Cost of butcher bill for my elk!!!!!

[jackelope]

Well its been a decade since this thread has been alive and I'd love to see the prices of the game that was mentioned on it I normally always butcher my own critters but with helping my mom move and my daughters sports schedule I went ahead and dropped off her elk at a butcher. We didn't get anything fancy done, steaks, burger, etc... Well dam I should've asked how much, $450 for a cow elk cut and wrapped. Not blaming the butcher, he's doing his job, not even going to say the shops name, just a stiff reminder of why I always butcher my own game and not to get lazy.

How did that pencil out per pound?

He does it by the animal not by the pound. According to my wife I should've just hit the burger sale at our local IGA 

How much meat did you get back weight wise? He doesn’t weight it?

[dreadi]

$2.03 per pound? Man that sounds inexpensive for for premium meat.


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[lewy]

Learn to do it yourself, why would you go through 90% of the harvesting process and leave the last and maybe most important step to someone else? 

[elkrack]

Learn to do it yourself, why would you go through 90% of the harvesting process and leave the last and maybe most important step to someone else? 

 
Lewy is spot on!

[ghosthunter]

Well I went to Idaho to set up a camp for my friend who lives there he drew an any bull moose tag.
Shot a moose and had a devil of a time finding anyone  to cut and wrap it. Only guy who would do it, wanted it boned and clean . Which we did in my friend’s garage.

[huntnnw]

Learn to do it yourself, why would you go through 90% of the harvesting process and leave the last and maybe most important step to someone else? 

 
Lewy is spot on!

  blows my mind how many guys spend thousands upon thousands on stuff to hunt, yet cant muster up the cash to buy a few things to process your meat. Then its "well i dont know how?" well you learned to hunt? and there is no excuse on materials to learn, hell there is probably a few thousand videos on youtube on how to process and make anything you could ever dream of. The favorite of mine is " I dont have time"  somehow you have time to hunt, scout and all the other things involved with hunting. I was taught there is 3 parts to a hunt. 1: is the preparation, scouting and shooting etc, 2: is the actual hunt and 3: is processing and putting your meat up for the year.

[Skillet]

Learn to do it yourself, why would you go through 90% of the harvesting process and leave the last and maybe most important step to someone else? 

 
Lewy is spot on!

  blows my mind how many guys spend thousands upon thousands on stuff to hunt, yet cant muster up the cash to buy a few things to process your meat. Then its "well i dont know how?" well you learned to hunt? and there is no excuse on materials to learn, hell there is probably a few thousand videos on youtube on how to process and make anything you could ever dream of. The favorite of mine is " I dont have time"  somehow you have time to hunt, scout and all the other things involved with hunting. I was taught there is 3 parts to a hunt. 1: is the preparation, scouting and shooting etc, 2: is the actual hunt and 3: is processing and putting your meat up for the year.

  I was first taught to process as a young'un, helping out the adults cut, trim, and wrap meat.  Then I graduated to hunting.  I love putting up my own meat, probably just as much as the hunt.

[huntnnw]

My brother runs a shop and he and nobody he knows charges a animal by the pound, only time you charge things by the pound is sausage, jerky, sticks and burger.  You bring in a clean skinned out deer hes $180 I believe and thats the basic cut and wrap not sausage etc. Elk is near $300 or so. If hide is on theres a skinning fee and if its dirty theres another fee

[huntnnw]

Learn to do it yourself, why would you go through 90% of the harvesting process and leave the last and maybe most important step to someone else? 

 
Lewy is spot on!

  blows my mind how many guys spend thousands upon thousands on stuff to hunt, yet cant muster up the cash to buy a few things to process your meat. Then its "well i dont know how?" well you learned to hunt? and there is no excuse on materials to learn, hell there is probably a few thousand videos on youtube on how to process and make anything you could ever dream of. The favorite of mine is " I dont have time"  somehow you have time to hunt, scout and all the other things involved with hunting. I was taught there is 3 parts to a hunt. 1: is the preparation, scouting and shooting etc, 2: is the actual hunt and 3: is processing and putting your meat up for the year.

  I was first taught to process as a young'un, helping out the adults cut, trim, and wrap meat.  Then I graduated to hunting.  I love putting up my own meat, probably just as much as the hunt.

  I take pride in it and knowing I made this.

[hunter399]

I've been doing my own deer for many years now.
Even when I took meat down ,it was just the grind.
I have never done an elk ,so my experience there is none.

[ghosthunter]

Well in defense of the non processing hunters. It’s probably a time issue. Most guys still working have limited time off work to hunt.
You shoot your animal, do you bail on your buddies with you to take it home, or stay finish out with them.
For me I supply 90% of the camp equipment. If I got an animal early, I would hand off to my wife on the pass, and stick with my buddies hunting other things.

By the time I got home from elk and deer, there just wasn’t time to process meat. With all the gear to put away and get back to work.

Now I am retired and a little more willing to take on the job depending on timing.

[Alan K]

Where there's a will there's a way.

We probably process 750 lbs/year between family and hunting partners. The time crunch issue for us is just deboning/cleaning/trimming.  We freeze everything in gallon ziplocks for later grinding.  After the season we get together over a couple weekends and watch football, grind meat, and reminisce of the hunts.  The price of the equipment is nothing relative to the cost of paying for processing all that meat in a single year.

We put together a walk-in too now, so we don't even have much of a time crunch to debone/clean/trim/freeze.  It's taken care of over a day or two after work.

Highly suggest it for anyone that has a lot of success.

[huntnnw]

Well in defense of the non processing hunters. It’s probably a time issue. Most guys still working have limited time off work to hunt.
You shoot your animal, do you bail on your buddies with you to take it home, or stay finish out with them.
For me I supply 90% of the camp equipment. If I got an animal early, I would hand off to my wife on the pass, and stick with my buddies hunting other things.

By the time I got home from elk and deer, there just wasn’t time to process meat. With all the gear to put away and get back to work.

Now I am retired and a little more willing to take on the job depending on timing.

What freezers are for. I hunt solo and put 3-6 animals a year in freezer. I’ve never processed right after a hunt. Like mentioned have a job. Do it when I can.  Problem I see with most is they don’t value the meat and don’t make it a priority.

[baker5150]

Well in defense of the non processing hunters. It’s probably a time issue. Most guys still working have limited time off work to hunt.
You shoot your animal, do you bail on your buddies with you to take it home, or stay finish out with them.
For me I supply 90% of the camp equipment. If I got an animal early, I would hand off to my wife on the pass, and stick with my buddies hunting other things.

By the time I got home from elk and deer, there just wasn’t time to process meat. With all the gear to put away and get back to work.

Now I am retired and a little more willing to take on the job depending on timing.

What freezers are for. I hunt solo and put 3-6 animals a year in freezer. I’ve never processed right after a hunt. Like mentioned have a job. Do it when I can.  Problem I see with most is they don’t value the meat and don’t make it a priority.

Nothing wrong with using a trustworthy processor.
Nothing wrong with doing it yourself.

There is no wrong way.  Do what works for you and let others do the same. 

[Woodchuck]

Well in defense of the non processing hunters. It’s probably a time issue. Most guys still working have limited time off work to hunt.
You shoot your animal, do you bail on your buddies with you to take it home, or stay finish out with them.
For me I supply 90% of the camp equipment. If I got an animal early, I would hand off to my wife on the pass, and stick with my buddies hunting other things.

By the time I got home from elk and deer, there just wasn’t time to process meat. With all the gear to put away and get back to work.

Now I am retired and a little more willing to take on the job depending on timing.

What freezers are for. I hunt solo and put 3-6 animals a year in freezer. I’ve never processed right after a hunt. Like mentioned have a job. Do it when I can.  Problem I see with most is they don’t value the meat and don’t make it a priority.

Nothing wrong with using a trustworthy processor.
Nothing wrong with doing it yourself.

There is no wrong way.  Do what works for you and let others do the same.

Bingo!