Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Looking for ideas: DIY game processing station

My wife and I bought a house this fall. Our first!
So now that I've got a nice shed and my own space to process my animals. (The condo board at our last rental was none too pleased with seeing my spring bears on our ground floor porch)

I'd love to see pictures and descriptions of how you've all set up your game hanging and processing stations. I want to build one and want to know what is working for all of you. I have the insulated shed and a open air covered shed area too.

Thanks in advance!

I cut them on an old heavy duty picnic table in the garage. I cover it with black trash bags held in place with duct tape. I place another black trash bag nearby for waste and bones. I will have the meat in quarters in coolers on ice and a couple hrs before I start cutting I take the quarters out and hang them to let them dry a little. I cut on one end of the table and have a vacuum packer set up on the other side. After the steaks/roasts are cut I vacuum pack them and they go into the freezer that sits in the corner of the garage. Then I break out the grinder and put it in the place I was cutting and grind the burger. If I want sausage the middle part of the table becomes the sausage mixing station. When the grinding is done I vacuum pack and it goes into the freezer. Then I gather up the trash bags off the table and put them all in the bag with the waste and bones for easy disposal. The knives, grinder and vacuum packer are then cleaned.

This makes the job easy to do and easy to clean up. I'm sure there are fancier ways but this is how I have always done it.

MAC; try freezer paper, if wrapped tight it out lasts vacuum sealing.

Sounds like you have a wonderfully efficient set up.

We use polyethylene on the workbenches instead of garbage bags.

Have a great day.

907; sorry missed your initial post.

We use standard work benches covered in polyethylene and plastic cutting boards.

We hang the deer in the garage off of a rack supported by two heavy duty ladders. The rack disassembles and stores under my deck. The natural gas heater in the garage prevents the deer from freezing.

I’ll try to remember to post pictures.

I do it pretty much the same but use dollar store shower curtains to cover the table

Make sure it is at a comfortable working height. A lot of tables and benches are too low and cause back strain after awhile.

Second the height!

We use an old kitchen counter on top of high saw horses its a good height to stand at without bending much or at all

Counter is easy cleanup and easy storage

No dedicated space for mine. I have several pieces of nice 3/4" birch plywood that I use for cutting boards. Easy, and you can make them whatever size you want. Mine are about 2' X 3.5' or so.

For setup, I've done a 4x8 sheet of plywood on sawhorses, then everyone gets a "cutting board". I also have a 4'x8' welding table that I have covered with paper (get the rosin paper from Home Depot or Lowes - it is pretty tough) and then throw the cutting boards on top of that. When you are done, wash the boards with simple green, or pressure wash them. Just don't get too crazy with the pressure washer or you'll dig holes in the plywood. If you used rosin paper, peel it off and throw it away or burn it. I use the same boards for cutting fish in the summer, and its nice to be able to do it outside with a hose handy.

If you can swing it, I would absolutely get an electric winch/hoist with a remote that you can hoist stuff with. Mount it as high as possible, ideally on a track. You will use that thing all the time, and you can get them pretty cheap. Handy for getting a whole carcass hoisted or for stringing a meat pole, hooking quarters on it, and hoisting the works. I use mine weekly. It is sort of like this one: LINK

Electric hoist is really nice, they're about $100 at Amazon. So not bad at all. I recommend the ones that can be doubled up to lift heavier stuff just in case you need it. I also got 2 very large cutting boards for very reasonable from there along with several meat totes. I use butcher paper to put on the pvc folding tables I use. Also get some pvc pipe to go on the legs to raise the height to ease back strain. We vacuum seal backstraps that are cut into thirds to use on the smoker. Tenderloins get sealed whole and the rest goes into ground since we use burger the most. And for that we use the bags and tape to seal them. Cut the grind scrap into pieces that are 2" squares or so, smaller on shanks if you grind them instead of canning. They won't plug up the grinder that way as easily. We grind straight into the bags then tape and freeze. We prefer the medium size holes in the plates and a once through and done.

I have a hoist in my shop. Its just a hand crank that I bought from tractor supply. Would love to have an electric. It helps to have a high ceiling so you can crank the deer up high enough so you aren't having to bend over allot. I skin and strip the meat off and dump in plastic lugs. I usually save the neck and shoulders off to smoke. Take the meat into the house and separate out and clean up the tenderloins, back strip, and any good roasts. I grind the rest. Wrap everything in freezer paper.

The one thing I am looking for is a stainless steel table, possibly one with a built in sink to keep down in the shop. They are fairly expensive if you buy them new but you can often find them for cheap at auctions, craigslist, and even facebook.

Since I hunt all over North Carolina and a few other states I use this.
Kill Shot DRC-DTP Tripod Game Hoist with Gambrel - 500 lb. Capacity

Thanks for the replies everyone.
It's still a work in progress, but so far I've got a beam installed across the ceiling of my shed.

Your pictures suck. grin.

I've got a hoist in my shop. Easy to get a deer up by myself for skinning and quartering.



And I've got a metal food prep table I was gifted where I usually bone out quarters.

I put an old Corian countertop on a moveable, easy to clean workbench where we grind, mix, and vacuum seal.



We usually use two vacuum sealers when doing sausage. Unless you have a commercial one, a single unit will overheat when doing 50+# at a time and slow you down.

My only issue is that once I have my shop set up for processing deer, I can't use it for anything "shopy" until we're done. Processing in there ensures at least one really good deep clean a year.

On the other side of the shop there's an older commercial stand up freezer with a digital thermostat control and a sink/wash tub.

It's a setup that allows efficiency. We made 44# of sausage from my muzzle loader doe last night in a few hours (the meat was de-boned and trimmed).

In my little shop I have a 2500 pound atv winch from Cabelas mounted to a 6x6 post then the cable is run up and over a couple of 2x6's that are braced off. Run it off of a deep cycle battery. Where I live most deer and elk come out whole. So the winch is nice, I can back into the shop and hoist the critters right out of the back of the pickup. For elk I lay a tarp underneath to catch the mess, for deer a wheelbarrow then when I'm done wheel it outside and wash it out.

For butchering I do it right on my kitchen table. I have an old bed sheet I fold so it is 4 layers thick and put it on my table to avoid damage, then I have a large piece of uhmw plastic that is almost the same size as my table. Like a giant cutting board. Easy to clean up when done.

For the meat we use produce bags from the grocery store. Most produce departments will sell you a roll or two if you ask. After the meat goes in the produce bag then it gets wrapped in freezer paper. The meat will last for several years easily this way, if one doesn't get it all eaten in a year.

I used to work at a shop where we lined huge hoppers with 1” thick sheets of a very slick plastic called Tyvar. I kept a bunch of drops and made big cutting and filet boards out of them. Stuff was like $1200 a 5’x10’ sheet, I probably have a thousand dollars worth of cutting boards:).

I put one of those on the kitchen table and get after it. When done it can go right outside to be hosed off. I also have a 1940’s vintage Berkel slicer that’s bad to the bone and sits right next to my cutting board. The grinder comes out when everything is trimmed and all the steaks and roasts are already cut and wrapped, it sits on the opposite end of the table from the slicer.

I put all the finished product in Tupperware Megabowls and the wife wraps it in cellophane followed by butcher paper.

907brass;
Good morning to you sir, I hope that this 13th of December finds you and yours well.

Thanks for the interesting thread that you've initiated and of course thanks to the respondents who make it so!

We started processing our own game in '89 when the chap who we took ours to sold his place and provided us with the push to begin to do it ourselves.

Our first purchase was an upright freezer that had a too small compressor installed so it'll just so freeze stuff now. The chap who did the work sold it relatively cheap and it's not missed a beat once since '89. I'll note that we added a couple computer cooling fans now that hang on the bottom shelf on the door and between them and the top fan it provides just enough air flow to prevent molding.



We have a number of tables set up to process and absolutely as noted the height should be correct for the user. We do all ours boneless, so cutting boards and a bunch of commercial quality knives are the tools needed here.



A few years into doing it ourselves and very quickly helping other hunting friends, my late father in law took our old cast #22 hand grinder home to Manitoba, tore apart a washing machine that he found and motorized it for us.



It uses the original motor driven with a 3" pulley which drives a 12" off the washing machine, which drives a 1½" that drives a second 12" pulley. For our setup it hits exactly 60rpm which was the sweet spot for the grinder, knives and plates we use.



The final drive needs to be very level here to reduce wear. We do it with shims under the grinder body. As well, the original drive was a Browning coupler with the smaller 4 winged rubber spiders, but it'd eat them pretty fast. When I changed it to a Lovejoy type, I bought a spare spider and the chap in the store told me I'd never, ever install it.... so far he's been correct!



Some of the other items we find very useful are a butcher paper dispenser and a freezer tape dispenser, as when you're packaging it's nice to be able to grab tape or more paper with one hand. My late father built these handy holders for me.



We use paper usually to put down on the work tables, but poly would be fine too.

The bloodshot meat, fat and internal organs are saved and ground in the 3/8" plate to be used for pet food,

Lastly, if you don't have a copy already, go to rifles and recipes which is John Barsness and Eileen Clarke here and order Eileen's "Slice of the Wild".

Linky thing.

https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/product/slice-of-the-wild/

Even though as mentioned I'd been processing our own game and cooking since '89 and before, I learned a whole bunch from that book and truly can't recommend it enough to anyone who wants to get more out of their hunting experience.


Hopefully that was useful for you or someone out there sir. As always there's lots of ways to get there, but that's been ours this far.

All the best to you folks this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

Dwayne,
That is an awesome setup, and thank you for the book suggestion.
Thank you all for your time in writing your posts.

You can find ATV winches at Harbor Freight, on sale cheap at times. I know China junk, but they work. I have two winches fastened to a big oak tree in my back yard. One is a Harbor freight with remote, and the other is off of an old ATV that has a hand control on the winch. Run the cable up to a pulley on a large limb, and you are set. You will use it for lots of things. I use mine all summer to pick up the front of my lawn mower to change the blades and to take them off to sharpen. I also have an old fridge in my shop, that will hold a quartered deer. Use it in the summer for drinks. There is also a large wooden desk that I cover with butcher paper or aluminum foil (large rolls from Sam's). Large plastic cutting boards. I also have two chest Freezers in there that can be used as extra space to set things. That is sometimes a problem as they become catch alls. I do all of my processing by my self and since I am retired, time is not a problem. My back is though, so I cut a while and when my back starts hurting, I go do something else. Some days I will do half a deer, some only a quarter, but with the fridge it is no problem. I also clean up the meat as I go, all silver skin and fat removed. Pieces in hunks instead of sliced. Seems to help on quality at cooking time. I also vacuum pack my meat and have for lots of years. I have found deer meat in the bottom of the freezer that was 10 years old and it was still as good as year old. Same with corn on the cob. I have my own grinder and just bought a new one to replace my old Northern Tool, that I have used for many years. Still works but a bushing is bad and it is really noisy. Motor bushing I think. I took it apart and greased the other bushings and it did not help. Glean ideas here and then fix yours to suit how you do things. miles

I was a meat-cutter for 24yrs, but do not cut meat in the fall for money, but will do so for friends for free as I get enjoyment out of the whole process as well as teaching others how to do this.

I prefer to have a set-up that's more portable. I use a nylon cutting block that sits on the tailgate of my PU truck which is the perfect height. Anything too low will give you a lot of lower back pain pretty fast. The whole deer/moose will be completely boned out into major muscle groups and all finished boneless. The only bone I left in this fall's moose were the side ribs that were frozen and cut on a bandsaw for short ribs. Boneless meat, esp deer will taste better as the bone dust from a band saw will ruin the overall flavour and will stay packaged in the freezer better with no bones poking through the pkg. For packaging, I drop the cuts into a small plastic bag and force everything into a corner creating a ball of meat, steaks included. Force out all air and twist tie. Pkg is then wrapped in brown freezer paper. This method works very well and is a lot less expensive than vacuum sealing. A 1hp Cabelas grinder works very well. All tendons are removed and slightly frozen meat will grind easier.