Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Prices at Deer Processors

I've cut up 100s and Im still not butcher. Lol


What i could cut up in steaks i did,,,, rest was for soup or stews .I never ground the meat on the ones I cut up.

I read an account once of how one family processed deer. They'd lay it down on the ground, and skin one side. Everyone would grab a knife and take off slices until all the meat was gone. Then they'd flip it over and repeat. The entire pile of meat would be made into jerky.

You can build a smokehouse out of sticks. Salt is what it is.

When I moved to an area with abundant hogs it only made sense to spend a couple hundred dollars and just do it myself. My former wife didn’t much care for me using the kitchen as a butcher shop BUT the new wife is all about it.

I tell y’all what, I’m ashamed to say that I’d never tried to eat a wild hog until last weekend but my cousins cooked a big sow in the ground and she turned out great. I’ll take a deer anywhere but Snuffy’s around here

I've always done my own,. Might take stew meat it for sausage.

This is 100% correct

Taking my deer to a processor is a blessing!!! No way I would have time to mess with that stuff. I will gut my own. Especially if a morning kill but if I shoot one in the afternoon, I usually let them screw with it. So I drop off a gutted deer and they process it all and it cost me maybe $125? Maybe $150? And for me to skin it and process the meat and to mix it with pork fat or beef fat which means I had to go to the store for that? The whole process would probably take me 6-8 hours minimum. Especially when you consider that I would be having to shrink wrap it too??? That $120 is like $20 per hour for me to do it myself??? Screw that! My time is worth WAY more than $20 per hour! Now if I enjoyed doing it, that is something completely different!! Sort of like I enjoy loading my own ammo. Am I saving money loading my own? Oh hell no!!!! But I do enjoy it and I like controlling the end product. Much like those who process their own deer. I assume? Right??

I gut my own but my time with my family is worth more than processing my own. When I’m not at work, I don’t want to be working. Working in the woods is t work to me but processing one definitely is lol

I rarely gut my own any more and dont regret it - i got $20 for somebody to do it

Now If i had a skinning shed i would - but i dont

I do more of my own deer every year. I like my ground sausage better than any processor. After buying the grinder, it makes sense to add beef fat and grind deer burger & bacon burger. Still send a few to the processor for link sausage & summer sausage/bologna. May do that myself this year.

When I cut my own, it is done the way I want it. I get my deer. I enjoy the harvest to the table process.

On days when I am busy, lazy or unmotivated the processor is available.

I’m blessed in that I have a skinning shed at camp, plenty of space and multiple freezers at home, a wife who is almost as interested in making sausage, jerky etc as I am, AND I’m all but unemployed in January through early March so I have the time and leisure to do my own. Plus, processors in many areas won’t touch a hog and I kill way more of those than I do deer. So much sausage.

I just don’t understand why people complain about the price for processing! If it’s too expensive, do it yourself, it literally takes 1-2 good boning knives, a cutting board, a cheap grinder and a vacuum sealer. All the materials can be bought for less than the price to process one deer. Yes it takes time, that’s why the processors charge so much. It’s their job and they need to provide for their family just like you. I can guarantee there aren’t any processors out there getting rich and taking advantage of people. They’re charging that rate because it’s hard work that takes time.

I'm sure there is an amount that prices me out of having a good processor turn a deer into sausage, bacon burger, and other tasty viddles, but my processor hasn't gotten there yet. I usually do spend the time to field dress them to save the gutting fee, but I don't mind a fee to make all the good stuff me and the family likes.

Depends. I would say there are some getting rich. They charge a $5 processing fee for you to give them your confirmation number information or $10 if they have to help you find the confirmation Information. Then there’s the $40 nonrefundable deposit. If you don’t want to wait 6-11 months to get your deer back, there’s the $50 rush and $100 double rush fees. Then folks get tired of waiting and abandon the deer so the processor keeps $45 and sells the deer to folks on Facebook. Suspect there is plenty of profit or he wouldn’t do it full time for a living.

There’s a difference between getting rich and making a living.

Just picked up my 140lb buck from Twin Oaks in Lee County- $80 for backstrap/tenderloins and all the rest ground. Jam up folks over there, and they do all the extra stuff. Their jalapeño summer sausage is the bees knees.

I reckon its like climbing dead trees, try a couple yourself before you judge the guy getting paid to do it. Customers tell me all the time, "i wouldnt do what you just did for that much money". Thats pretty much how i feel about processing deer. Its really just not my thing. Im proud others do it and ill just pay them whatevr they think is right

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I need to buy a vacuum sealer

I have never owned a vacuum sealer. I would like one. But butcher paper has served me well. It’s real cheap too.