Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Butchering at home

Fellas,
I’ve been using this guide for 45 years. It’s pretty good.

https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/jm214s65d?locale=en





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Thanks, that is an excellent image of the name of the cuts and guidelines!

Outdoor Edge has produced a series of butchering your animals at home, including How to Make Sausage and The Best Jerky. I bought the entire set of DVDs it is a great investment and makes for an excellent Christmas Gift for anyone who is starting their Hunting career.

I have been doing all of my own butchering for over 30 years, and have saved THOUSANDS of $$$$ by doing it myself, and never worrying if I am getting my animal back!

Good little write-up. Thanks.

I started doing a lot of my own about 20 years ago and have pretty much stuck to the three cuts in the hindquarters, tenderloins, backstraps, and everything else goes in the grinder. If we had 200lb+ deer, I might look into other cuts with the neck and shoulders, but we do eat a lot of ground meat each year, so the current method works.

Been putting up 10 to 15 deer a year here for forever and a day. Simply cannot justify the cost of processing a single deer to get a little box of meat back, maybe two. I've instead invested that money in the equipment over time to make my own methods more efficient. Besides, we process a hog or two a year, and I just finished up a 900 lb rogue fence busting angus heifer my buddy put down last week. Cutting our own meat is as natural as growing a garden, just part of life for us. We make our own smoked sausage and stuff too. All good eatin', and we know exactly where it comes from.

Yep, was taught, by my mentor, that it was part of the hunting process.

Never had any deer or moose commercially butchered.















If with an excess of meat, we have had good commercial sausage (smokies) & salami made, but not during the traditional wild game butchering window.

Frozen chunks, sent off mid summer, so as not to get mixed with others, questionable meat.

Been doing my own for over 30 years. Like Jpro I put the 3 good cuts in each hindquarter and the loin into roasts and decide when thawing whether to make steaks or roast. 1 hp grinder makes quick work of the burger.

I've been butchering my deer ever since I started hunting, usually with the assistance of a hunting buddy. I make steaks and chops, some parts get ground into deerburger with the addition of ground pork butt. I make lots of venison jerky, not a fan of roasts.

Usually do my own. If not, I have my buddy, who’s a butcher help me.

Nice job!

Pharm, excellent guide. Thanks for posting!

I butcher my own, but I pay for the burger to get processed.

It’s less than a buck a pound! I think it’s about .80 Hard froze, wrapped, mixed with pork that I buy separately.

Been doing my own for probably 30 or 40 years. I paid for 1 and it was bad. Learned to do my own after that.

Is it best to do it yourself? Sure..

Is it the most convenient? Maybe not.

I put up a deer or two each year myself. Mostly steaks and jerky meat.

The rest Ill take to a local processor.

They do a good job. Well known in the area. Relatively quick for the volume they do each season.

They make great smoked ( link) sausage.

Vacuum pack it all.

But itll get in your back pocket….

for 50 some years or more i just did skinning outside and brought the quarters and loins to the kitchen , cut meat up and or ground burger too then packaged and froze all the meat. i used to make sausage but i feel if you find a good butcher shop they make my deer sausages easier than i want too .

My Grandma told me when she was growing up on a farm, that the whole family helped butcher deer, cows, pigs, etc. Even the little kids helped out, this was almost a hundred years ago of course. I couldnt imagine your present youth helping to butcher an animal without being traumatized

We have always butchered our own. I’m the first generation that wasn’t raised on a farm and that is just how it was done.

When I met my best friend he, and everyone he knew, had their game processed. He did not even know how to skin and quarter. Quickly converted him when, during warm weather, I broke 2 deer down to put in coolers. He now has several of the people he used to hunt with doing their own.

Butchering with family, and friends, is part of the social aspect of hunting. It can be a chore sometimes, but, can also be fun.

The guys I hunt with all butcher at home. One year however I shot an old lead cow. Her meat was tough. I ground all the meat I got from her. The hamburger was tough. I gave in and took that hamburger in to have the locker make it into different kinds of sausage etc.
I had the spices to do it myself but my grinder didn’t grind it fine enough.

In my second year if college (1965) I shot my first elk. My 3 roommated and another friend also shot their elk that year. We butchered all of those elk, including double grinding all of the burger meat in a small hand grinder at home. I have been butchering all of the game animals that I've shot here at home myself ever since. Last week I butchered the meat from the 3/4 of the Canadian moose that I brought home.

I'm very picky about my game meat and I cut off anything white from all of the meat, including the meat that I grind into burger, which I add 10% beef fat.

I also pressure cook and coarse grind all of the trimmings to later add to my dog's food.

Thanks for posting. Always like reading new material, and willing to learn something new.

Have been butchering wild game for as long as I can remember. Dad was too cheap to pay for it and that continued with me and my boys.

Now is is not so much a money as a quality issue. Appreciate knowing that I am eating what I shot and took care of from field to table.

Processing this antelope today and elk was last month.

Have fun, fellas. I try to get mine to the locker with as little effort on my part as possible.