Butchers you trust with your meat in western Canada

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Bustercluck

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Fort McMurray
Just wondering if anyone wants to share good and bad stories about butchers in the western provinces. Some of us hunt that away from home have trusted our game with people and had good and bad experiences. Seeing as how hunting season is coming up soon it would be good to know who to trust and who to stay away from.

I'll go first.

Hunniford's just north of Prince George was very professional, all of the packaging and trimming was done well. Cervelat salami was my favourite.

Seabrook meats 5 minutes out of Boyle Alberta makes a chubb sausage that's really good. I didn't have him butcher anything for me.

I've only had one bad experience and it was with a guy that works out of his back yard in Fort Nelson. I can't remember his name, but I think he's the only one in town with a cooler to hang game. Over-charged me, did a sh#t job and it sure seemed like I didn't get all of my meat back. It seems like he treats the locals a lot better than the out-of-owners, because my brother in law went there and it looks like he put more effort into his animal than ours.
 
there is no more proud in the game you ve taken that to do it yourself or with friends ...

if a french guy with two left hands like me can do it all of you can ...
 
I have cut my own deer and elk, esp deer for years. The problem is getting time to deal with it. I'm a contractor and I have a wife and two small kids. I can barely get time to hunt, let alone quarter, cut, grind and wrap a game animal. I thought nothing of it when I was single. On the other hand I don't think out of the half a dozen game animals I've taken to a butcher that I've been happy with any of them.
Also, I had got muley buck in mid september with my bow and had to quarter him and put him in the bath to get it cooled. One day I'll have a walk in chiller with a stainless bench in it!
 
I used to bring my animals to the butcher when I lived in Quebec, there were plenty of good butchers around and at a good price. My first hunting season in Saskatchewan, I brought my deer to a butcher in Saskatoon, it was pricey and they didn't really do a good job IMO. I started doing my own butchering the year after, the initial purchase for grinder, good knives, etc is definitely not cheap but you quickly get your money out of it.

Now I am lucky, I have a large garage and shed where I can hang game and butcher at my own pace. My cuts aren't the best but its cheap and very rewarding.

Depending on your situation, doing your own butchering might be out of the question, I agree with Migrant Hunter, sometimes with work, family, etc, its hard to find time to do it. Although my wife hunts and helps out with the butchering now, she wasn't always this way. It took a while for her to understand that you can't just leave a deer hanging and expect the work to happen on itself, it takes a few hours of hard work, on top of the time you spent hunting, where your partner is alone taking care of the little ones.
 
We'll use a butcher if we get something on the last day, but before that we'll do it ourselves. With 4 guys, you can whip through a deer pretty quick. We don't grind at camp. Folks can take their share home and further process it as they see fit.

Haven't had a reason not to trust any of the butchers we've used though.
 
Last year I started to butcher for myself, with the exception of grinding and making burger and sausage, dropped off a pail at a butcher shop for anything I wanted made. Probably cut about 7 deer and 7 elk and about 5 moose last winter, save so much money doing it yourself.
 
I once dropped off a deer at a local butcher and in the loading bay was an immature moose cut in half cross ways.
It was on a pallet having just been weighed.
The only problem I could see was that the dam calf still had the hide on it.
Was dropped off like that for the butcher.
I am sure there was another side to the story when the customer told his buddies how poor a job this butcher did and how much money it cost me to have it processed.
There are three sides to every story, the butchers side... the clients (hunter) side and somewhere down the middle.
Rob
 
For the record, we dropped off the first one as we had more tags to fill and 9 more days of hunting in front of us. So yes, a butcher is handy. Were it one beastie, then I would chop it up myself for sure.
 
FLHTCUI said:
I once dropped off a deer at a local butcher and in the loading bay was an immature moose cut in half cross ways.
It was on a pallet having just been weighed.
The only problem I could see was that the dam calf still had the hide on it.
Was dropped off like that for the butcher.
I am sure there was another side to the story when the customer told his buddies how poor a job this butcher did and how much money it cost me to have it processed.
There are three sides to every story, the butchers side... the clients (hunter) side and somewhere down the middle.
Rob
Click to expand...
I'm surprised there's a butcher out there that would accept that.
 
I have experience with three and highly recommend 2 of them.

In Edmonton I had my elk cut and wrapped by Victoria Fancy sausage, also tried some of their cheddar smokies and garlic sausage.. Some of the best I've ever had! The staff there are very friendly and there's no way they are mixing up your meat with anyone else's! **This was the first time I trusted someone to cut and wrap my meat, I enjoy taking the time to do it right! But I had to rush back to work and I couldnt bring it with me for obvious reasons. They did an amazing job.

While living in Manitoba I brought my deer into Jarvis meats in Gladstone. They to are very friendly and make a nice product. Their farmer sausage and pepperonis are amazing!

I have purchased a grinder, smoker and have the sausage stuffed attachment.. I'll be trying to make my own sausage this year.
 
Coronado Meats, just North of Edmonton, if he will take you on.

I have watched him turn guys away, because the meat they brought in was dirty and looked like it needed to be pressure washed.

I always thought I got great cuts and yield from him. Was always pretty sure my meat wasn't hanging next to some swamp dragged leftovers.

He ( Armin Huber, IIRC)is a Swiss trained butcher, and can and will (would?) make fermented old-school sausages of types that are no longer allowed to be made and sold commercially.
I really miss being able to buy the hot Hungarian sausages he used to make, sorta a red hot version of a Landjeager sausage. Couldn't really justify the 25 pound minimum batch size to have them made...

Cheers
Trev
 
"aged three weeks" - yeah right . . . it ages when frozen.
"we only use pork fat in our sausage" - 30 pounds of sausage meat and it was rancid. And they charged 70 cent per pound for pork fat.
The moose was cut up when still frozen.

Another one did not have a proper freezer. They were using old deep freezers. 24 hours after being called my deer was ready the meat was still not frozen.

Currently the processor I use has a sharp freezer system and I demand my meat is ground first thing in the morning in a clean grinder. No one else's garbage in my clean animal.
 
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