What prompted you to learn to process your own Big Game VS the Butcher?

[James]

I like the whole process of hunting.  From scouting, actually hunting, processing the meat, making all the sausage/jerky/etc. to cooking it.

I am also super OCD about things so knowing exactly what's in my meat is a big deal to me.

Seems like cheating if I paid someone to take part of it. With that said after shooting a heavy deer and a heavy elk this year I see why guys drop it off at a butcher. I have a lot of time into this right now, a big deer and a big elk is a lot of meat to deal with for a single guy.

I finally decided to pony up and get a 15lb LEM sausage stuffer this year and man it has made a world of difference in terms of speed from using an attachment on my grinder. 


Off to finish off my elk sausage!

[Hilltop123]

Fir quills? funny, I'm pretty certain we shot it in a wheat field.....Yes the quills were in the packaged meat....

[Jingles]

Have always except for 1 year processed our families wild game. Helped my father when lived at home and learned then  and still do it today. Better quality of butchering as in Knowing what is in the burger, cut the way we want it, and cleaned of all the excess "trash".  The one year I was unable to do it I still think I got someone else's meat because it tasted like crap almost like it was gut shot and improperly cleaned.. Threw out most of what we got from the butcher......

[mossy8352]

My father over 50 years ago in his grocery store and on our farm. We did use the local locker plant once the work was done for controlled long term storage.

[stevemiller]

Never used a paid butcher.Ive always butchered my own game.We had a pig and cattle farm growing up so we always did it ourselves.So now I must ask,Am I a butcher if I butcher my own? 

[Wazukie]

For me, money.  If I had to pay to have it butchered, I probably wouldn't hunt 

[Skillet]

Its all I knew.

Same here. Up until I was about 17 I didn't know people actually took their game animals to a butcher, we always butchered our own so I assumed others did the same

Same story here.  Grandpa's shed was the "hanging locker" for quite a few people's deer.  We'd set up the butcher table (which was just an old solid wooden entry door on sawhorses, the small opening where the window used to be positioned right above the trimmings bucket) and get to work.  No grinder, either - anything not cut into steaks, strips or roasts was jerky meat.  Sitting in that shed cutting meat with those old mule deer killers, listening through the bluest of air to stories being recounted time and time again, the facts of which got a little more incredible with each retelling, are some of my favorite memories of all.
I later found out some folks didn't do all that, and at the time I was a little envious of those kids who weren't put to work like that.  Wouldn't trade it for anything now, though.

[villageidiot]

I agree with all of you.  Costs too much, wait too long, bad job, wrong meat.  I started out cutting deer on the tailgate of the pickup.  As I got older I moved into the wood shop and got an electric grinder.  Now I raise my own beef and hogs and have 2 boys and 4 grandkids that hunt and also raise their own hogs and beef.  I did what we all dream of and built a walk in cooler 16 x 20 feet with rails and switches and hoist connected to my 20 x 20 meat shop with stainless sinks, commercial grinder and saw. Fluorescent lights, electric heat, it's own septic system and hot running water.  Although, I seemed to have acquired more friends that are also excited. My wife is a little perturbed with all the folks I help cutting their meat but I am more than willing to help them because you see I was once in their shoes.  I owe everything I have to Gods kindness and mercy helping me over my whole life. To be able to help others with my success is so rewarding to me.  I can help hopefully a few more people before I push up daisies but my boys and grandkids will have a jump on this great blessing of having a place to process their meat.  Most of all I hope to instill in them the gift of helping others not as fortunate as them.  Praise God!

[T Pearce]

I agree with all of you.  Costs too much, wait too long, bad job, wrong meat.  I started out cutting deer on the tailgate of the pickup.  As I got older I moved into the wood shop and got an electric grinder.  Now I raise my own beef and hogs and have 2 boys and 4 grandkids that hunt and also raise their own hogs and beef.  I did what we all dream of and built a walk in cooler 16 x 20 feet with rails and switches and hoist connected to my 20 x 20 meat shop with stainless sinks, commercial grinder and saw. Fluorescent lights, electric heat, it's own septic system and hot running water.  Although, I seemed to have acquired more friends that are also excited. My wife is a little perturbed with all the folks I help cutting their meat but I am more than willing to help them because you see I was once in their shoes.  I owe everything I have to Gods kindness and mercy helping me over my whole life. To be able to help others with my success is so rewarding to me.  I can help hopefully a few more people before I push up daisies but my boys and grandkids will have a jump on this great blessing of having a place to process their meat.  Most of all I hope to instill in them the gift of helping others not as fortunate as them.  Praise God!

Living the dream.
Bless you friend

[HunterStrait]

I was taught.
Its easy really.
Anyone can do it.

[brew]

i don't have any stainless steel equipment....all i have is a table that i put bricks underneath so i don't have to bend over to far...i cut out all of the silver skin and "wang" (which is anything else i don't want to eat)...cut steaks and make the rest into smoked meats....it isn't rocket science

[j_h_nimrod]

I grew up with raising (helping anyway)pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pheasant, goats, and cattle that we butchered ourselves. Hunting brought in deer, doves, elk, rabbits, and pheasant that we also butchered.  I figured that was what most people did, why pay money we didn't have to spare to have someone do a mediocre job for something you can do yourself. I was kind of disgusted when I learned there were many people that had no clue or desire to learn how to do it themselves.  I was really disgusted (about the hunter and the quality of the resulting meat) to learn some people dropped their animals off whole (ungutted) and had the butcher do even that simple task.  I figure I can cut and package a deer in less time than it would take me to drop it off and then pick up the finished product at a butcher and get a better product than many meat shops turn out for premium $$$.  I wish I had a hanging cooler, bigger grinder, and better meat cutting area but I am not complaining and will hopefully have these in the future. Wish I had pics from last night when I was stuffing some Italian sausages and one of my boys got so excited when he heard the grinder fire up that he had to come check it out and then run in and start yelling to mom that "dad is making sausage!"  Then all the kids had to come in and give me pointers on how to do it. Can't wait for them to start doing their own in a couple more years.

[deerhunter_98520]

Its been a tradition in my family...my dad passed his knowledge down to me and now he does the grinding and I do all the cutting and processing....the only thing I have someone else do is pepperoni and that's only because I don't have the equipment to do it yet....I've shown my friend how to process his from the time he shoots it till it his the frying pan....to me processing it myself its part of the hunt...its the biggest reward to  harvest and process my own food

[swinters]

Processing game was a hunting season event as far back as I can remember and we all looked forward to seeing the stack of freezer wrapped meat at the end of the project.  It wasn't optional but was fun and something we looked forward to.  I worked in a meat packing plant in Tacoma when I was in high school and several of the butchers had individual shops.  I remember them saying they didn't need meat from the plant since they got plenty by keeping a few cuts from each of the jobs they took in.  That was enough to keep me processing my own game, especially considering the cost of hunting it and bringing it home.  I'm sure that not all do that but darned if I know how to tell one way or the other.     

[jackmaster]

Another thing that works awesome boys is cardboard  I use pieces that are obviously clean, and 15" x 15" squares I have a few stacked together, when one gets soaked and slimy, I take it off and have new one right below it, you will find its way better than cutting on wood boards or plastic cutting boards, and the meat sticks just enough to the cardboard that when your fillet the sinew and tendons off your not chasing the meat around the table