Price of venison

[teg]

A friend had trimmed up the fat from her deer meat so she could have "clean" ground meat, 90 lbs. She got back 90 lbs of deer meat with lots of fat... her and everyone else who had dear processed had it done all at once. I really wonder if you get the same deer...

For the price that they charge, you can buy the grinder and vacuum sealer.

I age the deer at 40* for 7-10 days, too. :thumbsup:

 

[clemsonfor]

why do people pay to butcher their deer ? its easy to do at home on the counter ... all you need is a spare fridge to run for 3-5 days while it ages (3 fine for little, the bigger the deer the longer ya need)

As well as a somewhat clean area to work. If i kill even 2 deer a year and pay $100 to do it it seems worth it to me. When i was just out of college and did not have a house or wife i still took the deer to get hung and cut but i skinned them myself to save the 10-12$ but now id have to have the tools ready i dont have a good place at the farm to hang and no good lights as well as the electrical is alreay loaded so i cant really add another circuit. Oneday id like to do it myself but in the mean time i pay. Also it would take me a few years to recover costs after buying a meat grinder and cuber.

 

[clemsonfor]

A friend had trimmed up the fat from her deer meat so she could have "clean" ground meat, 90 lbs. She got back 90 lbs of deer meat with lots of fat... her and everyone else who had dear processed had it done all at once. I really wonder if you get the same deer...

For the price that they charge, you can buy the grinder and vacuum sealer.

I age the deer at 40* for 7-10 days, too. :thumbsup:

Most processors will add in 3-5 % beef fat to give it some fat. Most do weigh your meat and do all the meat at once so if you have 40 lbs of cut chunks for burger you get back 40lbs from the mix, i beleive that is how its done. So the guy who leaves his deer on the groun with guts till 12pm from 8 am that morun in the 75 degree heat or the guy who blew the guts out of his 80lb doe with his 7mm mag gets mixed with yours. Just dont think about it and cook thoroughly. You can pick up rotted meat and if you dont gag at the smell as long as you cook it long and hot enough you wont get sick. Ever seen bear grils?

 

[grnspot110]

That is not a bad idea. I just don't want to buy\store all of that equipment, maintain it, repair it, replace it, for just 2 or three deer a year. I have often wondered if I am actually eating the deer I killed however!

I have the equipment needed, including hand grinder from growing up on a family farm. We butchered 4-5 hogs every year, beef was just too much to take care of, so it was "hired" done. Spent a little over 1/2 day Sunday cutting up, grinding & packaging two small deer, 35+# ground venison in the freezer! I wasn't brought up letting meat "hang", except long enough to let it "cool out" (overnight). ~~ grnspot110

 

[brin]

A friend had trimmed up the fat from her deer meat so she could have "clean" ground meat, 90 lbs. She got back 90 lbs of deer meat with lots of fat... her and everyone else who had dear processed had it done all at once. I really wonder if you get the same deer...

For the price that they charge, you can buy the grinder and vacuum sealer.

I age the deer at 40* for 7-10 days, too. :thumbsup:

teg....My wife tells me when she was a young girl she remembers going with here parents to the butcher and they would buy 1/2 of a steer and they would spend several hours standing there and watching their steer cut up as they had instructed. They watched it cut and wrapped to verify they were getting what they paid for. It was not just them, my wife tells me that is the way it was commonly done.

I have experienced my venison being stolen..the first deer I ever shot I took to the local processor and at the time I just blindly trusted them..So I picked the meat up and as I was putting the packages away in our freezer I did not find any backstrap or the inside tenderloin..I went back and asked the fella and he said he ground it up into the hamburger...LOL..I asked him why he ground that and not the other roasts or steaks..he just shrugged his shoulders..I never went back and after that I field dressed, skinned and butchered all my deer..Trust but verify...

 

[beenthere]

......... I drew my 2" blade pocket knife to cut off the tail (I use for making fishing lures), and as I picked up the tail, it leapt up on its feet. I jumped on its back and cut the jugular vane before it managed to thow me. That deer didnt even have a bruise and was probably the cleanest kill I have ever butchered. I will take them any way I can get them legally.

And what state is it legal to jump on their back and cut their throat with a knife?

Different from the WI laws. Not that I haven't done similar twice. Once when a buck wasn't wounded enough to not be able to keep moving away from me when I'd left my gun back at the stand. Lassoed it with my pulling rope, tied it to a tree and then went up the rope and slit its throat. Another time, shot a buck and it dropped to the ground. Shot a doe at the same time and gutted the doe first. Went back to the buck and it was already stiff as a board. Dragged it to a good spot to gut, and when I poked it with the knife to open it up, it twitched. Odd but finished the job. Didn't find a bullet hole anywhere, but apparently the bullet hit the base of the antler and knocked it out. :confused3:

As said, road kill can be ok and can be a disaster with massive hemoraging throughout. Just grind them twice to get the tire tracks out, and they are fine.

 

[merrickvilleguy]

As well as a somewhat clean area to work. If i kill even 2 deer a year and pay $100 to do it it seems worth it to me. When i was just out of college and did not have a house or wife i still took the deer to get hung and cut but i skinned them myself to save the 10-12$ but now id have to have the tools ready i dont have a good place at the farm to hang and no good lights as well as the electrical is alreay loaded so i cant really add another circuit. Oneday id like to do it myself but in the mean time i pay. Also it would take me a few years to recover costs after buying a meat grinder and cuber.

I suppose ... we get most of our food off the farm so we have a lot of that stuff already. But basic tools we use are just a meat grinder, vac packer and a set of knives. While we went all out on the knives, the grinder and vac packer were under 300$ for the pair.

You don't need much space to clean a deer, the only consideration is storing it for the aging time. We usually quarter it when it has aged and butcher the quarters on the counter.