How many hunters here butcher their harvested big game?

Thanks for all your answers! I figured that there would be many (like minded people) like myself who believe that it is a part of the whole hunting experience.
regards, Brad
 
I've found that learning to butcher my own game has contributed to the overall skill of being a hunter. It has been an education in anatomy that has developed my ability to successfully produce suitable "tablefare". It has also made me more keenly aware of good shot placement, as any poor placement can result in lost meat. It also gives me a chance to respect the animal and it's sacrifice to feed me and my family. I hold a personal belief that all hunters should know how to process their own game, and that ability can only come from practice. Just my $.02
 
While I generally do believe in letting professionals cut my meat, I have and still do cut my own deer when required. Butchered a roadkill in the garage 3 weeks ago. Of course despite owning a hand meatsaw I prefer to cut all boneless roasts and put the rest into stew or trim for burger/sausage.....
 
i butcher my own but give the ground to a guy to make sausage and peperoni because his is worth the cost and its way better than what i can make
 
after recieving a video on butchering deer and how easy it was, I started to do my own butchering. After we cut the second deer apart we let the deer meat hang outside for two months this winter wrapped up in cheese cloth. It is so good and tender and very tasty. The only thing I can say is which to me is the most importance is.... take off as much fat and sinew as you can. The meat will taste that much better.
 
Butcher my own and make my own sausage. The ability to decide, on the spot, what to do with a particular cut is what I like the most. Since I'm feeding two people, I like to cut everything into 2-4lb roasts. That way, when I defrost, I can make a roast, cut into cubes for stew, slice thick steaks, thin steaks, etc. And we are not eating left-overs for the next 4 days.

From what I've heard around here, you'd be lucky to get your own deer back if you had it professionally cut.
 
I do. My daughter helps alot, she likes getting her hands dirty, my g/f doesn't really care for that kind of stuff though.
 
In my neck of the woods it costs $400 to get a deer butchered. No sausage in this price.
So I have done all my own butchering on the last 4 deer. It is a big learning curve but you can get some really nice hip steaks and backstrap steaks. The 2 deer last year netted 194 lbs of meat in the freezer. Including cat food!!
Next year I will make sausage patties with a few recipies from people on here.
One thing I must mention is buy good knives, like Victorinox. Best knife I have found for butchering.
lig
 
tigrr said:
In my neck of the woods it costs $400 to get a deer butchered. No sausage in this price.lig
Click to expand...

$400.00? Yipe!!! :eek:I can get a deer done anywhere in Manitoba for under $75.00; (no sausage or jerky), often under $50.00 cut/wrapped and frozen. Sounds like a ripoff! Maybe you should shop around?
 
Absolutely do it myself. Great sense of pride knowing that I'm the only person to lay hands on my deer from the field to the table. Make my own sausage and jerky too.
 
All on my own. I butcher 7-8 deer every year. Takes me an hour to skin, debone, trim and organize the cuts. Add on a half hour for vac-packing. Costs me about $10 for the bags and the job is done way better than a butcher would do it because I actually care about the meat -- it's not just a job.
 
done it ourselves for a few years, it is getting quicker though, get to be able to do a big mulie in about 2-2.5 hours, even the grinding, used to be longer when we had to use the hand bone saws... picked up a meat saw from the UFA that makes life really easy :)
 
we do it all ourselves, the only thing we dont do is making sausages, but hopefully this year we will try our first batch! oh, and thats deer,moos, and elk
 
I get great pride in cutting up/packaging my own deer and moose that I harvested. I been doing it for 30 years and love doing it. It also a bonus if the frying pan is on the stove so you can sample a few pieces.
 
I butcher my own animals and grind the trimmings and make a fair bit of sausage. I would no sooner have someone shoot the animal for me than I would let someone else butcher my animal
Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom