Game butchering. UPDATE Only 1 Tenderloin

Bartledan

Bartledan

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
57   0   0
Location
Died and went to BC
Hi guys. Just picked up my deer from the butcher.

At $0.85/lb, my 85 pound deer cost $90+GST. Ok, maybe there were some hidden fees or something.

I wound up with 55 lbs of frozen meat. And one tenderloin. I'll defrost that this weekend and see if two tenderloins are wrapped together. Looks thin.

It was thin. Only one tenderloin. Won't go there again.

So, does the price and final meat weight make sense?

Cheers,

D

Reason for Edit: I've long had a policy of not providing negative reviews, however justified. This episode made me mad enough to forget that.
 
Last edited:
It's a lot of work but we always did our our butchering. A book called Butchering Beef by Adam Danforth has great details and photos. The cuts and techniques can be applied to the game animals.
 
I had a $20 bone disposal fee added to mine.
They do have a minimum so IIRC 50 . . . 70 . . . or 100 would have been $80.
He asked if I wanted the bones but failed to mention the fee if I did not take them.
 
we butcher our own meat and vac pak it and freeze it. Some we grind for hamburger, some is cut to jerky size chunks for slicing later, some for slicing for quick fry, the tenderloins are left whole and lots of meat is cubed for custom sausage. I just took in 104 lbs of cubed venison and got back over 200 lbs of meat. Everything doubles in weight and the salami triples in weight. We had made pepperettes with cheese, smokies with cheese, breakfast sausages, coarse garlic kubasaw rings and salami. The different items of coarse cost different amounts. The whole thing came to $500.
 
Around here $.85/lb is average.

New (ish) landfill and other misc provincial regulations now prohibit disposing of animal bones and waste in local landfills. There is an increased cost to disposing of the remains "legally"....

I usually utilize a "country" butcher. He charges $.55/lb, which I find reasonable enough that I think it's worth paying! Also a big bonus when you shoot an elk and its +20 in September and you don't have a cooler large enough to hang the beast!
 
490lb (skinned gutted and quartered) elk, cut and made into steaks, roasts, minute steaks, hamburger and a LOT of sausage. It cost me 520$
 
Bartledan said:
Hi guys. Just picked up my deer from the butcher.

At $0.85/lb, my 85 pound deer cost $90+GST. Ok, maybe there were some hidden fees or something.

I wound up with 55 lbs of frozen meat. And one tenderloin. I'll defrost that this weekend and see if two tenderloins are wrapped together. Looks thin.

So, does the price and final meat weight make sense?

Cheers,

D
Click to expand...

The quoted price per pound is based on the weight you brought the butcher. I'd say it was about right to get 55 pounds of meat from an 85 pound (hanging weight) deer. 30 pounds of bones, trim ,fat, etc.

Having said that, I never pay for something I can do myself, so to me that sounds extremely expensive.

On the other hand, look at the cost of beef.
 
eatredmeat157 said:
490lb (skinned gutted and quartered) elk, cut and made into steaks, roasts, minute steaks, hamburger and a LOT of sausage. It cost me 520$
Click to expand...

That was either MONSTER Elk or his scale was off? My 3.5 year old Elk dressed 315 lb. $190 cut and wrapped. Steaks, Roasts and ground burger.

My Moose was 670 lbs dressed was $400 for steaks,roasts, and got packaged trimmings.

My son's Moose dressed 350 and it was $224 for roasts,steaks and ground burger.

Prices include hanging and storage of cut meat.
 
What is the best split for a deer roasts/steaks/burg? I'm not crazy about chops/steaks....hamburger and a couple good roasts would probably be my preference. Can the sausage be made from hamburger or does it need leaner cuts? Sausage and pepperoni sounds good...
 
Best way to do it is your self, that way you know how its being handled and you can add the spices that you prefer when making sausage etc... I too cant fathom spending money on something I can easily learn to do. I take pride in the hole hunt from start to freezer.
 
Hitzy said:
What is the best split for a deer roasts/steaks/burg? I'm not crazy about chops/steaks....hamburger and a couple good roasts would probably be my preference. Can the sausage be made from hamburger or does it need leaner cuts? Sausage and pepperoni sounds good...
Click to expand...

can be made from anything. Our sausage guy says if we are going to prep it, to bring it in cubes of 1 1/2 - 2 inch and he'll take it from there.
 
I usually process my own game.
Last night got a decent 6 pointer, garage was 68F, too warm and short on time, big swing from last year.
Took it to a butcher buddy for processing on this one.
 
My Butcher, when I'm too busy to butcher my self , charges .75 a pound, cut and wrapped.
MINIMUM charge is 75.00 so if my deer weighs under 100 lbs dressed, I'm still paying the 75.00 minimum. I find it to be fair.
Perhaps OP's butcher has a 90.00 minimum... And if they do good work, probably also a fair fee.

But if doing it yourself is possible and temperature allows for proper care from hanging to the freezer, go for it ;)
 
350 Mag said:
That was either MONSTER Elk or his scale was off? My 3.5 year old Elk dressed 315 lb. $190 cut and wrapped. Steaks, Roasts and ground burger.

My Moose was 670 lbs dressed was $400 for steaks,roasts, and got packaged trimmings.

My son's Moose dressed 350 and it was $224 for roasts,steaks and ground burger.

Prices include hanging and storage of cut meat.
Click to expand...

You must have little elk on the prarie I guess! -I joke!

Dads was 490lb
Mine was 420lb edit:415



 
Either buy these DVDs: http://www.outdooredge.com/game-processing-dvds-videos-s/26.htm

Or Youtube it.

I learnt from those DVD's. My first deer took about 5 hours to debone and cut steaks, roasts, stew meat, and ground because I was still afraid of doing something wrong. My bear took me about 1.5hrs as I was just doing roasts and ground. My deer last year took just under 3 hours to cut steaks, trim away all the silverskin, marinate, vacuum pack, ect. If I were just doing a deer into roasts/steaks and ground, not removing silverskin, probably about 2 hours at the most to cut and wrap. It's easy and you CAN NOT screw it up no matter what you do.
 
Some places you can just hang meat in their cooler then take it home and cut it yourself. Its really not that hard. The places around here are about $10 a day just to hang it. I did a moose, deer, and a mountain goat this year. It saves a pile of money and there are no surprises when your done. A vacuum sealer is the way to go, your meat will last way longer than if you just wrap it in paper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom