Send to butcher or do it yourself?

[Predator]

Originally Posted by Hunting Man

Since 1979 I've butchered all my deer. I don't like batching by butcher's. You are never assured of who's deer you're getting.

And that bothers me the most having someone else process my deer and why I never have. you take such care in the harvest process of your deer, only to get someone elses deer that my not have been properly cared for from the time it dropped to the butchers block.

as long as I have a knife, I will always butcher my own deer.

[Predator]

Originally Posted by kemster99

i do my own hogs. unless i want some sausage made. but to just quarter, debone and cut, i do that. Now deer, that is another story. lol. Normally i just let the processor take care of them. costs me $70.00 a deer. They will gut , skin, cut , wrap and freeze.

You dont field dress at the drop site?

[kemster99]

Originally Posted by Predator

You dont field dress at the drop site?

hogs i do. deer i don't. i don't gut shoot and the processor is only 5 miles down the road. shoot em, load em up and take to the processor.

[on_the_fly]

I've always done my own too. But if I had the extra cash I would had probably took a few of mine to a butcher only because of time. It REALY don't take long to cut one up, but my family (besides me) don't like deer steaks. So all my deer are roast, back straps, n grind up the rest. N I make breakfast sasuage and jerky out of some of my ground up meat. The timely part for me is the grinding. I always double grind I think the burger comes out much nice'er.

[rdrader2002]

Last year I found a processor who claimed that he individually processed each deer as it came in. In previous years, I'd always gone to another processing place in town. Really couldn't tell that much of a difference between the two.

Would love to process the deer, but the weather here (Central Texas) is far too warm to hang deer for a day or two, and I certainly don't have the walk in cooler/freezer to do so otherwise. Have always heard it best to let the deer hang for a couple of days prior to processing.

Now I will field dress the deer up by the house. Y'all have seen the wheel barrow in all of my pictures. That's what's nice about living on 15 acres out in the middle of nowhere. My hunting spot is close enough that all I have to do after shooting them is 1) find the thing to begin with (hoping it hasn't run far) 2) drop off the rifle at the house and grab the wheel barrow 3) wheel the deer up to the house and grab the knife 4) dress and run the deer down to the processor. Whitetail deer here in Central Texas may not be as large as those in states further north, but they're still heavy enough that using a wheel barrow is a whole heck of a lot easier to get them back up to the house. Besides, the house sits on about the highest ground on the property. Everything else is downhill. Nice to have wheels when the journey back is all uphill.

[on_the_fly]

Originally Posted by rdrader2002

Would love to process the deer, but the weather here (Central Texas) is far too warm to hang deer for a day or two, and I certainly don't have the walk in cooler/freezer to do so otherwise. Have always heard it best to let the deer hang for a couple of days prior to processing.

I used to hang my deer for 5 to 7 days if weather stayed under 40 degrees. Well one year weather jumped up to low 50'sso I had to do something caz the deer had only hung for almost two days. Well talking to people and surfing the Internet I found people soking their deer in coolers some was using salt water n some just water. Well I did just water n iceand water changed every day. I can say that year everyone loved the taste of the meat so much better even my son. So ever since you'll find me soking my deer every year now for over 5 years now