cut your own or pay to process?

[kisfish]

Just a couple questions for all the hunters on here.
1. Do you pay to have your big game processed? If you do why? Is it because you don't have the time after the hunt with getting back to work, life, etc. You may not have the equipment. Knives, cutting boards, wrapper, Freezer paper, grinder, etc. You do not know how to cut up the animal?

2. Those that do it yourself where did you learn to do it?

For myself I cut my own. At 19 I started working in a meat dept and was a butcher for 10 years. Being young in need of money I worked two jobs. I slaughtered and custom cut cattle, pigs, buffalo after cutting at the grocery store. I cut wild game for a shop in Colorado every year for extra spending cash. The last year I cut for the shop we processed 778 animals.

Seeing as we are into hunting season I was just wondering what method you use and why. Take care and good luck hunting.

[Crunchy]

I cut my own.  I do have the butcher make pepperoni and jerky but the rest I do. 

[jrebel]

Cut my own and learned by doing.....it really isn't that hard.  It does take a little time though. 

[boneaddict]

Cut my own.  Learned from watching and helping my Dad, then had to cut my first deer up on my own.  Have done it ever since.   

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

DIY here!!!!! Super easy and fun family project!

[Crunchy]

It is a lot of work that much is for sure. I have butchered my own elk solo and that is a full days job with grinding and vacuum sealing bags.  Much better with two people for sure.

[Smokepole]

We butcher our own.  I like to trim the meat good & get rid of the fat.  Not sure what the butcher around here does.  I like knowing everything is clean and tastes good as possible.  It is a chore.  Glad my wife doesn't mind helping out!

[jasnt]

I do my own as well. I rather enjoy it.  Grew up on a farm and always did our own. One year we did 9 hogs in a day. Me my dad and brother. I was 9 my brother was 8.  Its just part of life on a farm

[hrd2fnd]

Taught myself to clean and butcher my own. If the wife ever found out I butchered it on the dinner table she would not be happy.

[Halo]

Gonna be cutting up a blacktail tomorrow. On the old kitchen table that was my parents since before I was born. That old table has seen a lot of game. I have put blacktail & mule deer, elk, antelope & mountain goat on it. Lord knows how many critters were cut up on it before my time.

[denali]

DIY here!!!!! Super easy and fun family project!

I agree,, you may have to wait 15-20 years for a "thank you" from the kids.. but it will come 

[jrebel]

Didn't want to thread jack so I made a new thread....If you cut and package your own meat, how do you package it? 

Answer on the attached thread. 

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,162460.0.html

[ghosthunter]

For elk we take them to the butcher. Because we are in camp and it is above 40 degrees. And still hunting.

For deer I do my own.

[huntnnw]

Do all of mine...learned from helping my dad when I was a kid.

The guys that drop off their game..your fooling yourself if u think you are actually getting yout meat back

[kisfish]

Do all of mine...learned from helping my dad when I was a kid.

The guys that drop off their game..your fooling yourself if u think you are actually getting yout meat back

Please explain why you think this?

[Rainier10]

Do it all ourselves.  Learned from my father in law and family.  Definitely not hard to do after doing a few and you have complete control of what you get for meat.  Only once in the last 20 years have we taken one to the butcher and that was because I was heading out on another week long hunt and didn't have time to get it done.

[hollymaster]

Do all of mine...learned from helping my dad when I was a kid.

The guys that drop off their game..your fooling yourself if u think you are actually getting yout meat back

I think it's more of getting all your meat back. Specifically with butchers that are busy. 

[TheHunt]

Butcher my own but send out for pepperoni at Mountain View meats.   In my opinion they make the best.

[kisfish]

Do all of mine...learned from helping my dad when I was a kid.

The guys that drop off their game..your fooling yourself if u think you are actually getting yout meat back

I think it's more of getting all your meat back. Specifically with butchers that are busy. 

I would agree that a busy shop gets in done in a hurry. You have to it's a business. You have to pay the employee's, taxes, utilities, etc etc. I know in the shop I worked for example there was a ton of cost on the business side. just on the wages part there are 9 people getting paid well by the hour. 1 saw man, 4 bone rs, 1 wrapper, 1 grinder, 1 running the register/ phone, 1 receiving animals. Then you and in the owners salary, cost of wrapping paper, utilities, saw blades and other miscellaneous items you need to be cranking out big volume.  With that being said my personal experience is most animals get cut and you get back the vast majority of your meat. Sure when I am at home I can pull an extra 15 lbs of meat out of an elk that was missed at the shop. It also takes a ton of extra time. It comes down to getting every single scrap of the bone and going through all the blood shot. I would guess that it would take one person an extra hour to get that 15 of meat. It also comes down to the shop as some are better than others.
On a side note it would take my grandpa 3 days to cut an elk but the coyotes would go away starving off what he left on the bone 

[GurrCentral]

Do all of mine...learned from helping my dad when I was a kid.

The guys that drop off their game..your fooling yourself if u think you are actually getting yout meat back

Very much depends on where you take it...

[Rich_S]

First few years I would take it to a shop. Then I learned how to do it myself. Until then, I didn't know deer had backstrap.  Never got any from a commercial butcher.

[kisfish]

First few years I would take it to a shop. Then I learned how to do it myself. Until then, I didn't know deer had backstrap.  Never got any from a commercial butcher.

Cut bone in at a facility it probably would have been labeled "chops".

[bowhunterwa87]

Cut my own. Deff a plus owning a grinder and smoker too ....

[NOCK NOCK]

I learned from my Dad and have since always cut my own.  I prefer this for many reasons..

1. A very good friends father was a butcher (slaughter truck & wild game) He had the stance that " I am a meat cutter, not a meat cleaner, I cut up your animal in the condition you bring it to me"  We all know that skinning an animal gets some hair on the meat.

2. I worked in a grocery store for many years, if you saw what goes into your store bought burger, you wouldn't eat it.   I do still get prime rib fat from them to make my grind, and I pick thru it for the best pieces.

3. I believe that running a bandsaw blade through the bone/marrow imparts an odd flavor (gamey) into the meat. I cut all boneless and trim off all fat.

[Payne]

Cut our own and learned from my dad.

We have had a couple done by others, one turned out ok and the other was cut horribly. the one that was horrible, they cut through the bone and I think that had a lot to do with it.

I think since we have been doing it for so long we are really particular as to how it is cut. Especially for deer, we never leave any bit of fat on the meat and like small pieces.

[Payne]

I learned from my Dad and have since always cut my own.  I prefer this for many reasons..

1. A very good friends father was a butcher (slaughter truck & wild game) He had the stance that " I am a meat cutter, not a meat cleaner, I cut up your animal in the condition you bring it to me"  We all know that skinning an animal gets some hair on the meat.

2. I worked in a grocery store for many years, if you saw what goes into your store bought burger, you wouldn't eat it.   I do still get prime rib fat from them to make my grind, and I pick thru it for the best pieces.

3. I believe that running a bandsaw blade through the bone/marrow imparts an odd flavor (gamey) into the meat. I cut all boneless and trim off all fat.

[GurrCentral]

I cut and wrap, well, vacuum seal all the steak cuts, but take the leftover to a meat cutter friend for brats, pep sticks, and burger.

[jasnt]

I learned from my Dad and have since always cut my own.  I prefer this for many reasons..

1. A very good friends father was a butcher (slaughter truck & wild game) He had the stance that " I am a meat cutter, not a meat cleaner, I cut up your animal in the condition you bring it to me"  We all know that skinning an animal gets some hair on the meat.

2. I worked in a grocery store for many years, if you saw what goes into your store bought burger, you wouldn't eat it.   I do still get prime rib fat from them to make my grind, and I pick thru it for the best pieces.

3. I believe that running a bandsaw blade through the bone/marrow imparts an odd flavor (gamey) into the meat. I cut all boneless and trim off all fat.

+1 for number 3

[finnman]

DIY cutter here! Learned from my stepdad after shooting my first muley in 1992. He showed me the ropes and I just took off from there. If I want any kind of sausage I take it in to a butcher who does a great job. I am cutting up my moose right now, last night after work I got through one rear quarter by myself, deboning and cutting steaks and meat for canning and burger grinding.

[gr8whthunter]

im a DIY'er i cut up my own game, make sausage, peperoni, jerky, burger i make it all, me and a buddy do it, have a little butcher shop set up in his shop, i enjoy doing it and i know what goes into everything i eat, how its prepared and i like knowing that i got everything out of the game i harvest.. the leftovers couldnt feed a crow

[Gary2013]

So is there a rough percentage of packaged meat that one could expect from a given hanging weight? I am always surprised at the "loss to bone and bloodshot"

[Wazukie]

Man, if I had to send mine out to be processed I might as well buy a side of beef.  I cut my own because it saves me a whole lot of money.

[Stein]

DIY without a doubt.

Many guys are afraid to take the plunge, but you really can't screw it up.  If you cut a roast wrong, you have steaks.  If you cut the steaks wrong, you have stew meat.  If you totally Edward Scissorhands the thing, you still end up with great burger.

Plus, you learn so much about the cuts that after once or twice you can really dial in exactly what you get back to match your family's preferences.  For me this means a Christmas roast, a bunch of steaks, a ton of stew meat and very little burger.

The dog really appreciates it too, she gets a big pile of nasty trim stuff that apparently is candy to a four legger.  I probably save enough in dog food to buy the butcher paper every year.

[Cuda]

Cut and package my own with the exception of trim meat, which I send in to be ground or turned into summer sausage, jalapeno cheddar dogs, or pepperoni sticks. I have had some really bad luck with processing in the past but I now have a trustworthy outfit in town that does not mix meat.

[C-Money]

We do our own, wife and I just decided enough is enough with the fees, and poor quality. We enjoy it. Piece of mind knowing what is going in the freezer. Self taught. Not hard to figure out, I would be glad to help get someone started if they want to learn.

[Dhoey07]

I learned from my Dad and have since always cut my own.  I prefer this for many reasons..

1. A very good friends father was a butcher (slaughter truck & wild game) He had the stance that " I am a meat cutter, not a meat cleaner, I cut up your animal in the condition you bring it to me"  We all know that skinning an animal gets some hair on the meat.

2. I worked in a grocery store for many years, if you saw what goes into your store bought burger, you wouldn't eat it.   I do still get prime rib fat from them to make my grind, and I pick thru it for the best pieces.

3. I believe that running a bandsaw blade through the bone/marrow imparts an odd flavor (gamey) into the meat. I cut all boneless and trim off all fat.

+1 for number 3

I watched a video from steven rinella, he was cutting a shoulder roast from a deer and he kept the bone in to add flavor.

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

I cut my own now.  After doing it a few times, its easy and I get exactly what I want.  Back straps, Tenderloins, and take the rest to the butcher to grind and make what ever I want.