OT - Deer Processing Video

[deerwhacker444]

Does anybody have any recommendations on a good deer processing video? Back when I started hunting we processed them ourselves but it was more of a "hack" job since we didn't know what we were doing. The meat usually got freezer burn and went to waste.

The cost to process a deer has steadily been going up and the number of processors has been going down. I've actually had to skin a deer and put it in a freezer until a processor could make room to take it.

I think I might like to invest a little $ in some decent equipment and do it myself. What should I buy to watch or read.....?

[76/444]

I was taught by my uncle who owned a butcher shop when I was a kid. Who was taught by my grandfather. I can't get my brain around being taught without hands on teaching. I do all my butcher'n (usually once a month - goat,chickens,pig, lamb) but not my beef,... I haven't anyplace to hang them. I would pick up a good set of knives (skinner, boning, cleaver, a steel, etc),... and a cheap bone saw, I think I paid $15 bucks for my last one, about 20 years ago. I wish I had some info on a video for you. But, if I were you I would try and find someone for some hands on instructions. And,... I want to commend you for taking the initiative to learn, to do for yourself. I find it borderline disgusting to read about macho hunters who can't even gut out their own kill.

Also, I would look into a vacuum freezer packager,... helps a lot with the freezer burning.

[gcs]

It's really not that hard, you don't HAVE to process like the butcher does, as long as your ok with the final product.
I bone out all the meat, and leave it in meal size "hunks" that then get vacuum sealed. I final cut up the "hunk" before cooking.
When you get into the deer , you'll see how it was put together, just reverse the process.

[mikld]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... type=&aq=f

Don't know if these wil help, maybe...

[cnjarvis]

I've processed a few of my own 'cause I was too cheap to pay someone to do it. It's not that hard really but you won't necessarily find any of my "cuts" on the butcher's chart. Since I'm married now, I have to have someone else do it because my wife won't have dead critters hanging in the garage.

I haven't seen any videos that I've found satisfactory. Yet.

[AJMD429]

Me, too. We process all our own due to a) cost, b) hygeine (no way the onslaught of carcasses during 'gun season' can all be throughput as cleanly as we'd do ONE or TWO at home that week), and c) stubborn OCD-do-it-yourself-ness.

Always looking for two things...

1. better way to get the terminal end of the GI tract out of the way (we cut pelvic bone and pull everything 'down' through the cut after cutting around the anus).

2. better way to get ALL the meat off the bones, especially the spine/pelvis/ribs.

We seem to do fairly well though, so far...

[BigSky56]

444, Dont use a saw to process them like a beef cause when you cut thru the bone(marrow) it taints the meat on wildgame to my taste anyway, just put a quarter on a big cutting board and grab ahold a of a muscle section separate with your fingers from the adjoining section and follow it to both ends where its attached to the bone and slice loose then on the prime cuts like the backstrap & tenderloins make steaks and roasts on the other then your leftover goes in the burger or jerky bucket you can do this in the field also. On deer elk and moose I use a gutless (I dont gut the animal)method I skin then take the quarters off then neck meat backstraps and tenderloins then I leave all the bones ,cept whats in the quarters, and pack it all out back at camp or home I break down the quarters. Double wrapping will cut down on freezer burn wrap with a saran plastic then place in freezer bag and get out most the air or a good butcher paper, game ages in the freezer so you dont have to hang it. danny

[Pepe Ray]

Keep in mind that the "butcher" shop is a business. The bottom line is profit. Time and labor are expensive. The cuts will be made with that in mind. The beef/pork cutting charts are all made to that end.
Your always better off doing it yourself and following the "reverse" process as mentioned previously. Most of the meat should be separated by hand. A good boning knife will be needed to bone it out but until you get into the Moose category you wont need a 'butchers' knife.
Keep the meat cold for easier handling. Good luck.
Pepe Ray

[Leverluver]

BigSky nailed it. I don't want ANY dang bone in my meat. I bone everything. Also, at least in this part of the country, CWD is at least something to think about. You really want to haul your carcass to a commercial plant and have it go right behind one that had CWD? You can't clean enough to get that off. You can't kill it cause it isn't alive. All this is not to mention all else that is bad about a commercial operation. If you do your own in a clean environment, you will have the most healthy protein on the planet. My mouth is already starting to water for some bison.

[Leverdude]

I usually just cut them up. Had a butcher do one once because we had too many to deal with. Cut out the tenderloins & backstraps. Take the legs apart & cut the bigger pieces across the grain into steaks or leave for roasts. The smaller pieces I clean of fat and cut into chunks for either grinding or stew. The shoulders & neck I pretty much just grind up. I wrap with regular freezer paper & stuff the packages into zip lock freezer bags & have never run into freezer burn problems. We recenty found a package from 07 of backstraps, defrosted it & it was fine. Wrap it tight, get the air out and freeze it quickly.

[76/444]

444, Dont use a saw to process them like a beef cause when you cut thru the bone(marrow) it taints the meat on wildgame to my taste anyway, just put a quarter on a big cutting board and grab ahold a of a muscle section separate with your fingers from the adjoining section and follow it to both ends where its attached to the bone and slice loose then on the prime cuts like the backstrap & tenderloins make steaks and roasts on the other then your leftover goes in the burger or jerky bucket you can do this in the field also. On deer elk and moose I use a gutless (I dont gut the animal)method I skin then take the quarters off then neck meat backstraps and tenderloins then I leave all the bones ,cept whats in the quarters, and pack it all out back at camp or home I break down the quarters. Double wrapping will cut down on freezer burn wrap with a saran plastic then place in freezer bag and get out most the air or a good butcher paper, game ages in the freezer so you dont have to hang it. danny

I ONLY use a saw to halve the carcass/split the spine from neck to tail,.... never had any... "bone"... in my meat in the past 50 years of butcher'n. Beef needs to be hung. Vacuum pack is the only way to guaranty good frozen meat over a year or so. At a minimum, I have three freezers full all year a-round,... most of my life. Lastly, I don't butcher in the woods,... taking animals home to butcher with their guts inside is not my thing.

[BigSky56]

76, yep I wasnt clear about the guts I leave them attached to the rib cage and spine that I leave behind, over the years I changed from gutting a animal to not and occasionally if a quartering shot spreads some salad around I will gut and split the spine with a hatchet, using the no gut method sure saves time and blood up to your armpits especially when it cold, on a elk last year from skinning to on the pack horses was around 50 minutes. danny

[gcs]

You sawing the beef in half right? Don't know why'd you'd bother to saw a deer, by the time you saw it in half, you could have boned the whole thing and be on your way.

[76/444]

You sawing the beef in half right? Don't know why'd you'd bother to saw a deer, by the time you saw it in half, you could have boned the whole thing and be on your way.

Because what is one man's poison is another man's bread,... different strokes for different folks guy!!!





p.s. takes about 2 or 3 minutes with the right blade.


One more,.... "boning" is by far the most tedious and time consuming part of the process I ever do when butcher'n.

"boning" ,... for me,... is removing every last scrap of meat, off every last bone, from every last nook and cranny, for the grinder or stew stock.

Like I said,.... different strokes for different folks.

[4t5]

There is a good tutorial on http://www.tradgang.com
go to the ..how to-resources...section
scroll down to ..deer cut up along
GOOD LUCK