List your Favorite meat processor..

[Pathfinder101]

All of this talk is making me want to learn to cut my own..

It's not as hard as you think.  Cut off the quarter and take a look at it.  God put it  together in chunks (muscle groups).  Just start taking them apart by separating one muscle group from another and cutting them off the bone.  If you want a roast, wrap the muscle group as one big chunk.  If you want steaks, lay the muscle group on a cutting board and slice to desired thickness.  All the "extra" slivers and chunks go into a bowl to be later ground into burger or packaged and frozen by the handful for stew meat or fajitas. 
Hand grinders are not expensive.  Get some beef or pork fat (I like using bacon ends).  Run it once through the grinder.  Run your deer/elk meat once through the grinder.  Mix them together in a bowl, then run it through the grinder 1 or two times together.  Viola!  Burger.
Want breakfast sausage?  Add some sausage spices to the bowl before you grind the meat and the fat together and mix real well.  It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon...
 

[iRem]

I started processing my game last year and will never go back to Butcher Boys to make the cuts. I will take in my scrapes to have him do the pepperoni and jerky! Yum, I'm now ready for Sept.

[Elkrunner]

All of this talk is making me want to learn to cut my own..

It's not as hard as you think.  Cut off the quarter and take a look at it.  God put it  together in chunks (muscle groups).  Just start taking them apart by separating one muscle group from another and cutting them off the bone.  If you want a roast, wrap the muscle group as one big chunk.  If you want steaks, lay the muscle group on a cutting board and slice to desired thickness.  All the "extra" slivers and chunks go into a bowl to be later ground into burger or packaged and frozen by the handful for stew meat or fajitas. 
Hand grinders are not expensive.  Get some beef or pork fat (I like using bacon ends).  Run it once through the grinder.  Run your deer/elk meat once through the grinder.  Mix them together in a bowl, then run it through the grinder 1 or two times together.  Viola!  Burger.
Want breakfast sausage?  Add some sausage spices to the bowl before you grind the meat and the fat together and mix real well.  It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon...
 

I may have to try it out sometime.  I know my dad and them did it when I was younger.  I have always took my deer into twisp because of the weather.  But this year I ended up picking up a marine 162 that I can fit a deer in.  I might just have to give it a shot. 

[KopperBuck]

All of this talk is making me want to learn to cut my own..

It's not as hard as you think.  Cut off the quarter and take a look at it.  God put it  together in chunks (muscle groups).  Just start taking them apart by separating one muscle group from another and cutting them off the bone.  If you want a roast, wrap the muscle group as one big chunk.  If you want steaks, lay the muscle group on a cutting board and slice to desired thickness.

And a lot of this doesn't necessarily require a knife even, depending on the condition - I've worked on some that were half froze Just use your fingers to separate the muscles, couple little cuts and you're golden.

[Pathfinder101]

All of this talk is making me want to learn to cut my own..

It's not as hard as you think.  Cut off the quarter and take a look at it.  God put it  together in chunks (muscle groups).  Just start taking them apart by separating one muscle group from another and cutting them off the bone.  If you want a roast, wrap the muscle group as one big chunk.  If you want steaks, lay the muscle group on a cutting board and slice to desired thickness.

And a lot of this doesn't necessarily require a knife even, depending on the condition - I've worked on some that were half froze Just use your fingers to separate the muscles, couple little cuts and you're golden.

   Still need a knife to get it off the bone.

[Elkrunner]

For you guys that bone out your animals while on the trip.  About how long does a good size deer and elk take?  I have have been watching the gutless method but have never seemed to use it.  I have always seemed to have lucked out and been able to drag my animal out.

What are you all doing with the meat on the early archery season if you get one?  Are you putting it in coolers?

[Elkrunner]

Sorry for all the post.  I am truly thinking of trying my own this year.  I just spoke with my buddy and he is up for it.  It should give us something to do while kicking back some beers.  About how much are you guys spending on supplies for a deer or elk? 

[Bean Counter]

To start out, you could spend very little. Mainly just three items: sharpening your butcher knives, buying some heavy duty aluminum foil or freezer paper, and some quality freezer (ie Ziplock) bags.

Cut up as much into steaks, roasts, and stirfry/stew chunks as you can. Take all the excess scrap and save that. If everything goes well this year and you want to do it again, you can always get another animal next year, and grind up whatever you save from this year.  That way you haven't dropped $500 on a grinder and a food saver.

Who plops the money down for such a grinder is a thread in and of itself. I bought all the stuff I let my hunting party use. They buy all the Food Saver bags and made up for the costs by driving a few years and/or providing hunting access.

The key to those scraps (as well as all the rest) lasting a year+ in the freezer is for no air contact against the meat whilst frozen. Pack that meat into the bag and smash out as much air with your hands from the ziplock bag. Then wrap it in freezer foil or butcher paper (my favorite). write the date on the paper and toss it in the freezer.

I just thawed and ground up some meat in the back of the freezer that was killed in the fall of 2008. It was packaged well and I couldn't taste a difference from anything frozen six months ago.

[elkslayer99]

 Owens Meats!! Cle Elum They are the best!! And worth the drive!

[jechicdr]

I generally butcher the meat right away, or I clear out the refrigerator and put the quarters in until I can get back to cut them.  I cut everything I can into steaks.  I start by separating the individual muscles from each other, then using a sharp fillet knife, whittle away any dried or brown (oxidized) meat, membranes, fat, blood vessels, and gristle.  The remaining piece of meat I then cut cross grain into steaks 1-1.5 inches thick.  This guarantees the most tender steak you can make.  Some steaks I will make and cut out the gristle that might be in the steak.  If the piece is too small to call a "steak" it becomes "stew" meat.  But it's not really stew meat, but tender little bite sized steaks that really don't need "stewed" to make them tender.  Thinner pieces may be set aside for jerky or ground into burger.  I do not throw my "scraps" in the grinder, only good meat that is really too small to do anything else with or some of the gristly pieces from the distal front and back quarters that is not worth trying to fillet away.  If you take a hind quarter and just cut across with a band saw as many butchers will do, some of your cuts will be cross, some will be with and some will be diagonal and I guarantee you will not be as happy with your steak.  Backstrap I also cut every tendon, every bit of oxidized meat off.  Some of the thin flat muscles of the chest I cut into strips for jerky, or grind for burger.  The "wild" taste some people get in their game may be less than fresh meat (hung too long at too high a temperature).