Make 2013 the year you cut and wrap your own wild game.

[jackmaster]

I love cutting my own meat. I know that it clean and cut to my standards. Some people just don't have the patients to cut their own meat. It does take patience that's for sure. You get a lot more meat when you do your own and it's as clean as you want it to be. I do chunk up the meat that I want turned into pep or summer sausage and take it to a guy here in Graham.

[jennyfell55]

In the event I ever get a deer/bear/elk I'd love to learn how to cut and wrap it myself! 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

I agree 110% with all that Iceman said!!!! We can help someone out in our neck of the woods! Just PM and we will get'er done!

[Rooster1981]

Cutting and wrapping an animal can seem very daunting    the first time you attempt butchering your first game animal. But once you do it, you'll never want to pay a butcher again  . Butchering an animal is part of the ritual of hunting for my family. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy meat grinders, sousage makers & vacuum packs. For the hunter that is starting out & doesn't have a lot of $$ Butchering is the only way to go. The basics for me is masking tape, freezer wrap, a good sharp knife, knife sharpener, cutting board. I went years without a meat grinder & just packaged up my scraps as stew meat. I now use a hand crank meat grinder, that can be hooked up to a electric motor if needed. For me I can cut wrap and package 100 lbs an hour with someone else just doing the meat grinding. So my advice for the first time meat cutter be ready to take a few hours if your cutting up an elk. I average about four hours beginning to end on a elk. A deer really doesn't take long at all, a little over an hour to get it in the freezer. My local butcher charges .70 cents a pound starting cost for wild game. That doesn't include cleaning, adding pork or suite.  .  Lets say a wetside bull averages 400 lbs  You can easily spend 250- 300 dollars on an elk  .
    Once you get it down its like ICEMAN says, you will take pride in you product. And enjoy the time spent with family.

[Exechobo]

Did an elk a couple years ago with my buddies. One of the guys was passing along a lifetime's experience. It was fun, instructive, and social. I liked knowing how the meat was handled, and learning the process. Never goin back.

[IBspoiled]

We have done our own for years now.  I can tell you the last time we took one to a butcher there was a reason it was the last time!  We took a whole elk, taken out whole with hide on.  They skinned it for us, as it was just way faster to get it in the truck and to the butcher then spend the time in the woods trying to do it without the equipment they have.  The guy was smoking a cigarette the whole time he was skinning it!  Made me sick.  Then when I went in to tell the lady how we would like it processed, I told her anything you can make into a steak we want into steaks, I also requested the ribs as I love to BBQ them and then I asked for burger.  No roasts as I don't do much with them.  Pretty simple request.   Got the call that the elk was ready.  I went to pick it up and got 9 yep you read that right 9 packages of steak!!!!  The rest was burger and ribs.  I got home and my husband said, where is my elk?  He thought they had messed up and only given me half of our elk or less.  I called them back and she assured me that they gave me the whole elk!  REALLY??? 9 packages of steak from a whole elk?  That was just backstraps!  Then a few months go by and I decide to take out the ribs to BBQ.  Mistake number 2, they put all the ribs in the packages, bloodshot and all, no clean up, no taking out the ribs with the hole in it from the arrow, nothing!  I could see if she thought I meant I wanted the ribs for the dogs, but I specifically told her I wanted them for BBQ'ing!  So there you have it, we have NEVER gone back to another butcher and don't plan to.  I have done an elk in about 8 hours with the help of one of our friends who hadn't done one, as my husband was at work.  For us, what works is we separate the muscle's and if it looks like it would make a nice steak, we make steaks, if it doesn't I put it in the grinder.  Once in awhile I will save a nice piece and make a roast out of it, but really other than steak and burger, we don't do much else.  It isn't rocket science. 
Wife

[nocklehead]

Last year I took on the task of butchering my first deer. I watched at least 10 youtube videos, looked at several diagrams, then just went for it!
As ICEMAN said you have alot more time to wrap and time to trim pieces exactly how you want them.
Wrapping each piece in wax paper, rolling out the air, then seal-a-mealing is what I did.
Once you get going, its easy, youre just following natural divisions in muscle groups and filleting off silverskin, most butchers dont have the time to remove tiny pieces of silverskin. This and all "funky" pieces like bloodshot go in a pile for the dog.
The bones made delicious stock....
Afterwards, it all went so smooth and didnt want to eat all the deer too quick, so we got a lamb from a local farm "on the hoof", we shot and gutted it in a designated corner of the farmers property, then put ice bags in the body cavity and headed home, (bout an hour) there we divided it up just the same as a deer except leaving the whole back quarter intact for leg of lamb. This experience was great and saved money on meat...Id highly recommend for those that are scared to butcher a deer in the field/camp, etc...., try it out on lambs, goats, rabbits etc...you can get as many as you want from small farms on craigslist, and its a no pressure situation...
Also, you learn how you like things cut, for instance anything that becomes steaks, like backstrap, I prefer to freeze in 1-2LB packages not cut up, still in one piece, then when I thaw it, I cut it into the steaks I want, it seems fresher and leaves more options.

6 weeks later during  late hunt, my lady got her first deer and I was ready and eager to butcher it, and as ICEMAN said, you really do feel more pride from it, it costs less, and its FUN!

What I did use the butcher for (DD meats) was I took all my bags of "for ground" into them and had it made into bulk ground hamburger and sausage at .25c and .50c a LB
I also got some fancy beer brats made at 2.50 a LB which is a little expensive but beyond my current skills and equipment.....if youve ever had DD or Big E Brewery Brats then you know it was worth it!

Go for it! Butchering, cutting and wrapping with a few good folks is alot of fun!

[butcher98951]

 I have owned my own butcher shop and farm slaughtering business before and I am wiling to teach any one that is interested to learn at no charge. I do live in the Yakima County but travel to the west side for sports almost every other weekend. If and when you are interested send me a pm.

[jackmaster]

one more trick to you that dont know, save your card board that is the size of a large pizza box, and of course its gotta be clean, it is alot better than using a cutting board or a piece of 2x10, when you use card board the meat sticks to it very well and when it gets to nasty you throw it in the trash, and put a new piece down, i also have a plastic table that only gets used for processing meat, i use a fillet knife and a couple boning knives and that is all that you need, a hand sharpener, a couple metal pans and a big metal bowl, if your grinding as you go a couple big rubber made toats and you are in business, if anyone gets somethn near graham and would like to learn let me know, i can come over and give ya hand, i have been helping my dad since i was knee high to a buckfart, and now i am 41 so i have logged a few hours buthering meat... if you are set on taking it to a butcher i would only use the "BUTCHER BOYS" on south hill  DAMN, I AM GETTIN HUNGRY, 

[ICEMAN]

Think I should re-title this thread for 2014?

[billythekidrock]

Go for it.

[7mmfan]

Yes. A lot of people don't plan for the day that they may actually get an animal on the ground. This will help get the wheels turning. I was raised cutting up my own and have now passed it on to a couple of buddies who cut and wrap their own. Very gratifying when its all done and you have months worth of quality protein stored away in the freezer.

[Damnimissed]

Cutting parties are a blast. When we get elk down, we have the guys cutting and grinding, and the girls wrapping. With some adult beverages as well! It's a just a good time.

[lamrith]

So do you guys wait for a couple of you to have animals down to have these parties?
How do you store your quarters before you have these cutting parties?

[Stein]

Anyone have any good recommendations on dvds (or youtube) for cutting and wrapping. I cut and wrapped my sons elk last year and just used the computer to look at different cuts of meat, but it would be nice to see how the pros do it.

I watched Outdoor Edge's video about five times then tackled it.  It is a bunch of work but not all that difficult.  A few simple tools and some patience and you will end up with much better fare than the guy that drove it around in the back of the truck for a few days and then dumped it at the butcher.  You will save a ton of money and be able to spend the time to do it exactly like you want.

Personally, I try to minimize ground meat.  I put as much into steaks as possible and only maybe two roasts.  I end up with a ton of "stew meat" which is misc. chunks that I use for stew, stir fry, tacos and whatever.

My high level process is to immediately gut, skin and quarter.  I put it in a two coolers with 6-8 bags of ice.  It was really cold last year, so I pulled it out of the coolers overnight to hang in a tree and then back into coolers for the trip home.  Next day, cut, wrap and freeze.  Our freezer was pretty empty so I just spaced it out and it froze quickly with no problem.   

I used a Outdoor Edge swingblade for gutting and skinning.  Quartering was done with a saw (pelvis & sternum) and a 5" boning knife.  Processing used the same 5" knife along with another 6" knife and a longer butcher knife.  I wrapped the meat in plastic wrap then freezer paper.

I used our Kitchen Aid with the meat grinder attachment, but am looking at buying a dedicated grinder this year.  The Kitchen Aid will do it, but it seems to be a bit underpowered and you end up cleaning sinew out of the blades very frequently.  I ground everything twice.

Again, not technically hard but it is a bunch of work.  Start to finish on processing day was 12 hours including cleanup.  Next time, I can probably cut that in half.