Deer processing time

[LeeB]

For those of you that process you own deer, how long does it take from first cut to putting the final package in to freeze?  Maybe I'm slow but it takes me all day to skin, quarter, cut and grind, wrap and freeze. And the clean up on top of that. 

[Jeff]

To skin, quarter and process it takes Tammy andI 3 hours.

[Ron Scott]

It used to take me about a day from start to finish to do an average size deer working alone. I now have a processor do them as it got harder with "old age".

[TroyC]

5-6 hours from start to finish, depending on how much grinding or how many roast I do. A hour and a half usually skins, cleans,  and gets hung in the cooler. After that the trimming, grinding, and packaging is 4 hrs or so. I work alone.

[doc henderson]

(75) George Thorogood & The Destroyers - I Drink Alone (Live at Montreux 2013) - YouTube

sorry I thought you said you drink alone!

[SawyerTed]

For a single deer.

20 to 30 minutes to skin, quarter and put on ice.  Only the largest get gutted, tender meat removed, ribs, brisket etc processed.  

Aging in the cooler for 3-4 days.  3 hours to process hams, shoulders, neck meat and back straps - trim, grind, slice, cube and vacuum sealed.  

I used to have a processor handle it.  They got too expensive ($100 plus/deer) and they require everything deboned as we have CWD.  They will not process bone-in venison. 

I prefer to process 2 deer at a time.  

[KEC]

How long does it take me ? Let's just say you would'nt want to pay me by the hour. But I know whose deer I am eating and it's all clean, cut to my specs and boneless.

[Jeff]

Tammy and I used to process deer for a few years. We got efficient. And now we are faster because we seperate mucle masses for ourselves, and vaccuum pack those. Giving us always the option of what we want to do with it when we thaw that package. 

[Southside]

Do you have to hold the flashlight in the crook of your neck or is there someone holding it for you?  :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   I am all day kind of guy too (or more) but I debone it all, cut off the fat, sinew and sikverskin. I cut the hams into steaks and cube them. I put the backstrap, tenderloin and brisket in a corning solution for 5-6 days then pack them in jars and can them. I cut off all the lean meat for trimmings and grind it for sausage along with the meat off the shoulders. I don't throw much meat away.

Last year I shot a big doe in ML season and, except for the choice cuts I corned, I deboned and ground them into sausage and stuffed and smoked the meat.

[TroyC]

sorry I thought you said you drink alone!

Guilty as charged.......(sometimes)

[doc henderson]

I wear a headlamp if it has to be done due to work or temperatures.  I used to do all of my own.  now I may take the whole dear to an Amish meat processor or take the big chunks to make meat sticks ect..  depends a bit if I get it in the am or pm

[WV Sawmiller]

 

Many years ago I built a skinning station attached to the back of my boat house. You can see part of it here. I put in one locust upright with a crosspiece attached to my boathouse (Out of picture at top) and bored a hole for a big eyebolt. I keep a cheap pulley hanging on it. You can just barely see a boat cleat on the upright I use to tie off the pulley rope to stop at different working heights. There is about 6-7 feet clearance between the upright on the left and my boathouse so I can drive my ATV right under. On the back of the boathouse wall I keep a gambrel, scales, meat hooks and such to weigh, hang and clean deer and fish.

My son gave me an old cast iron single sink with a drainboard and I mounted it on the other side of the upright and added a bench out of a 2X8 on the backside of the sink mounting which has been super handy. You can see the metal pan on the bench and the back side of the sink in the picture. I have a pump and spigot about 20' away so water is readily available.

I have a big nightlight mounted on the backside of my boathouse overhead so I have a pretty good supply of light but I do wear a headlamp to eliminate shadows. Next to the boathouse is a log barn with an old refer inside I use to stage meat and fish overnight if I don't have time to finish in one session. If it is too cold I hang my deer inside the log barn on a pulley there to keep them from freezing.

I love my skinning station. I later added another eyebolt and hung a pulley and cable and use it to lift my mower with my ATV when I need to work on the blades or such.

[LeeB]

I use the tractor or the backhoe. 

[SawyerTed]

I no longer hang deer from the hind legs.  I hang them from the neck.  We hang them on the forks or bucket of the tractor. 

We "peel" the hide by cutting the skin around the neck, down the brisket and the front of the front legs.  

We fit a golf ball under the skin on the neck/back, tie a rope around the golf ball and connect the other end to and atv or tractor.  By pulling the atv/tractor forward, the skin is pulled off.  This greatly reduces hair on the meat and is far faster than traditional skinning with a knife. 

We do this for all but the trophy animals where saving the cape isn't important.   

Hanging from the neck reduces chances the animal will fall off the gambrel, reduces hair on the meat and reduces any taint from an accidental intestine or bladder piercing.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, processing costs have gone up. I remember when it was $25.00 to do a deer. Then it slowly increased over the years and my processor is now $129.00/deer with all the sausage making, deer sticks, brats, etc. being extra.

[beenthere]

Local processor was $310 last year to process a deer. I used to have one that charged $100 but got sick and tired of having meat come back packaged with deer hair also in the package. Do it myself now. 

[barbender]

 I've never paid to have a deer processed. My family always processed their own, and I guess I never really even considered having someone else do it🤷

 I don't really know how long a deer takes me. It depends on what I'm making out of it. If I'm making grinding meat, I spend a ton of time trimming fat, gristle and silverskin off to prevent off flavors. Anymore, anything that doesn't clean up easy, I just dice up for stew meat. I find that slow cooking the meat that has a lot of connective tissue dissolves all of it and the gamey flavor disappears.

 I use to shoot a lot more deer and was much faster at it then. Now it's been a couple of years, hopefully the boy will get one on the last few days of our season so I don't completely forget how😊

[JD Guy]

Yes, processing costs have gone up. I remember when it was $25.00 to do a deer. Then it slowly increased over the years and my processor is now $129.00/deer with all the sausage making, deer sticks, brats, etc. being extra.

Our processors around here charge $100. Like you it was $25 for a long time. Nothing special, just loin,back strap, cubed steak and ground. I would gladly pay the additional $29 for the brats, sticks, sausage. We don't process our own here because our weather is unpredictable with warm/cold days interspersed. I'm not going to the expense of a cooler for the few deer that we take each year. The processor charges the same price if you gut/skin before dropping it off. They are pretty close by. Hunting grouse and woodcock annually in WI for over 20 years I've been begging a couple of the processors up there to move South with their skills so we can enjoy the other items they produce  8)
We always buy brats, sausage sticks and other items to bring home when there.

[Ron Scott]

I used to do 4-5 deer a year, mine and hunting buddies, but the standing, arthritis in the hands, back pain, and leg neuropathy is affecting the fun of deer hunting now.

With this season's warm weather winds and temperatures, the deer can't stay on the buck pole very long. The processor's freezers are busy. 

[LeeB]

I took a doe the other day right before dark. It was dark when I skinned and gutted her. For the first time ever for me it was cold enough to let hang overnight. Had to get up early to process her before it got too warm. 

[BillyTheKid]

I also pull the skin off using a ball and a wire rope. I hang the deer by the neck, make a few slits in strategic spots and use a chain hoist to pull the deer up in the air. The wire rope is attached to an eye bolt in the floor of the skinning shack. Sometimes I skin the deer before gutting it. In that case I place an otter sled under the deer and all the innards drop in for easy hauling out back for coyote/wolf snacks. Critical to my way of doing this are plastic meat lugs that I purchased, with covers. Depending on the air temperature, the deer will get quartered and stowed in a spare refrigerator in stacked lugs. It takes less than an hour.  I also use a Milwaukee cordless "Hacksall", with a pruning blade, or perhaps about an 8 inch demo blade to do the quartering. Quick. Easy to do alone. Minimal mess. And quickly refrigerated. I prefer to do the actual cutting of steaks, grinding, etc. after everything has cooled down and aged for a few days. Once the meat is cool, it's much easier to cut decent steaks. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Ted,

   I have seen the head up skinning with a truck/ATV technique but I have never had anything fall off a gambrel hanging them from their heels unless I sawed the backbone down the middle and one side would end up heavier than the other. When I did that I'd tie at the tendons so that could not happen but I no longer split the backbone. 

    I would worry more about the neck pulling apart and dropping the carcass if I had it hung from just one point - i.e the head/neck. Has anyone ever had that happen?

   I don't field dress/gut my deer in the field. I bring them home intact because IMHO they are so much easier to skin that way. I cut the head and front feet off then pull the hide off. I cut the neck off for a bone in roast. Then I cut the shoulders off for later deboning. Then I pull the backstraps. Then I trim as much lean meat off the sides, chest (Brisket), and such as I can get. Then I gut the deer and pull the tenderloins. Next I  cut the backbone in two at the hips with the ribs still attached. The hind quarters are still joined at the hip. I put all the meat if the fridge to chill then come back and trim as much meat off the ribs as I can salvage then separate and pull the different muscles off the hams. 

   Next and after the meat has chilled I trim and slice the muscles from the hams into steaks and cube them. I trim the sinew off the backstraps and add them, the brisket and tenderloin to a pickling solution to corn them. This takes 5-6 days in the fridge downstairs. I debone the shoulders and add to the trimmings and either can this or add pork and grind and add seasoning to make sausage - bulk or stuffed.

[beenthere]

Have never had the neck pull apart or let go.
And the skin pulls away much easier from the neck down/back than when skinning from the hind quarters forward.

But skin what works best for each.

[LeeB]

I have always skinned from the back legs hanging until this last deer which I did from the front legs hanging. probably would have been easier if I had hung by the neck. I didn't notice much difference from skinning one either way. Gutting may have been a little easier hanging head up. I usually skin first and then gut.