Who Processes Their Own Game

[Emerica8212]

Good afternoon,

I was hoping to get a general sense of how many people are doing their own game processing.

I’m a relatively new hunter but am a chef by trade. I think I take it for granted that I can comfortably process game and create products at home with relative ease. I really enjoy the entire process, in fact, processing my animals is one of my favorite parts of the cycle.

How many others are doing everything on their own? How many are dropping it off somewhere? Pros and cons?

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I've done everything on a couple animals, cutting steaks, grinding burger, and making sausage. A couple of animals I've dropped off whole.

I mostly do a hybrid where I drop off boned out quarters and have the butcher cut steaks and grind. I realized I'd rather pay someone $200 than do this myself.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I've always done all of my own. The biggest downside, and it's increasingly a big one, is the time required to process my animals and my kids' animals during the fall. When practical I freeze and deal with it in Nov/Dec, but sometimes it's not practical, and in the case of canning it makes a bad product to freeze first. The price keeps me home butchering, but there may come a day when I start dropping some off.

 

[TOGIE]

i'm back and forth with a lean towards doing it myself.

i'm a big fan of leveraging my money for more time in my life, but i also love money savings and the satisfaction of doing it myself.

done 5 myself and had 2 done by butchers in my short hunting career so far. small sample and it's likely biased, but the stuff i've done myself has seemed to taste better

 

[WyoDoug]

I do my own processing including making burger and sausages. I have for while. Game processors in Cheyenne are failing so hard to find to start with plus having your game processed commercially can be quite spendy.

 

[EYJONAS!]

After this year's bills I'm going to be doing my own.

 

[Hem]

I've been doing my own for about 8 years.
Began as a cost saver.
I keep it simple , grinding for hamburger/sausage patties, and choice cuts for steaks.
It is satisfying but not my favorite thing to do, mostly because I do all of it without any family assistance.
Now that I finally finished my walk in refrigerator the pressure is off to do every animal all at once. An elk is alot to process...usually when done I'm over raw meat for awhile...
I think stepping up to a larger grinder is in my future.
Bottom line, nice to be fully in control of your meat.

 

[JLS]

I do all my own.

 

[Bigjay73]

I've never heard a guy who does his own bitch about getting ripped off by the processor

 

[MTLabrador]

I do mine myself, but I need to get a better grinder. I’m going to try some canning at some point as well.

 

[rwc101]

I do own partly because I enjoy it and partly because I am not driving to the closest processor.

 

[Bigjay73]

I did an elk and some pronghorn with my BIL and his buddy, we had a blast. If I had help I'd do it every year. Doing it solo, after work is a drag.

The cost of alcohol consumed while doing it with family and friends negates the savings of not sending it to the processor

 

[thusby]

Dropping off an animal whole, drinking 3 beers and taking a nap after the hunt... priceless.

 

[DirtyDan]

The last whitetail I had processed smelled rancid and I ended up pitching the whole thing. I've done my own since. On a recent backpack elk hunt my buddy scored so we opted to have it done at a local butcher in Meeker. Made the rancid one look good. Never again.

 

[Dsnow9]

I would love to do it myself but it is a time factor for me. I have brought whole animals into the processor and fully boned out. I love cutting the meat and am sure I would enjoy processing myself. I own my own tree business and everyone likes their trees completed in the fall so getting time off to hunt is hard enough. For me the cost of a good processor is worth way more than the time it would take me to process an animal.

 

[WyoDoug]

Going to add to my first comment: I also do my own because I know I get my meat and all of it. I like to get the bones clean before they are dumped and I like to use the rib meat in my grind pile. I also like keeping the flank meat. A lot of that the processors will dispose of because it is not profitable to spend a lot of time cleaning the bones. I also skin my critters all the way to the neck. You'd be surprised the size of roasts I pull off venison or elk carcasses when I skin them myself.

 

[deer_shooter]

I do all my own

 

[dcopas78]

I prefer to do it myself if practical. I enjoy doing it actually.

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

Like a lot of people on here, I do mine myself. The first deer I did was based solely on Meateater guides, as my family had always dropped them off somewhere. Looked like Helen Keller cut the steaks, but its gotten easier since then. I think its fun if you have some good beer and good company.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I have always done my own. Grew up doing it that way. The one exception was my moose, because it was so dang big. Didn't get back nearly as much meat as I thought I would. Not sure if was the processor or just my expectations. But I doubt I will ever take another one in. I don't necessarily enjoy it. Time consuming for sure. But that's the way it goes. Good sense of accomplishment though seeing the nicely packaged meat ready for the freezer.