Do you butcher your own?

[7mmfan]

In an effort to give Swede a platform to voice his grievances with butchers, I wanted to start a butchering thread. Move this to the meat care/cooking forum if need be I suppose. For the vast majority of us, meat is why we hunt. There's obviously more to it than that, but the end goal is to have a freezer full of free range wild meat. But how do you reach the final stage of that meat in the freezer?

Do you butcher your own? If yes, why do you choose to? Bad experience with butcher? Enjoy the process? Control issues?

If not, why don't you? Convenience? Don't know how? Don't like handling icky meat?

I personally butcher my own. Everything but some specific cured meats that I take to a butcher I know and trust. I was raised that way, and have continued that tradition. I really, truly enjoy the process. I have however dramatically changed that process now from when I was 12 and doing it the first time. Growing up, everything was a steak to my dad. There was little knowledge of anatomy and choice cuts other than backstrap. Everything was lumped into steaks or grind. All of our grind was taken to a local butcher for one item, summer sausage. I can remember chewing on steaks that most likely were shanks, or neck, or some tendon infested front shoulder piece. It really wasn't that enjoyable.

Fast forward 25 years. My wife enjoys game meat, but only if it's tasty and cooked to juicy perfection. For me, eating game meat is why I hunt, so if my family doesn't want to eat it, I'd have no reason to continue hunting. Now, through many YouTube videos and books on the subject, I have learned how to correctly butcher a deer/elk/bear, and best use each cut of meat to it's fullest. This has allowed to me to ensure that each meal of game meat, whether steaks, backstrap, grind, roasts, whatever, is cooked appropriately for the piece of meat I'm using.

I have also fine tuned a process of caring for my meat post hunt, even for long periods of time from kill to freezer. Last year, in fact, my Mule Deer (170" massive body buck) was killed on the first day of a 10 day hunt. It wasn't frozen until 14 days after I killed it. That meat was some of the best eating deer meat that I've ever had. I'll expand on that process in another thread maybe.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Heck yes, I butcher my own animals! I was raised that way, and now I'm too picky about how it's done to take a perfectly good deer or elk to someone I don't know for processing.

I take pride in bringing quality venison to the table, especially for non hunters to enjoy. It's another way to be an ambassador for hunters.

[7mmfan]

Heck yes, I butcher my own animals! I was raised that way, and now I'm too picky about how it's done to take a perfectly good deer or elk to someone I don't know for processing.

I take pride in bringing quality venison to the table, especially for non hunters to enjoy. It's another way to be an ambassador for hunters.

I agree with this part specifically. A discussion about conservation and ethics is one thing, but when you open your freezer and pull out a package of meat to show them, and describe the entire process from beginning to end of how that meat got there, and then finish it with a delicious meal, it's hard for non-hunters, and even some anti-hunters, to argue with. I've been lucky enough to do this multiple times and change some minds on the subject.

Let's be real, if the story went, "I ran through the rain to the entrance of the supermarket, grabbed a basket instead of a cart, and then stealthily walked back to the meat cooler where I grabbed the freshest sell-by-date package of beef rib eyes, grabbed a jar of salsa on my way to the checkout line, and then sprinted back through the rain to my Prius", most wouldn't be to impressed.

[saddlesore]

I always do my own,same as I did my beef and hogs.Then again I am cheap. They charge about $300 do to an elk and that is if is cleaned, quartered, and bagged.Then you still get meat back with hair on it that was not on your elk and you argue with the butcher why you only get 2 grocery bags of meat from a 300 pound carcass. City folks have no idea how much meat they should get,so they don't know how much they are getting screwed. Butchers around here rate right up there with used car salesmen, lawyers, and politicians

[Billy Goat]

I'm a bit embarrassed to find myself in the minority. I've processed several of my own deer before, but never an elk. In those cases, my processing was pretty minimal. Tenderloins whole, butterfly the backstrap, grind the rest. Maybe hold out some hind for jerky.

Last years experience with a local butcher was a pretty horrible experience though. On my dads elk, I told the butcher to cut loins in 3 equal sections, butterfly straps, steak the hinds, and grind the rest. my dad got back about 10# of steaks, and the rest (including tenderloins) got ground. it was an unmitigated disaster.

procedure wise...... what do yall do to process one or more elk? that's A LOT of meat to process in one sitting. Multiple workers? or just a lot of time with the wife helping, or..... what?

also... whats the consensus on butcher paper vs vacuum sealing? I prefer vacuum sealing.

I'm even more interested in hearing how much work a cow (moo/beef) is. thats YET more work, since it's way more weight. we slaughter our beef cattle at about 1000# on the hoof. I dont have a good place to dispose of the skin/head/innerds, bones, etc off a moo cow. =/ I'm spending about $550/cow for processing. ~$0.55/# on the hoof.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Neck, front shoulders and backstraps on the first evening, hindquarters the next. Tenderloins are usually already eaten before the main process. I bag the grind meat and freeze it till I have enough to do a big batch of sausage.

I find elk are easier than deer because the muscle groups are bigger. It's a lot easier to pull 6oz steaks out of random muscle groups on an elk. Oh, and I do the saran wrap and butcher paper cause it's cheap and that's how I was taught.

Edit to add: when I can get dad to do it with me, we fly through the animal. Usually about 3-4 hours for a full elk between us. One deer will take me 4 or 5 hours on my own.

[Tigger]

We have always done our own deer and it turns out pretty good. However, with elk, our group consists of guys who live in 3 different areas of the state. Because we have a butcher that we actually trust, we bring it to him and have been very pleased with the results. For antelope, we have done a combination of us making the steaks and the butcher making the brats.

One big BIG tip I will share....a pellet grill makes a world of difference in the cooking process. I am admittedly not that great of a cook and it even makes me look good! I am just getting into smoking meats and have had some fantastic successes making jerky and some unmitigated disasters in smoking suckers. Actually, the suckers turned out sooooo bad that watching my buddies try and choke them down has provided me with way more humor than should be legal. It is still kind of a raw wound to them , but damn, was it funny ! Who knew you should brine them first? Ha! Not me!

[Elkhunttoo]

I do my own because that’s what we did growing up. Then when I got old enough and moved out I found out how much it cost so I just kept doing it. Honestly it’s not my favorite part of the process, more of just get it done type of thing. It always feels good when I finish though. I have always used paper, we bought a vacuum sealer last year but had enough paper left over to cover what i needed with last years deer. I do plan on using the sealer this year though and see what I like better.

[Swede]

I have never eaten raw dried sucker, but it does sound awful. YUCK! I have had dried raw caribou. It was just hung up raw and dried. It was not something I wanted second of either, but given a choice between that and sucker, I would go for the caribou.
I don't butcher my meat, either deer or elk anymore. I used to, and actually enjoyed it, but I am over that now.

[GoGriz1234]

I took my last elk to the processor due to time constraints and needing to catch a plane. It is on my to-do list to process the next one myself. Do you guys have photos of your processing setups and tips for the “can’t do without equipment”? I could likely get it done with what I have on hand, but I would rather set myself up for success if possible.

[Lefty]

Both my parents came off of farms
Grandparents would invite us grand kids to help when killing chickens and ducks, I was young, my job was to catch and bring birds to my aunt or grandma

My wife had kill bunches of mule deer . But they always gave the meat away.

And me being a trapper I processed lots of beaver meat, and other small game

We killed and processed the last steer that’s now in the freezer.

We process most of our own big game but we also have a neighbor that does big game.
At $225 for our moose which included about 10 lbs of jerky then tossed in washed game bags that was a bargain.


Otherwise Deer and antelope are done about as soon as we make a mess.

[7mmfan]

I'm a bit embarrassed to find myself in the minority. I've processed several of my own deer before, but never an elk. In those cases, my processing was pretty minimal. Tenderloins whole, butterfly the backstrap, grind the rest. Maybe hold out some hind for jerky.

Last years experience with a local butcher was a pretty horrible experience though. On my dads elk, I told the butcher to cut loins in 3 equal sections, butterfly straps, steak the hinds, and grind the rest. my dad got back about 10# of steaks, and the rest (including tenderloins) got ground. it was an unmitigated disaster.

procedure wise...... what do yall do to process one or more elk? that's A LOT of meat to process in one sitting. Multiple workers? or just a lot of time with the wife helping, or..... what?

also... whats the consensus on butcher paper vs vacuum sealing? I prefer vacuum sealing.

I'm even more interested in hearing how much work a cow (moo/beef) is. thats YET more work, since it's way more weight. we slaughter our beef cattle at about 1000# on the hoof. I dont have a good place to dispose of the skin/head/innerds, bones, etc off a moo cow. =/ I'm spending about $550/cow for processing. ~$0.55/# on the hoof.

I don't have any good photos of the process, but there is a plethora of good videos online. This one by Clay Hayes is pretty helpful.



What I have found is the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself is to go into the process with a plan of what you want to do with the meat. LIke you said, it is a lot of meat, and it can get a little overwhelming as you start taking them apart. If you know that you want to use x-cut for this, and y-cut for that, and all the front shoulder and neck for grind, etc... then it becomes easier to focus on what you're doing and move through the animal quicker.

As far as getting after one or more animals, especially mature bulls, multiple guys help a lot, but I did my last one by myself in 3 days, working evenings after work. The biggest thing that I try to remember is that there is no huge rush as long as you have a way to keep the meat cold. I store all my meat in my garage beer fridge and have kept meat in there for 2 weeks no problem. If you have help though, you can make pretty short work of a mature bull. 3 or 4 hours.

On the topic of vac sealing vs. plastic and paper. I prefer to vac seal, but that's me. I've also had great results with plastic and paper. I think if you do a good job of squeezing all the air out of your plastic and wrapping it tight, it's similar to vac sealing in longevity.

[7mmfan]

I took my last elk to the processor due to time constraints and needing to catch a plane. It is on my to-do list to process the next one myself. Do you guys have photos of your processing setups and tips for the “can’t do without equipment”? I could likely get it done with what I have on hand, but I would rather set myself up for success if possible.

Griz, you can do an entire deer or elk with nothing more than your hunting knife if you like. I rarely use saws or any special tooling as I don't want bones in my meat. Everything is boned out and sliced into whatever cut I want. For me though I have a couple of good boning/breaking knives, a good knife sharpener, cutting boards, and good food grade totes to store meat in as I cut. Having 2 or 3 good sharp knives handy makes a big difference. As one gets dull, move to the next and then after they are all dulling, you take a break from cutting, sharpen your knives, drink whatever your beverage of choice is, and get back to work.

[CMF]

I do my own cleaning/deboning and cut my own roast and backstrap steaks. I bring the scraps and smaller pieces to processor for sausage and ground meat. I really like the sausage where I bring it, and it's too convenient to have them go ahead and do the ground meat.

[7mmfan]

I'm the same CMF, except we grind our own burger, and I make my own bulk sausages. For things like Summer Sausage, Lanjager, etc... basically the cured meats, I let them do it as I am not set up to do that stuff. I do make my own jerky though.

[wawhitey]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

[7mmfan]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

Need to spend more time at sea I guess...

[WapitiTalk1]

I process my own deer but use a couple of different outfits for elk. Maybe one day.....

[wawhitey]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

Need to spend more time at sea I guess...

Dont know that i could. Got back from a 3 week job on the 6th at 1am, got called back at noon, told it was just a run to anchorage and back. Nope. Heading out to several hellholes in western alaska. No august bear hunting for me this year.

[Indian Summer]

Depends. If I kill an elk late in the hunt I take whole quarters home and do it myself. But if I get one down early I drop it at the processor so I can get right back to the mountain to help my partner. Plus I don’t care for having meat sitting for 2 weeks plus the drive home. It’s nice getting home and just packing the freezer with vac sealed meat! My deer at home I do myself. If you saw the whitetails stacked up here is Pa you’d know why. Plus I have zero tolerance for even 1 hair in my meat.

[7mmfan]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

Need to spend more time at sea I guess...

Dont know that i could. Got back from a 3 week job on the 6th at 1am, got called back at noon, told it was just a run to anchorage and back. Nope. Heading out to several hellholes in western alaska. No august bear hunting for me this year.

Oh that's brutal. I'll kill one or two for you

[wawhitey]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

Need to spend more time at sea I guess...

Dont know that i could. Got back from a 3 week job on the 6th at 1am, got called back at noon, told it was just a run to anchorage and back. Nope. Heading out to several hellholes in western alaska. No august bear hunting for me this year.

Oh that's brutal. I'll kill one or two for you

Ill try to get it done when i get back. If things go smoothly i could be back the last week of august. If not, september it is. Just got my .460 redone, properly this time. Want to take a bear with it.

[wawhitey]

Back on topic, canned meat is awesome. Deer, elk, bear, cougar... its all great. And if my freezers take a crap on me while im out at sea, this stuff at least will be fine.

[B4]

best way to package meat....i use propack disposable gallon storage bags ....drop meat in bag....remove air....twist closed....drop in vacuum bag....vacuum seal.....storage bag eliminates moisture interfering with vac sealer...fast process...i also print labels to just slap on package

[7mmfan]

For the last 4 years I've been hunting out of state, approx 10 hours from home. Not a huge distance, but everyone knows what a job it is when you get home to get gear out cleaned, dried, organized, repaired, and stored until the following season. It can take a few days or more sometimes depending on family and work schedules. 2 Years ago, after 2 years of coming home with coolers full of meat that needed attention and trying to work them into the schedule, I started processing them in camp. Man it is nice to show up at home with everything packaged and ready to just toss in the freezer. Disclaimer: we have been camping at a spot with power, so I bring my vac sealer. However, if you didn't have power you could do the same with plastic wrap and paper. I do prefer vac sealing for the purpose of extended wet aging of my meat though. We are also hunting mid October, so this may be more difficult to accomplish for you guys flinging sticks in September.

Last year my Mule Deer hung for a full week in camp. The first few days it was cold, and gradually warmed throughout the week. I would leave my big meat cooler wide open at night to chill and in the morning before heading out for the day I would toss my quarters and bagged meat into that cooler. In the evening, I would hang them back up for the night. This back and forth seemed to work really well at keeping the meat at the right cold temperature despite fairly warm mid day conditions. My elk was killed a couple of days after the opener and hung for probably 4 days. 2 days before we left camp I stayed in (tagged out anyway) and started processing. I'm picky about my meat, it has to be extremely clean and well trimmed so it took me almost 2 full days of standing around camp bs'ing with folks and drinking a few beverages to get them all cut up, but when it was all said and done I had all my choice cuts and roasts vacuum sealed and a mound of trim for processing that I packaged in gallon vac seal bags which hold exactly 5# portions, which makes it nice for processing down the road.

At this point, all my meat is safe. Once oxygen is removed from the process, and they are safe from the moisture of ice, I can bury them in the cooler with ice for a LONG TIME. I've done some research on the benefits of "wet aging" and it can really help the quality of the meat. Coupled with a good period of dry aging, you are being set up for great success. These two animals made it into the freezer on Friday the 25th, the deer was killed on Sunday the 13th. It was hands down one of the finest eating mule deer I've killed. When I cook any of my choice cuts at home, I thaw, season, and wrap in plastic wrap, write a date on them, and toss them in the fridge for a few days to let the salt/seasoning penetrate. This really enhances the flavor. This winter, I left a big chunk of backstrap in the fridge by mistake for 10 days. When I pulled it out, sure it would be rancid, I was greeted by the wonderful smell of Johnnies and chipotle. That piece of meat was exceptionally tender and flavorful. that piece of meat had spent a grand total of 22 days unfrozen after the kill.

If power wasn't available, I'd say you could do the same process with paper/plastic, you would just need to be careful about moisture when in the cooler. Contractor trash bags, giant zip locks, or dry ice would be options to help with this I would think, dry ice suspended above the meat probably being the ideal situation.

Side note: A big white 90 quart igloo cooler will hold EXACTLY 1 processed spike elk. It will also likely break the handles when moving. Ask me how I know.

[Lefty]

I wont let another man handle my meat. I know how i like it handled.

Need to spend more time at sea I guess...

Isnt he on a tug-boat... or tow boat

[Lefty]

,Side note: A big white 90 quart igloo cooler will hold EXACTLY 1 processed spike elk. ,,,,.

I always get a kick out of those guys that think they need 10,12,13 cubic foot freezer for their cow elk

90 quart= 3.001 cubic feet

[7mmfan]

,Side note: A big white 90 quart igloo cooler will hold EXACTLY 1 processed spike elk. ,,,,.

I always get a kick out of those guys that think they need 10,12,13 cubic foot freezer for their cow elk

90 quart= 3.001 cubic feet

Yep. I have a 4' long chest freezer. Last year I put a spike elk, mature mule deer, average bear, and about 10 salmon in there. She was full, but I got it all in.

[GoGriz1234]

What can I expect weight wise, if I shoot a good body sized bull, say a four year old 6x6, and take my time trimming and wrapping at home (heart shot so no damage to the major muscle groups)?

[saddlesore]

Average field-dressed weight, boneless meat yield, and proportion of harvest in relation to age of elk1. University of WY

Message me with your email address and I send full report

First number is age (bull) 2nd is weight 3rd is Boneless meat, 4th is % yield
1½ 280 140 29.9
2½ 337 168 23.2
3½ to 4½ 400 200 21.7
5½ to 6½ 504 252 10.8

[lamrith]

I'm a bit embarrassed to find myself in the minority. I've processed several of my own deer before, but never an elk. In those cases, my processing was pretty minimal. Tenderloins whole, butterfly the backstrap, grind the rest. Maybe hold out some hind for jerky.

Last years experience with a local butcher was a pretty horrible experience though. On my dads elk, I told the butcher to cut loins in 3 equal sections, butterfly straps, steak the hinds, and grind the rest. my dad got back about 10# of steaks, and the rest (including tenderloins) got ground. it was an unmitigated disaster.

procedure wise...... what do yall do to process one or more elk? that's A LOT of meat to process in one sitting. Multiple workers? or just a lot of time with the wife helping, or..... what?

also... whats the consensus on butcher paper vs vacuum sealing? I prefer vacuum sealing.

I'm even more interested in hearing how much work a cow (moo/beef) is. thats YET more work, since it's way more weight. we slaughter our beef cattle at about 1000# on the hoof. I dont have a good place to dispose of the skin/head/innerds, bones, etc off a moo cow. =/ I'm spending about $550/cow for processing. ~$0.55/# on the hoof.

I don't have any good photos of the process, but there is a plethora of good videos online. This one by Clay Hayes is pretty helpful.



What I have found is the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself is to go into the process with a plan of what you want to do with the meat. LIke you said, it is a lot of meat, and it can get a little overwhelming as you start taking them apart. If you know that you want to use x-cut for this, and y-cut for that, and all the front shoulder and neck for grind, etc... then it becomes easier to focus on what you're doing and move through the animal quicker.

As far as getting after one or more animals, especially mature bulls, multiple guys help a lot, but I did my last one by myself in 3 days, working evenings after work. The biggest thing that I try to remember is that there is no huge rush as long as you have a way to keep the meat cold. I store all my meat in my garage beer fridge and have kept meat in there for 2 weeks no problem. If you have help though, you can make pretty short work of a mature bull. 3 or 4 hours.

On the topic of vac sealing vs. plastic and paper. I prefer to vac seal, but that's me. I've also had great results with plastic and paper. I think if you do a good job of squeezing all the air out of your plastic and wrapping it tight, it's similar to vac sealing in longevity.

I have to second the Clay Hayes recommendation. He does a great job working thru the 1/4s describing what is for what. I got my 1st elk last year, and I processed it using his videos as I had never been hand on an elk before. Probably a bad idea as I had no idea what I was doing, but I did it anyway. Took a few days being solo and new, but now I know and the next time will be faster and I know I got every scrap I could off of him. I highly recommend a partner of some sort to help though, doing it completely solo is time consuming, and can become complex in terms of proper storage of meat before you get to it depending on weather.

[saddlesore]

Some guys get too wrapped up in the details. Cut every thing that looks like it will make a steak into steaks. Package everything that looks like it would make a good roast. If it comes of the front quarter call it a chuck. If it comes off the back strap, call it a chop except the first 6 from the pelvis forward.Those are T-Bones.Grind the rest

[>>>---WW---->]

Anything that doesn't look like a steak goes into the grinder at our house. We also have a commercial tenderizer. So even some of that burger meat can be made into tenderized steaks.

[Tom Grates]

We built a little butcher shop, do mostly whitetail, we hammer them, so it would cost a kings ransom to pay someone.
I have only shot one elk so far, I dropped that off at a butcher, I was too beat up when we returned home.