August 10 2021 marks my 43rd year as a butcher, and I've been a hunter for longer than that. I retired from full time work a few years ago, but still cut meat a few days a week for rathole money. Most of today's supermarket meatcutters really don't know how to break down animals or even where primal cuts of meat are located on the animal, all of the beef comes pre broken in primal cuts in boxes, been that way for a long time. Most of you avid hunters know more about processing carcasses than grocery store "butchers" do. I worked for a small company that brought in hanging beef for 30 years, I was friends with the owner who was an avid hunter. He used to let me hang my deer, elk, hogs, etc in the company cooler and process them after hours right there in the meat shop...that was a real sweet perk as it made things so easy with professional grade grinders, tenderizers and such. I've often been asked for tips on meat processing. It takes a number of years of doing it before you get fully comfortable with your work. To simplify the entire process into the fewest number of words, you need to separate the muscle groups using the natural seams and then cut it across the grain. Breaking it down while hanging is how we did it for years. In this youtube video the guy does it horizontally on a butcher block, so the perspective is a little different, but the video is pretty good.
I'd find a local pro who will take a bit extra to show you the ropes before I'd jump in.
I've cut up a ton of primals cuts into roasts, steaks , and grind trim. That isn't near the challenge of dealing with a 3/4 ton of dead schit laying on the ground.
If I was going try, I'd have a way to hoist several cuts off the ground and keep them hung and cool. One or two hooks isn't going to do it. Plan on four quarters, a place to hang them cold and clean, and a few big tubs for miscellaneous trim and guts.
Speaking of guts.....a 1500 pound steer has a lot of them. Plus skin, head, feet, etc..... It ain't a deer or even an elk.
I want to cut my own one of these years but it definitely takes some planning.
The head can go in a pit in the ground and make excellent cabeza tacos!
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
I have butchered about 90 whitetail deer, and at least 2 dozen wild hogs. In Georgia, you can't take a wild hog to the butcher. It is fun but it is a lot of work.
I did spend the summer with big game guides in British Columbia. Up there, they quarter an 800 pound moose with a chain saw.
I have used a chain saw to cut up downer calves for my running hounds, but I wouldn't for table beef. I don't care much for the bar and chain lube on/in the meat and cut/splintered bones just don't appeal to me either. I don't know a lot of people who've used a chain saw on beef or hogs (for family consumption) that have done it more than once.
Most of the guides I've talked to who cut up their moose with a chainsaw told me they put canola oil or cooking oil in the lubing chamber so the meat wouldn't get contaminated with bar oil... when he did mine and my son's it sure looked like cooking oil to me... we had to be quick also with the moose as there was a resident grizzly around this area we hunted who considered a rifle shot as a dinner bell. All three of us pitched in and had those moose on the ATV's and heading for camp in about 20 minutes each- skinned, quartered , bagged.....
Bob
Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability.
I have done at home, a long time ago, but would not do it at all now. This is due to my advanced age and health conditions. Always did it in the fall/winter, when it could hang outside. As a fresh High school graduate, I worked for my cousin, that was my parents age, at a meat locker/custom butcher plant, so I already knew how it was done. We tried to cut and wrap 4, and then go kill 4 to put back in the cooler every day. He and I did the cutting and killing, and His wife did the wrapping and answered the phone and such. After I had been there a while it took us around 15 minutes from the time a beef was shot until we had it in the truck, headed to the cooler. That was head skinned and cut off, legs up to the knees skinned and cut off, and gutted. It would hang in the cooler for a few days with the skin on, and then be skinned, and let hand for another period of time. This was decided by the beefs owner. Some wanted a longer hang time than others. Biggest we ever went out and got was a Santa Gertrudis bull that belonged to Winthrop Rockefeller. Somehow the ranch hands managed a dead bull getting it ready for a show. The dressed quarters weighted 1250 pounds. We had to skin it in the field as we could not pick it up with our block and tackle. We did that 5 days a week and then killed hogs on Saturday. miles
Most of the guides I've talked to who cut up their moose with a chainsaw told me they put canola oil or cooking oil in the lubing chamber so the meat wouldn't get contaminated with bar oil...
^^ Right ^^ ..... And the saw was used for doing moose/beef only from new.
I would think that one of todays small electric saws would be almost perfect for cutting up a moose or elk, a couple extra batteries, light weight and clean.
