Where to safely process game

[Crunchyknees]

Alright I've got a question for you guys that have lived here a while. I'm sure your first reaction will be that it's my fault for living downtown and I should either move or just pay someone else to do it. But I would rather learn to do it myself. So please humor me. I've been through the list of local butchers and know that I have them as an option. My real question though is where could I go if I had a deer to process that isn't just my apartment downtown. Sure I could pay a shop to process it but if there is a public place where I could clean game without upsetting the Seattlites I would prefer that. Any suggestions?

[npaull]

Public health laws may (I say may, I really don't know for sure) prohibit you from doing it in a public space within city limits. Once the carcass is hung, there should be very little blood. One serious option would be to buy a cheap tarp, put it on the floor of a room in your apartment, set up a collapsing table and process it there. The processing really doesn't have to be that messy. Another good option would be to drive to national forest etc with the same tarp and collapsible table to cut up your deer. I processed my deer the other night in my garage with this setup and honestly it would've been fine to do it in the house. I am assuming here you're starting with a gutted, hung and ideally skinned carcass...

[bobcat]

Maybe process it where you are hunting, before you go home. Or at least partially process it. Bring a folding table, and use that to bone it out, put your meat in zip lock bags, and label each one so you know if it's from the hind quarter, shoulder, back strap, etc. When you get home you'll have a cooler full of boneless meat in zip lock bags, ready for further processing, if needed, which should be possible to do in your apartment, or you could just throw it in the freezer as is.

[blackpowderhunter]

if you bring an animal home already quartered out with the rest of the loose meat (backstraps, trimmings, etc) in another game bag you should be good at home.
like said above, get a plastic folding table, a tarp, and youll be good to go. 
process it as far down as you can in the field and i think you should have no issue.  then its also easier to get up to your apt. without garnering some unwanted attention 

[Buckhunter24]

Maybe process it where you are hunting, before you go home. Or at least partially process it. Bring a folding table, and use that to bone it out, put your meat in zip lock bags, and label each one so you know if it's from the hind quarter, shoulder, back strap, etc. When you get home you'll have a cooler full of boneless meat in zip lock bags, ready for further processing, if needed, which should be possible to do in your apartment, or you could just throw it in the freezer as is.

This is how I did it in college, it works well leaving everything but the meat in the woods and then you can grind away in the apartment..

[ThurstonCokid]

Yes. I lived in an apartment for a while and would quarter it in the field. Back straps, tenderloins and neck meat separate, then bring it all inside. Cover table with garbage bags and good to go. Little to no blood that way also.


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[7mmfan]

Yep, as everyone else said, it's not very messy. There's really very little if any blood. You can do the majority of the work in the field by quartering, and boning it all out. Then all you have are smaller pieces of meat to cut and package when you get home. Just cut it up on the counter or on a table in your apartment. It's no different than going to Costco and bringing home a rib eye roast to cut into steaks in your apartment.

[viva_che1363]

  all the above. Even if you quarter it in the field and bring that home in game bags in a cooler you can process that in your kitchen. I like the tarp and folding table idea. If you have a dumpster then toss the bones etc In there. Otherwise, it's more work but you could break down the leg bones at the joints freeze then toss on trash day.  Of anyone gives you grief you could always remind then if free range organic and non GMOs meat and your trying to get away from consumerism etc.

[bobcat]

Another tip: get a Havalon Piranta knife. It will make the entire process much easier and faster.

Havalon Piranta-Edge with Blaze Orange Handle with 12 Additional Crazy Sharp Blades (Piranta-Edge Orange) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064GNZYM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OpKIDbSJPD9VX

[Stein]

For deer or antelope, it's no problemo.  For elk or larger your options are a bit more constrained.

Most of the good ideas have already been posted.

1.  Debone it in the field and you will be able to fit an entire deer in a regular sized cooler.  You can cut it up, grind, wrap and freeze even in the smallest kitchen assuming you have freezer space.  I've cut them up on the ground, on the tailgate, in a hotel parking lot, in a hotel room, in a campground, on a picnic table, pretty much anywhere will work.

2.  Do most of the processing in the field.  This really works well if you can freeze it there.  I've brought a small chest freezer, used freezers at hotel/motels and left it out overnight when cold enough.  If you don't freeze it, blood usually leaks through the plastic and gets the freezer paper all nasty by the time you get it to a freezer.  But, if you are the grind it all type of person that would be real easy to do and you can stack the plastic tubes upright in a cooler so they won't leak.

3.  Find a buddy with a house.

It's pretty easy to get rid of bones, there are garbage cans at every gas station and highway rest area.

[boneaddict]

I've done many animals including elk in just a little college apartment.   It can be done without too much of a fuss.  They were quartered or boned out in the field though.

[Bushcraft]

I'd recommend the OP do some research on the "gutless method" and deboning in the field (at least the hind quarters).  You're basically fileting the meat off the outside of the skeletal structure. Very fast, easy and clean, and you'll end up with very manageable portions that can be easily processed in your kitchen.

Due to my high buck laying the way that it was and being on the verge of slipping off of a cliff, it was the first time in many years that I've had to resort to taking the guts out of a critter. It reminded me again of what a dumb and potentially unnecessarily messy method it is.

[wkraemer]

I think Mr Kaplan (character from Blacklist) should help you..  There will be no mess for you to clean up/

[ghosthunter]

Maybe process it where you are hunting, before you go home. Or at least partially process it. Bring a folding table, and use that to bone it out, put your meat in zip lock bags, and label each one so you know if it's from the hind quarter, shoulder, back strap, etc. When you get home you'll have a cooler full of boneless meat in zip lock bags, ready for further processing, if needed, which should be possible to do in your apartment, or you could just throw it in the freezer as is.

My buddy does this in camp.

[KFhunter]

I kinda want a mobile processing trailer I can make camp out of,  it'll have fold down processing tables, on board water, chest freezer, bunks and everything I need to make a run for AK Caribou or a MT meat run or down to TX for a hog hunt, or a fish run to the coast.   I want to process everything right in the trailer and be able to sleep in it. 

[KFhunter]

I've done many animals including elk in just a little college apartment.   It can be done without too much of a fuss.  They were quartered or boned out in the field though.

I know a guy that did a moose on the kitchen floor of his single wide trailer

[ctwiggs1]

Dude - Steven Rinella lived in an apartment for years.

You can do it!  Kill the animal, cut it up and get it home. 

[full choke]

I've done many animals including elk in just a little college apartment.   It can be done without too much of a fuss.  They were quartered or boned out in the field though.

I know a guy that did a moose on the kitchen floor of his single wide trailer

Taken out of context- I would venture to say that man was from Florida...

[robescc]

Quarter it up and put it in an ice chest. When you get home, cut and wrap on your kitchen table. That is what I use to do when I lived in an apartment in Everett.

[Angry Perch]

I've done many animals including elk in just a little college apartment.   It can be done without too much of a fuss.  They were quartered or boned out in the field though.

I know a guy that did a moose on the kitchen floor of his single wide trailer

Taken out of context- I would venture to say that man was from Florida...

Best post ever.

[Caseyd]

I've done many animals including elk in just a little college apartment.   It can be done without too much of a fuss.  They were quartered or boned out in the field though.

I know a guy that did a moose on the kitchen floor of his single wide trailer

Taken out of context- I would venture to say that man was from Florida...

While on a Canadian vacation

[M_ray]

When I lived in Seattle most the time I would bone it and if not like others have said at least quartered. Once quartered a tarp on the table is all you need then when its dark take the bones out to the dumpster in balck garbage bags trust me lots of nosy parkers. Even now where I live I could process it here but so much easier to just take it Boned to B&E meats in Des Moines and have them do the rest. I take any meat left over from the previous year and have that made into pepperoni sticks or links cause you are gonna want to eat the fresh stuff and it keeps you from having anything get buried and freezer burnt.

[BULLBLASTER]

I have brought everything from deer to elk to moose quarters inside my house and put on oh kitchen island and cut it there. Quarter or bone it in the field and bring back to the apartment in coolers, keep on ice and the meat will be fine until you get it processed. Bones go in the dumpster if you brought them home.

[Stein]

I used to work for a guy that completely rebuilt his Harley in his tiny apartment living room without getting a spec of grease on the carpet, so a hind quarter would be child's play.  He had to pull out the couch and store it in his buddy's house to make room.

[Alchase]

In Kent I carried a dead deer with head removed, wrapped up tight over my shoulder into my apartment. 
A couple hours later I came back out with multiple hefty bags (bones and stuff) with blood on my hands to throw in the dumpster. The looks on my neighbors faces were classic. 

Craig, a Ukrainian guy brought it up months later after we got to know each other. He said all the Ukrainian ladies would whisper when I walked by.
I laughed and pointed to antlers on the wall. He started laughing hysterically. Apparently some thought It was a body that I cut up and disposed of in the dumpster.
I asked why no one said anything? He said they are Ukrainian, you don't ask questions.
 

 

[spin05]

just throw out a plastic table in the woods and start processing.  thats how we did it behind a hotel in Alaska in downtown Fairbanks

[scrapperdude]

I cut up and deboned a sheep last week on my tailgate and fold up table and did my buddies mule deer this week, had some serious looks from neighbors and don't really care what they think

[elkboy]

Alchase, that is classic.   

Speaking as one who has cut up deer in a tiny Seattle apartment (my cousin's), I would just say that a quartered out deer (with long cannon bones left in the field) wrapped up in a tarp or in a large cooler should be easy to get up to the apartment without any mess in the halls or stairs/elevator.  If anybody asks, it's a good opportunity to talk about healthy wild meat...