Looks like I'm not getting any meat from my last deer. The fellow that runs Isbell deer processing in Chelsea called and said his freezer broke and he had a bunch of meat for about 20 customers that brought in deer and it all thawed. I had planned on getting all my roasts and stew meat out of this deer. I have 2 roasts left from the little buck I shot earlier this year, but I'm completely out of stew meat, and we love making venison stew. I was hoping for 20-30lbs of stew meat. We also try to make a deer roast at least 1x per month. Looks like that won't be happening either.
Fortunately, he said my cape/antlers are in another freezer and I can come pick them up anytime.
It's been a month since I dropped off the deer. Last week he said it would
Be the middle of this week that my deer would be ready, but somehow with the storm we had it knocked out his power and he didn't know it. Doesn't seem right, but who knows.
I'm so disappointed. It's not like my family is gonna starve now, but we like eating venison ALOT. I put in a lot of work this season, and it's the first time ever that I've shot two deer in one year. I was really looking forward to a full freezer.

If two deer fill your freezer for the year then you don't eat ALOT of deer meat! Lol! I put 6 in the freezer last year and we were out in August. We eat ALOT of deer meat.

Sorry to hear you lost yours either way! Too much time and money put into them to loose them.

Sounds like BS to me. Deer season has been over for weeks. If it is true, why was the meat frozen, so it could be thawed to process, then refrozen to eat later on. It would seem with the cold weather we have had the meat would not thaw that quickly. Why not move it to the other freezer. Why not just process those 20 deer in about 1 day like a real processor.

I dont know anything about Isbell DP but I would have to put them on the spot and ask some questions.

Ask him to credit you a processing fee or two for next year. I think that is reasonable. As North40R mentioned, it ain't cheap to put a deer on the ground. Not to mention the beef you will be buying to replace it now.

Why would un-cut deer be in a freezer...?? And isn't this the same processor that alnother aldeer member was having getting BS from...??

Well, we are a family of 3, so not that many mouths to feed. We don't eat deer meat every day. We eat a ton of chicken. The only time we eat beef is when we buy steak. Other than that, we probably eat venison 1-2x per week.

Yep

I know. I was part of that thread.

I had one "lost" this year at a processor.

Take the money you would have spent on processing and buy the stuff to do it yourself.

WTF, it's been a month and he had even cut it up and packaged it yet! Been different if he was finished and packaged. He has some splanin' to do!

x2...Probably sold his chit to someone else!

The more I think about this the more I remember the processor I used years ago calling me 4 times at the end of one season. I dropped a deer off on the last weekend of the season. They had it turned around in a few days and bugged the crap out of me trying to get me to come get it. They were worried about having to keep the freezer running for more than a one week past the end of the season.

Your guy sounds like he had made enough money and took the last half of January off to deer hunt himself.

I bet a lot of processors do 1500 or better deer a year or about 100 a week. He must have a HUGE freezer with a MONSTROUS backlog to not be able to get to a deer after a month. That means he had a hundreds of deer ahead of you. BS.

He have em in a walkin freezer or cooler? It would of had to be down for a while for it to get hot enough for 20 frozen deer in there to thaw out. Most walk in freezers have to be kept from -10 to 0*. Definately unacceptable. You would think he would at least check it daily, if not multiple times a day.

Especially someone who is supposedly processing deer in said cooler.

I just looked them up on the net. Is this the same place that used to be ?Deer Cutters? east of Chelsea on 280? It was the first processor you came to leaving Chelsea, on the right several minutes out of Chelsea.

Worst experience I ever had with a processor was at the processor I mentioned above. If it is the same, it makes be wonder if the management really changed like their website suggests.

http://isbelldeerprocessing.com/

Same location. Really is different owners. I've used them once and kind of got the impression I may have gotten shorter a little. Not really sure if I did or if they just trimmed a lot. No real complaints about them other than they are high compared to South's Finest in Pelham. They charged me $80.00 to process a 120# gutted buck at the beginning of the season compared to $50.00 for a 90# doe at South's Finest. And that included them gutting the doe.

I'm calling bullshit on the whole deal from the first post about this processor thru this post. This guy either processed and sold the meat or he threw it away out of laziness. He'd deserve an ass kicking if either one could be proven.

I'm with Wiley something doesn't add up. I've never heard of a processor taking over 12-17 days to turn around a deer.

I killed an 11 point this year in the rain and called him and asked what he would charge to cape and quarter my deer. His response was $60. I didn't have to worry about him losing my deer after that because I wouldn't take it to someone that high. I ended up standing in the rain and doing it myself.

I'm glad i saw this because i just remembered that i also havent recieved a call about a deer i killed 1-31 and dropped off that morning.