Stay Away! From Butcher Boys (Puyallup, Wa)

[GameHunter1959]

Thought I would provide a little feedback. Been going to Butcher Boys in Puyallup since 2000. A few times my buddies and I have questioned whether or not we were getting back the game we brought in, or somebody else's. We also scratched our heads a bit, on the quantities we were receiving.

Last year they lost my deer. Took them 7 weeks to find it. Even then; I'm not very confident I got back the deer I brought in to be butchered.

This year I decided to give them a second chance, given we have had great experiences prior to 2013. We brought them 3 deer and 1 elk this year. What a mess.

All 3 deer involved smoke products (summer sausage, peperoni). We like to make our own jerky, so we requested meat cut into jerky, wrapped, etc. They messed it all up. I got calls from their staff (4 times) to come in and pickup meat. I would get there, and I was shorted something. Then I would have to wait for them to make it right, and come back. Total mess.

I boned out my elk and brought them 100% good clean meat (150 pounds). No blood shot etc. The elk was to be cut into steaks, roast, burger, etc. Just a basic cut n wrap job. I get back 4 large paper bags of ground meat, 4 packs of stew meat, and 8 packs of steaks (total 16 steaks), and the tenderloins are missing. That was it.

Essentially I was told they hired a new guy, who decided to grind up 90% of my elk. I asked why?
Their response..."It must have been shot up" Nope, brought you good clean meat, and I did not bring in the rib cage, which is where the elk was shot.

Their response... "Well it was the first time we used him to cut game. He should not of done that. He won't be coming back to work for us."

In the end I got screwed. I have plenty of elk burger, a few steaks, out of a really nice elk.

These people are way disorganized to be butchering game and trying to keep track of it. Every complaint I had, was met with an excuse and a lack of accountability. They may mean well, but the bottom line is my buddies and I got screwed all over the place. We won't be going back after 14 seasons for consistently bringing them multiple animals per year.

Thank you...

 

[100 grain]

   sorry gamehunter! That's bs. With as unorganized as they sound it will be only a matter of time before word gets out and their in the unemployment line

[Hunterman]

I refuse to use Butcher Boy for anything. I wouldn't even bring them an opossum. I have taken deer to them and they tried to screw me on them, and a steer to cut up. Out of the steer I go 10 grocery bags of meat. When I asked about the rest it damn near came down to a fist fight. Screwus Meats in McKenna is another chop shop to stay far away from both with wild game and beef. How do y'all think Screwus gets the meat for their wild game stuff..

Hunterman(Tony)

[CAMPMEAT]

I used them once in 1990 and never used them again. They screwed me then.

[brianmtsinc]

Tag

[trophyhunt]

I think most butchers mess stuff up once in a while, NO excuses but they get very busy and I can see how some things get messed up.  The 20lbs of meat to be made into burger for over 100 dollars is Not right, if that's what happened.  John is a friend of mine, I am going to talk to him in the near future about these screw ups.  Which wont be easy to do, he's very good to me.  The only small mistake I've had w butcher boys in all the years john resolved as soon as I talked with him.  my point is, He does try to make things right when he can. 

[DeerThug]

Go to Costco and buy plastic food wrap and butcher paper and then get a medium quality grinder.  Total cost = to about what you paid for crappy service from a butcher.  And it will last for several seasons and then you are money ahead  Then learn how to do it yourself.  It is not that hard lots of info here and on line.   Basically follow the mussel lines of the back quarters and steak and roast them grind the meat low on the legs..  Back straps, trim and steak.  Front shoulder is mostly grind each to his own.  Clean and trim as you go.   Pretty hard to mess it up too much. It will save you a ton of money and you know exactly what you are getting.

[Crunchy]

Butcher and Boys have always been good to me.  I used to bring in around 100lbs of elk and they would grind it on the spot back into my cooler, adding fat for 20 bucks.  I would package it at home in vac bags.  He also hung my bull elk this year in his cooler for 11 days and only charged me half price for doing that.  I usually deal with Bob who is not there very often these days.

[bowhunterwa87]

Go to Costco and buy plastic food wrap and butcher paper and then get a medium quality grinder.  Total cost = to about what you paid for crappy service from a butcher.  And it will last for several seasons and then you are money ahead  Then learn how to do it yourself.  It is not that hard lots of info here and on line.   Basically follow the mussel lines of the back quarters and steak and roast them grind the meat low on the legs..  Back straps, trim and steak.  Front shoulder is mostly grind each to his own.  Clean and trim as you go.   Pretty hard to mess it up too much. It will save you a ton of money and you know exactly what you are getting.

[Buzz2401]

Our camp averages about 3 deer and 4 elk a year, we took our meat to Stewarts and Mt View for years and were never really happy.  The straw that broke the camels back was when we got a elk roast that weighed over 4lbs from stewarts that had less then 12ozs of meat on it,(it was all bone). That was from stewarts.  Later that year took a buck to MtView and asked for steaks burger and roasts.  They proceeded to take a hind quarter and run through the bandsaw and make 4 roast out of the hind quarter.  Leaving all the bone and exterior cure membrane on meat.  Total bill for that year for our group was a little under $1000 for all the animals.  Next year we went and bought a Cabelas grinder and a few other items.  That was 7 years ago.  The cost to cut up 4 elk and two deer this year was $380 and we made a ton of sausage products and jerky.  I don't think butchers really want to cut your meat, but if they are gonna take it they should show a little pride in work and do a good job.

[Bean Counter]

Yikes! Glad I do my own.   Op should post some public reviews on yelp anf google maps 

[longwalker]

It's sooooo easy to cut and wrap yourself. Plus way way better quality than any butcher I've seen do game. Then wait till it's not hunting season and take what you want smoked to a GOOD shop. I would concur about stAying away from butcher boys. Never heard anything good about them

[huntingfool7]

Ahhh the annual Butcher Boys thread.

I started cutting my own a lot of years ago after dropping off a deer there.  That deer came back with gravel in the burger and my shotgun slug wrapped neatly in a steak (along with a big plug of hair/blood).  Couldn't believe it when I unwrapped that package. 
At least I know the steaks were mine.  No idea where that gravel came from.  I guess maybe the wild game goes into a communal pot for grinding. ?

Anyhow, jump in and start cutting your own.  You'll know it's yours, you'll know you got it all and you'll know you didn't get anything "extra".

[C-Money]

One of the best feelings in the world was breaking away from mass meat butchers and doing our own. Sorry you had trouble, its a shame to have good, clean animals come back in poor shape. Been there, did something about it, do my own.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Quality costs $$.  Doesn't matter what line of work your in.  If you don't want to pay what a butcher would need to charge to clean his equipment every time he changed animals I would recomend learning to butcher your own. 

I worked 4 seasons at a processor that did 90% game meat durring the season.  I've see how long it takes to butcher animals, the ---------------  field care, the customers that bring in 150lbs deer and expect 145lbs of meat back.