Folks,

I suspect this is a bit late for this year but perhaps next year when we're going back it would prove useful.

I was just cutting up some of the few primals I have left from the last moose tonight to get them into braise for moose bourguignon for tomorrow and it pretty much continues to infuriate me how badly this moose was butchered. The cuts are just strange with no effort made to clean up gristle or silver skin and every piece has pieces of hair on it. I shudder to think what ended up in the ground. Roof and another hunter that was with us has seen the same thing with his moose. You may well have no choice with where your moose goes since us US types are hunting with outfitters who might have a contract with firms but a "buyer beware list" or asking the outfitter about the processor and options might be useful if it's one that hasn't delivered a great product. Also, businesses change, especially given a moose for most of us is an every 3-5 year event.

Our last moose was butchered by The Butcher Girls in Kippens and as I said, not a good experience due to the issues above. The weird cuts themselves waste a lot of meat as you have to do a bunch of trimming.

The moose prior was done by Countryside Abattoir and we couldn't have been more pleased. Certainly where our moose next year will go.

Moose meat is just to precious a thing to waste.

If you drive up can you bring it back quartered and do it yourself at home? Maybe if you tagged out early in the hunt you could bone it yourself back at base camp?

I’ve never hunted NF and don’t use a processor so I’m just spitballing.

I have used countryside abbator its just outside of deer lake. I felt like they did a reasonable job. meat was cleaned and trimmed and vacumn packed. They are pretty quick so if your outfitter can get them the quarters they will have it cut up two days later. Frankly they are better than the guy I use at home for deer.

That sucks. Butchering a moose is about as straightforward as it gets. No excuse for hair either.

Not sure of the shop name, but the one in Buchans is the same. Looks like they just gave an epileptic fella a somewhat sharp clever and told him to make those quarters fit in to vacuum seal bags.

They all suck! Bring it back deboned, that’s what we did!

Sad to hear of this so often all over the place

That's why I learned how to cut up my own
animals many years ago. It gets done the
way I want it to be done, and I don't charge
myself anything

I like to bone out the animal where I hunt and pack into zip lock bags put in coolers and bring it back, at home I let it sit in water for a few hours, wash it and process, steaks, roast and ground mixed with % of pork shoulder. Sometimes people have no choice but to have it butchered, I did too a while back and I got shortchanged a few times.

I had a Moose done when I hunted New Foundland.
They said they had it done within 24 hours? Don't know if I got back my Moose or not.
They did a good job with cuts and vacuum packing.
I do wish I would have cut out the ribs before taking it there because the make you pay for the weight they get from the whole Moose when you bring it in to them.
They did a good job, but I did PAY for it Bigly!

Newfoundland is one word.

How do you spell Ten Nessee?

I was there during the covid when the Americans were not allowed in. The hunt was cheaper and only 5 in camp that week.

Went to the butcher in the Codroy Valley with the outfitter to drop off 3 moose. The place was a factory for doing moose. I'm pretty sure it ran 24hrs a day for moose season. The outfitter said that pre-covid they would do 600 moose per year.

I boned out my moose, took it home and did it myself

When I hunted with Westwoods in 2014 we sent our moose to Cormier County Ltd. 709-955-2010. They had a checklist that we used to get our moose cut up the way we wanted it. I'm pretty sure they said you get your own moose back. They did a real nice job vacuum sealing everything. I just found a couple packages of moose burger buried in my chest freezer and it was still good. Pretty good for 9 years old!

Is that the one in the Codroy Valley?

I hunted with Westwoods 3 yrs ago. They were awesome and the food by Grace was 2nd to none.

Yes. In Doyles. Stewart and Grace are wonderful people. It seemed like everyone we talked to in Newfoundland knew them. Great bunch of guides too.

If I had another life to live, I'd do it in that Codroy Valley. Stewart is actually from NB but married well. They both made me feel quite at home during my time there.

Because of the covid restrictions, there was only 5 hunters in camp that week. 4 from NS and myself from NB. We all tagged out as well as one of the guides when we were done and Grace shot one in the clearing in front from the camp step. 7 in total. It was also a big bonus to be so close to the ferry in PAB and a short skip home for me after that.

We used Countryside in 2019 and I was happy with the results. There was some hair vaccuum packed in with a few of the packages, but nothing to get infuriated about. My only real criticism, if you will, was that they grind their sausage too fine. It almost had a mealy consistency to it in the casing. Otherwise, I'd use them again.

I don't remember that but I'll certainly ask to see if they can do a coarser grind. It's not easy to make it more coarse after they have ground it fine.

I had several varieties of sausage made last time by Countryside and we really didn't care for it so we'll just make our own.