How many hunters here butcher their harvested big game?

always do it myself,
deer are easy, elk and moose take a bit more work.
Last fall I had the pleasure of doing a bison :eek:
that was a bit of work and an eye opener. They are differetn from deer :jerkit:
 
I've done it before and I'm going to start doing it again, the price for a butcher to do it is getting to high for me. Really what can you do wrong, turn a roast into several steaks? I actually enjoy doing it.
 
we tried it this year with a fall black bear. turned out good and even thedutchess got in on the action.

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In over 25+ years of hunting, my gang and I have always done it ourselves. Some of the prices I hear people paying for a single deer are insane :eek:

But this year, we had a retired friend offer to age and then butcher our deer for such a great price, none of us could refuse. As much as I like getting together with the boyz and butchering our deer this was a great time saver since most of us get so busy its hard to find the time.
 
I cut up my own deer last fall without previous experience or anybody helping me. It was a lot of work, but fun. I also cut up my bear in the spring with some help from my cousin, and neither of us had ever cut anything bigger than a rabbit before that.
 
Too fat and lazy myself. I always take it into a butcher unless the two rare time's in my life when I got a trophy and made a black bear rug and big buck mantel for my caben.
 
If I wanted my meat butchered to look all pretty like in the stupid market, then i'd buy there and be done with it . I don't understand the incessant need for humans to "play" with their food. I butcher my own , so what if it doesn't look the same , trust me after it's cooked , eaten and so on , eventually it will look the same, I trim the crap off , I make my own hamburger , the rest , well sometimes I will have square steaks , who cares, so long as I eat .:p:D
 
ya, I break out the re-cip saw and cut my own t-bones, and shanks for stew, a few boneless steaks, and roasts then the rest goes to burger(or sausage). I've got it down to about 2 1/2 hrs cut, wrapped, in the freezer. I love deer t-bones, look just like big lamb chops.
 
lucky07 said:
I wanna start doing it myself, just gotta find someone to show me the basics.

If I can't find anyone I'll try anyways ... likely won't be pretty tho but as greywolf said, all looks the same in the end.
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Look on youtube, there are lots of videos on processing game.

I shot my first two deer last fall and did all the processing myself with my hunting buddy who had previous experience. It's not that hard and I enjoyed doing everything from field to freezer myself. I would do anything up to moose myself now.

As greywolf says, some of the cuts come out a bit odd, but does that really matter? I got exactly the cuts I wanted (medallions, roasts, sausage meat, etc.) and I know that all of the meat came from my deer.

IMO, it is just part of the overall hunting experience.

Mark
 
Used to do it myself including deer, elk and moose when I was young and poor. Now I don't. Haven't harvested anything but deer for a couple of years but where I take 'em ain't that expensive. Just under 50 bucks generally for "cut/wrapped/frozen". My neighbor has a meat shed with all the bells and whistles and sometimes I do one over there if the cooler happens to be full over at the butcher shop.If I had my own facility I'd probably do more myself. The big stuff is definitely going to the commercial shop. I am old and lazy and my working wife can afford it! (LOL!)
 
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