After I took a moose to the cutter I said never again. I learned to cut my own and have done 5 deer so far. We have a little cooler for hanging and we cut after a few days all the way to 21 days. TOTALLY worth the effort to do it yourself!
hay wire and mustach wax
After I took a moose to the cutter I said never again. I learned to cut my own and have done 5 deer so far. We have a little cooler for hanging and we cut after a few days all the way to 21 days. TOTALLY worth the effort to do it yourself!
Conspiracy Buster !
That sounds right , I think I was describing it wrong .Originally Posted by butcher
HuntingBC Champ
Not to derail the topic, but I have seen some strange things from "some" butchers. I shot a deer in the head one time, and when I received my cut and wrapped meat, a perfectly intact bullet was found in the backstraps. I went away from having my meat made into sausages from the butcher from another incident. I shot a sitka blacktail (maybe 40 lbs of meat on it) and had sausages made. I received over 100lbs of sausage and some tasted really really rutty. Pretty sure that someone got shortchanged. Lol. I do have a really good butcher now though.
HuntingBC Champ
pretty much same for me..about 10years ago, i dropped off a wt doe at the butcher and asked for x lbs mild pepperoni...about 1/3 of pepperonis were a rutted buck and spicy....i know it is hard to separate stuff in a crowded smoker but i don't think they really even try at some butchers...
the last 2 deer i have done at home..i have even been using my tiny little grinder for all the burger (i did spend extra time to fillet out the tendons in the lower leg meat and i did clean out the cutter area 3 times during the grinding but all the ground took no more than a couple of hours including cleanup) ...previous to that we have done 6+ at a time with a good sized crew, stainless bandsaw and industrial sized grinder...generally some music, kids helping, laughing and wine being drank....adds to the whole hunting experience IMHO
The Rock
How you drop it off also effects finished weight. I got lucky with a spike moose last year and was able to fully clean it before drop off. Cutter was very happy to work with exceptionally clean meat and got a high % back. Cutter showed me an elk that had leaves,sticks and dirt all over it and had customers wonder why meat return was low. Cutters wont run dirt and crap through their grinder and i dont blame them.
HuntingBC Champ
Wow some real horror stories here ! For your own needs you need a good grinder . Maybe a stuffer, if not just make sausage patties with sausage recipes that way you don't need to buy casings .
Just find a butcher that could come to your house bone out your game tie some roasts , cut some boneless steaks, make some stew meat ,set aside trimmings for mince ,no need for bone in steaks, so you don't need a band saw .
Arctic Lake
HuntingBC Champ
Yu have to remember that no one will trim and take the time that you would so more stuff in the dog-food/garbage pile. Time is money to a professionalPrior to this, I have always done meat processing by myself and ended up with a bucket full of offcuts....I use it all ...bones for soups,spine and neck for broths etc....the wast would not total to 10%. I told the butcher I want it all including bones...dont know if the spine and neck is in it.....but even if they were not there, would they account for 300lb?
Its probably my first and last experience with the butcher .....I was forced to do it due to fairly warm weather and bears.....
Not very happy...two beautiful animals and so much waste....
"Target archery is seeing how far away you can get and still hit the bull's eye;
Bowhunting is seeing how close you can get and never miss your mark."
"A man's got to know his limitations"
HuntingBC Champ
They are called "meat cutters" - not "meat cleaners" - their cleaning is done with a knife. Not saying your meat was dirty but you'd be amazed at what gets delivered to the butcher shop, guys should be embarrassed.
Another thing to consider as a rule of thumb is the meat ages 4 times as fast outside a controlled cooler - so every day on your meat pole is the equivalent to 4 days in the cooler. After you've removed the hide and the meat sets up with that protective "skin" on the meat, the animal has to essentually be reskinned of a that layer of meat which is loss not recovered.
Some butchers weigh when they arrive which would be the heaviest weight, others weigh when they cut.
What i would do is ask him - was there something wrong with the animal that you could do differently(?) was there shot damage(?), cause of waste(?). Then use that info for future reference as you may not like his answers or you may learn something from this experience which will all help in the future.
Member
On Beef you end up with 36% meat from live weight , you end up with 60% live weight to rail weight and 60% rail weight to proceesed weight, I average 120# of ground meat from a bull elk. Plus the Back strap and tendloins in roasts
Member
it is well worth the effort,used to come back to the island with our moose the temp would go up and it was a mad panic to get er done before it turned,over the years I'ved learned not to panic just toss the quarters into the freezer and cut them at your own leisure.
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