John:

Yep, when you "trade" they can give you processed meat immediately, assuming you are ready to pay up, and so it is clearly not your buck. I tend to visit Broadus Meats at least every other day in the evening after dark just to see what is coming in. And you are right, it is amazing the condition some of those bucks are in well before the butcher can get to them.

For years guys regularly would "donate" the meat to the Indian reservation, and I remember the fee being something like $40. A few years back they had changed policy and even if you donated you had to pay the entire processing fee.

I canned my buck this year, and all things considered, it was the best move.

I will not be canning my next whitetail buck!

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." Thomas Paine