Thanks for your insight New 2 99s. Lots of great stuff in here.
Another thing I’m surprised at is the number of guys I run into who’d never dream of cutting up a deer themselves. Some of them act like it’s a task on par with building a space shuttle. The local processors here charge $100-$150 to cut and wrap a deer. Our little deer yield about 25-40lb of meat, no way my cheap ass is paying that for 3-4 animals a year!
I did my first one at about age 13. A cousin who’s family was of pretty limited means had shot a buck. He hung in the barn for a few days with him wondering what to do with it. We got some kitchen knives and a steel and just kind of winged it. Probably wasn’t the best job anyone had ever done but we ended up with steaks and roasts and it all turned out okay. Since then I’ve done some reading on the subject and it’s no sweat.
I’m home with a sick kid for the next little while pending Corona test results and our main task is to get the last 3 elk quarters off the barn rafters and into the freezer. The backstrap steaks I ate with a 3 egg omelette for breakfast were a nice side benefit to having a pile of fresh cut steaks in the reefer waiting to be wrapped! The two elk I killed last weekend have been hanging in the barn since Saturday with temps getting in the 20s at night and 40ish during the day, prime eating.
