Processing gear or Support your local processor?

A walk in cooler would be a great asset to me. We have seasons that open as early as aug fifteen nowadays. Only thing we can do if we score opening day (80-100 deg) is butcher next day.

Lucas and family have it goin on! Rembrant as well...meat meat meat!!!
 
My dad got me into processing when I was a teenager. Granted between the two of us, we averaged around 17 deer in a year. The best thing we ever got would be a tie between a commercial slicer (butcher went out of business), cuber (Cabelas hand crank), and a dehydrator (I love deer jerky lol). Now we also have a grinder and stuffer but they don't get used nearly as often as everything else. Occationally we would take a deer to the processor since our guy had a great recipe for maple infused deer sausage.
 
Trust these crooks up here. No way!! They charge 100.00 just to skin the animal here in this town last Fall. No road kill or some others poorly shot deer all mixed in together in the same meat tote for me. When a butcher weighs your deer. That's what your going to get back most likely. Although they will vehemently deny that ever takes place. >B.S.!! it happens.

A back step in my years of growing up on a farm: My father was a home butcher for himself and quite a few of our neighbors he'd butcher for also. Just one of his sidelines being a "Jack of all trades." Never for money. Just a deal made with a hand shake for a few cuts of meat in exchange for his labor. I learned how to butcher just about anything by helping him starting off at a very young age. I was the muscle behind that Chop Rite size 32 grinders crank handle for a couple years as I recall before electricity came too/through our area. Then promoted to trimmer and so on and so on. Pay never increase though. 5 or ten bucks {maybe?} when butchering a couple big heavy steers or a old bull & a dried up cow back to back was seen quite often.

Since I've been married coming close to 5 decades now. Only once did I bring my un-butchered deer to a butcher shop. Only because I was working two jobs at the time was the reason too. Lucky I had the time to hunt in those early days let along butcher my own meat. Took 2 months to get my smoked meat back. No chance of that ever happening here ever again.

Over the years here and there I bought equipment for the purpose. Big F. Dick up-right 12 pound or (6 liter) 2 speed crank stuffer. And a little LEM 5 pounder too for those Saturday night brats. For a grinders got a couple of those. One is a Toledo Scale model size 12 that has the power to grind cow bones into dog treats if I want. Cast iron constructed with a Delco Remy 5/8 HP single phase motor. Really heavy grinder when having to move it around. And a little LEM size 8 grinder for the kitchen duties here also.

My Smoker. It has 110 volt chip burner off to the side connected to a (separate) smoking cabinet able to hold 90 lbs of sausage or meat. 6- 14"x18" shelves plus hanging bars for it also.. A Ranger model I bought from a dealer up in Saskatoon Canada and had it trucked to my home. Spendy smoker for any home butcher. But it sure was worth it over the years. You name it I probably have smoked it. From elk & little 1/2 lb bull heads for a treat on the back yard deck with friends and beverage cooling in ice.

When anyone gets into home butchering. You can go about it in a expensive way or a frugal way. Its your call. But one thing is always certain. What ever you cut is far fresher than anything you have cut by some other stranger.
 
If you trust your local processor, like him, and don't have the desire to learn a rewarding skill, don't possess the tools or the time and energy to undertake a rewarding task ...... hire it out.

It's a no-brainer for me: I value tools and the skills to use them way above paper money.....


....and one of our our local "processors" was busted for selling venison ..... and then skipped town, owing either money or meat to just about everyone in the county but me .....
 
Man, some of you have some really crappy processors in your areas. When I go to pick my deer up, it is my deer, not a tote full of meat that was calculated based on my deer's weight. Then again, it is a smaller operation by a known family in the area. What you shoot, you get to eat.
 
just don't have the space to butcher up a deer myself. It wouldn't be bad I guess if I had some help, but it would just be me doing it if I did have the space and tools (other than knives) required. I have done it though, but usually take it to the butcher.
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I've butchered deer at a kitchen table that would seat 4 for dinner if you did not mind rubbing elbows with your table mates .....

...as for "tools" ..... a couple of knives, a steel or fine stone, a good hacksaw, something to keep the cut meet in or on, Saran wrap, freezer paper, freezer tape, and elbow grease are all that are really necessary. Other tools make for less elbow grease, but are "nice to have" as opposed to "need to have" ...... until I obtained a motorized grinder, I used one with a hand crank- froze the burger scraps in 1 pound packages and ground it when I used it .... a PITA, but you do what you have to do until you can afford better .....

I have a lot more tools now that make the job easier, than I did when I just started out ...... but if I lost them all, I could still get the job done ...... it's the skills that are priceless.
 
Get the basic gear and do it your self you get your deer back and a better product every time. We always process our own but couple years ago one of the guys said I'll take it to the processor and pay for it. Ok no problem. The place cut it up just like beef with band saw bone in and tallow on the cuts. They sawed it partially froze which is a good way to do it with saw but since they did not remove any tallow or fat it was all over the meat surface. I gave most of it away. To me deer fat and tallow is inedible. The place is my go to for beef and hog butchering but I will never have a deer done there again. Live and learn.

Mwal
 
I have encountered a hand full of people who detest venison. I am certain this is due wholly to improper processing and or preprocessing handling. It really gets my goat! Band saws and game do not go together whatsoever! Fat also should be totally eliminated - it is NOT good eats!

In fact it infuriates me the way that animals are mis handled here in town at certain times of the year. I am not naming names, or pointing fingers (yes I am), but these are deer hung up at a local motel, where the hide is left on for DAYS in 70 deg weather or warmer. You can't tell me that the guys who do this have any intention of eating that garbage. But I am sure they have no problem giving it away to unwary friends and acquaintences.

I once accepted a doe from an acquaintance that said he really didn't need the meat. If he could get some jerky from it he would be happy. So he showed up with it and we hung it in my shop. Don't remember now if it was skinned, but at any rate the cavity was fly blown, and maggots streamed out of the femural arteries. Fricking gack! What a jack wagon!!! Who does that?????

While I am on this rant...can anyone tell me the reasoning for hanging a deer by its neck?
 
I have encountered a hand full of people who detest venison
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My wife is one. I once substituted regular hamburger for deerburger in chili just to see if she would notice and even in chili she could tell the difference. The only venison I've been able to get her to eat without complaining is when she accidently ate my venison jerky instead of pork jerky. She didn't notice the difference in that.
 
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I have encountered a hand full of people who detest venison
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I used to have a neighbor who told me that quite often, until I told her every "hamburger" she had ever eaten at my house was venison.

She then decided "it's really not that bad"
 
Some people say that just because they don't know any better...it's the bambi syndrome. But others have had a bad experience and truly believe that all venison is terrible based on that. Again - they don't know any better, thanks to some jack wagon that had no respect for what they put on someones plate.

Ok - rant over....

I think that whether you use a processor or not, it is not a matter of right or wrong. But if a person does use a processor, he or she should insist on using one who does not employ the use of a band saw, at the very minimum. If they want quality meat anyway. My opinion...
 
Barnacle Brad said:
....While I am on this rant...can anyone tell me the reasoning for hanging a deer by its neck?
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I've done it both ways....the advantage to hanging by the neck is the rear quarters can be easily removed intact without the the weight shifting as on a gambrel and falling. This is if the head is of no value and will be discarded with the rest of the carcass.

If I'm doing a buck that will go to the taxidermist, it's easier to save the cape by using a gambrel hanging from the quarters.
 
I think the neck thing started with "Let it drain down and out". I always figured that by the time I got it out of the woods, it was pretty much done draining. I would guess most commercial butchers mix meat when making sausage and and other products. It would be costly to just fire up the vat for a few pounds of sausage. I could not agree more about not putting bone in the freezer. What ever the deer was eating stays in the fat and bone marrow. If the deer was eating a lot acidic browse, the marrow and fat will give the meat a bitter taste. One year I killed a buck in full rut. Not the first time, but the odor was REALLY strong. You could smell it when you cooked the frozen meat. I have a cap on my truck and when I opened the back door it was strong for over a week. It is possible this is the "Wild taste" some people talk about.
 
"Let it drain down and out"
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Ok...yet the femural arteries are severed in the pelvic area. The hams have the most mass, therefore the most blood. The next largest vessels of import run to the head. When you factor in the skinning process, that is started when field dressing and hams are partially skinned at that point.

Now let me see if I can tie all this together...

I remove the lower legs fore and aft, in the truck bed and continue skinning the hind qtr to below the hock, then transfer to gambrel which conveniently has hooks at either end for insertion into the hocks. Next the animal is hoisted and tied off about even with my chin. Now it is easy for me to skin across the rump and cut off the tail, pull the hide down the back and skin the front qtrs, finishing at the neck. Cutting the head off now opens the veins and arteries there. The belly skin is cut back from the pelvis and along the edge of the backstrap down to the ribs. Now I can find the femural arteries and unclog them of coagulated blood, then with the heal of my palm, I can apply pressure to the meat and force fluid out of them. The blood drains down from the ham and down from the front qtrs to the opened vessels in the neck.

Then as far as breaking the carcass down, I first remove the shoulders. This exposes the entire backstraps which are removed next followed by the tenderloins and all meat from neck and ribs worthy of processing. The only remaining meat is the hams. They are broken down by filleting the meat away from the H bone and exposing the ball joint. When the ball joint is severed, there is usually a little more tissue to cut through to free the ham entirely. The weight of the rib cage helps create separation at the ball joint. Both hams can be worked simultaneously so that they are freed up at once, dropping the rib cage to the floor.
 
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re: "let it drain down and out"

If you shot the deer through the lungs, it died because it bled to death: lack of blood (pressure) to move oxygen to the brain .... It's pretty well done bleeding by the time you get to it, and certainly by the time you field dress it.

As for
the advantage to hanging by the neck is the rear quarters can be easily removed intact without the the weight shifting as on a gambrel and falling.
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: a moment of forethought and a piece of rope with a hook on the end makes this a non-issue.

Skinning is so much easier head-down: the skin around the hocks is very thin, making getting started easier, and also makes just grabbing it and pulling it fruitless: it will just tear off in strips. The neck and shoulder skin is just the opposite: thick and tough, so it is hard to get started, but can be pulled on, and with pliers if need be, and will more readily hold together, coming off in one piece, like a shirt, with only minimal cuts from the knife.....
 
I was told to hang by the neck all deer and antelope, especially antelope. The thought is that the musk glands leak and can alter the flavor of the meat. On deer if yo cut the rear legs of right away then no problem. Don't use the same knife to cut any of the meat. Wash it good before you use it again. For deer I carry dedicated pocket knife for that chore. Antelope is a different story, That whole white rump patch is one huge scent gland. Skin it out last.
As far as blood draining, any body shot causes them to die from lack of blood. Head shot, cut the throat , and hang by rear legs.
 
I was told to hang by the neck all deer and antelope, especially antelope. The thought is that the musk glands leak and can alter the flavor of the meat. On deer if yo cut the rear legs of right away then no problem. Don't use the same knife to cut any of the meat. Wash it good before you use it again. For deer I carry dedicated pocket knife for that chore. Antelope is a different story, That whole white rump patch is one huge scent gland. Skin it out last.
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Sorry - I have to call bs on this entire post. Any musk glands come off with the hide - nothing left to "leak". Use a dedicated knife and don't let it touch any meat - this is folly. White patch is one huge scent gland - now I have heard everything. I am not trying to be mean but that is just redonkulous. How would they use that huge gland? Do the poop scoot boogie on some cactus? Stop laughing, I am serious....
 
I'm going to process at home this fall. I've set up a hook for skinning in the garage. I have a meat saw, a vacuum sealer, a solid table and butcher block, and all the knives I need. I don't want to invest a ton of money in anything else. But I know I'm missing something.

I will buy one of the following; a hand cranked meat grinder, a smoker, or a dehydrator. Which of them should I invest in? Or what am I missing? I'm looking for food on the table with the lowest possible investment, and I know how to cook and cut.
 
Northern tool has a #32 hand crank grinder that comes with a pulley to hook up to an electric motor if you are into DIY. Pretty robust system if you use the right motor. LEM has a foot pedal you plug the grinder into so you only have power while you stand on it. Safety first! Will post a link...or two...
 
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