it takes me four to four and a half hours to skin and process a deer, including grinding. I enjoy working with meat and I know the meat is treated properly.

[Hiker]

Old Professor, Thanks for your imput and Welcome to BGH! :D

[ganny76]

I always butcher my own deer. I usually kill it and then go straight to the hanger. I have never field dressed my deer. Ofcourse I usually only have a 2 mile drive to the hanger. I did not understand in the original story why you would want to cut the deer down the middle. I have never done this. I always, skin, gut, quarter, get the backstrap and then the loins. I dont keep the ribs or the neck. After this I place in plastic bags and stick in iced down cooler. The meat will usually stay in there for 3-4 days.(until I get home) I then bone out all the meat. I cube most and grind the rest. I have never had any problems at all with the meat. I also use a vacuum sealer.

[thenail]

We have always left the gut pile for the crows and bald eagle . then straight home to remove the hide so the meat will cool as quick as possibable . I always take the heart and liver with me , the birds don't get that . Then we bone out the front half for burger and the the rest is boned and sliced to fyr or what ever way we want it cooked . This year we will have a good meat grinder so we don't have to take it to the butcher to make our burger .

[Makwa]

For me the story is pretty much the same as the Old Professor, except that I worked at a fully licenced abittoir for 4 years. Monday was kill day and the rest of the week we did custom and commercial cutting, except every other Thursday, which was sausage day. I also did a stint at retail cutting with a large grocery chain in a rural northern town. Besides doing thousands of beef, hogs and lamb, we did lots of bison, game farmed elk, deer and wild boar.....even some ostriches and emus. Then during hunting season we cut wild game at the end of the day after the inspected animals.

I now have a small meat cutting facility on my ranch with a walk in cooler, commercial bandsaw, grinder and sausage stuffer. Have an electric hoist system like the Old Professor (sure saves the back) and it is 12 feet high so that I can handle beef, elk and moose.

I also completely bone game meat and do not use a saw on it. All you need is a sharp boning knife, a larger knife for cutting steaks and some string if you want to tie some roasts. :thumbsup1:

[thenail]

Unfortunately we don't have our own butcher shop . Both my friend and i were meat cutters so if we had the fancy gear we would be a sice business to . We are talking dressing deer for the poor man .Or the do it yourselfer . Not taking it to the butcher

[Makwa]

So sorry if that sounded snobbish. It was not meant that way...........in the end what I was trying to pass on is, all you need to do game is a good sharp boning knife. You don't need the "fancy equipment' as you put it.

As for the fancy equipment, well I am just an average guy to, but I managed to put it together over time. My wife and I raise our own beef, pork and lamb, so I either had to get things organized to do it myself or go and pay someone else to do what I know how to do.......and that irks me. So I made it happen.

Now that I have it other people who raise their own bring it to me to hang and cut and wrap, as do local hunters. Now my equipment has all more than paid for itself and I am running free. :yes:

[thenail]

Sorry if i sounded that way to but I would feel that some one might want to learn to do their own game . I can understand what you mean . The way u started your own business . There is lots of hunters that would like to be able to cut up their own meat to avoid the cost of having some one else charge them to do it . That's how I do mine I bone it all out and cube the burger and slice the better cuts for frying or BBQ . We still have to take it to the butcher to have the burger made . We will have our own good quality grinder for next season for sure . Then we have everything done free . The grinder won't be long paying for it self in what we had to pay to have our deer and bears done up My appologies

[redrider]

I cut up my own deer this year for the first time and found it was alot easier than I had anticipated. I'll probably never need a butcher again. Had a buddy give me a video that really helped.
Field to the Freezer by T & M Outdoors
http://huntersvideos.com/gameprocessing.html

[thenail]

For someone to just take a deer and try to do their own butchering It wouuld be a real challenge . Redrider , You took the right steps with the video .Once you see it beind odne it is really pretty simple . I've doing my own deer and bear for a number of years now . As I mentioned in another post that we are going to have our own grinder and a good one . This will eliminate the butcher completely . Congrats on butchering your own deer Way to go to save money as we spoke about in another post . :thumbsup1: :thumbsup1:

[Old Professor]

I would like to emphasise that good butchering equipment can be found for very low prices if you watch auctions, yard sales and going out of business sales. I only paid $25 for a heavy duty commercial grinder from a grocery that went out of business and $40 for a commercial slicer ar a yard sale(a cheap counter top slicer sold for over $100 at the same sale but no one wanted the larger slicer but me). My first electric hoist cost under $100 at a traveling tool sale.
If you want good instruction on butchering, ask your local community schools to offer a butchering class. Ours was taught by the butcher at a local grocery store. Since so many of use were interested in butchering deer, he got a goat to show us how to cut it up, since goats and deer are quite similar.

[Makwa]

That is very true. I managed to pyt my walk in cooler together for $600. I bought a used compressor and fan for $300 and then found a 6x10 commercial cooler unit (walls, ceiling and doors....but no compressor unit) at an auction for $300. I purchased a commercial bandsaw that will handle breaking quarters of beef for $400. The deals are out there, you just have to look.

My electric winch system for the hoist was only $160 dollars and will handle 1400 pounds.

[thenail]

I geared up a boat wench to hoist up game . It's not electric but it is better than pulling on a roap . I also have hooks handy the floor of the barn to hook visegrip wide mouth clamps to . Then when I start skinning animals and get them skinned past the hind quarters I hook the clamps to the skin and then crank the wench tight and start cutting the fiber with a knife then tighten up some more . This contraption saves the pulling on the arms . Makes my life much easier . A must for doing those friggin coyotes