buckslayer
11-18-2005, 10:32 AM
First let me say i am in no way defending an of the shops that people have had bad experiences with. I just hope to enlighten some of you with some facts. I am not going to pull any punches here so i expect to get pretty beat up maybe kicked off the site who knows but here it goes.
I work at a small shop that processes game as well as domestic animals. We process approximately 250 game animals in a hunting season with few complaints most of the complaints are from misunderstandings.
1 When you bring your game in consider this is it clean inside and out, has it been hanging, where is it shot, was it skinned hot or cold and was it rutting. as all these things will tell how long you can hang the animal and what kind of loss you can expect to have. Game in the rut are stressed and don't hang as well as others as well cold skinned animals don't tend to keep as well in the cooler either. If its not clean or is gut shot this will lead to excess trimming as i go by the rule that "if i would not eat it how can i expect you to". Also did you shoot it in the leg shoulder spine or guts as any of these areas destroy large amounts of meat and require lots of trimming (if it is gut shot or the guts are ripped while you gut it this all has to be trimmed away as it is contaminated). If you hit bone in the leg, shoulder or the spine the bone explodes and causes major damage to the area. (I have had to throw out most of a deer or moose leg that was hit in the bone as there was literally nothing edible left) Hence a great loss of meat. On a well shot and looked after animal you can expect to loose about 1/3 of the hanging weight to bone and trimming. On a poorly shot or looked after animal you will loose way more.
2 Remember that it is a deer / moose that you are bringing in not a cow so don't come in with a list as long as my arm of things you want from your animal because it just cant happen.Beef are shot or pinned in the head so they do not have any damage to the body they do not have blood between all the tissues around the entry / exit wound are split down the center exactly with a splitting saw (not a chainsaw as i have seen many a moose split or even deer) remember all the prime cuts are along the spine t bone steaks, chops and prime rib or rib steaks so if you expect the good cuts don't destroy this area as i cant repair the damage you have done. Be specific as to what you expect back and in order of preference if you want more roasts or more steaks ect say so as we cant read your mind. Sausage needs a certain amount of trim in it pork or beef and fat otherwise it would be like chewing a rubber ball and yes you will be charged for this its not free to us so why would we give it to you.(If i wanted you to paint my car or house would the paint be free or would i be charged for it). we tell our customers before hand that we have to put trim into the sausage and if others don't I'm sorry for this and it is not to pad the bill or sell product its to make you a good quality sausage that you will enjoy.
3 As for being charged for cutting wrapping and freezing your game each step in the process takes time and people to do it who all for some reason expect to be paid for doing this as do you for the job you do so yes it costs money to process your game. Also you have to pay rent, power, gas and phone bills and equipment costs and trust me food service equipment is expensive or look on a website that supplies equipment and see for yourself. in order to do this as do most business also wood shavings and natural gas for smoking sausage and hams ect and paper tape ect to package your product. There is overhead in any business and it is always passed down to the consumer. If you think this price is too high try to process a deer yourself and see how long it takes. I am an employee of the company and I do this to make a living for myself and my family and yes i expect to get paid for the work i do.
4 As for bringing your game in after hours or unskinned how may of you at the drop of a hat would stop whatever you are doing to run into work and take in an animal/job whenever the customer decided to show up. I will do this as a courtesy to my customers if i am not tied up with something else. I have already been at work for probably at least 10 hours on any given day during hunting season so keep that in mind when you show up at 10 or 11 o clock at night from your long hunting trip, your animal has to be hung up and made sure its all clean so not to contaminate the other game hanging in the cooler. Also skinning takes time and you will be charged for this (again i will not work for nothing would you). We have had a group's of hunters phone to say they were bringing in several animals so you wait for them then they show up with their 6 deer and a moose all with skin on at 11 at night nothing can go in the cooler without being skinned and cleaned so you spend the next 6 hours skinning and cleaning their game so it can be put in the cooler. I do not know of any other business where you will be catered to in this way but it is expected of us. Every animal in our shop is individually tagged and processed so you get back your animal nothing more nothing less.
sorry to be so long winded but i could not take the whining that i see going on in the forums without at least educating some of these people as to what actually goes on inside the butcher shop. There are unscrupulous people in any business but as for stealing some of your meat no thanks, i will hunt my own or there is plenty of Beef pork or other meat in the shop to eat.
I will always do my best to please any customers and treat each animal if it was my own as far as cleaning and trimming and cut as close to what you want as possible and give you back the best product i can but remember it all starts with the care of the animal and shot placement you make long before i see it. Remember what you bring in is what you get back so take care of it please. thanks for you time and i hope this makes everything a little clearer for everyone.
Buckslayer
I work at a small shop that processes game as well as domestic animals. We process approximately 250 game animals in a hunting season with few complaints most of the complaints are from misunderstandings.
1 When you bring your game in consider this is it clean inside and out, has it been hanging, where is it shot, was it skinned hot or cold and was it rutting. as all these things will tell how long you can hang the animal and what kind of loss you can expect to have. Game in the rut are stressed and don't hang as well as others as well cold skinned animals don't tend to keep as well in the cooler either. If its not clean or is gut shot this will lead to excess trimming as i go by the rule that "if i would not eat it how can i expect you to". Also did you shoot it in the leg shoulder spine or guts as any of these areas destroy large amounts of meat and require lots of trimming (if it is gut shot or the guts are ripped while you gut it this all has to be trimmed away as it is contaminated). If you hit bone in the leg, shoulder or the spine the bone explodes and causes major damage to the area. (I have had to throw out most of a deer or moose leg that was hit in the bone as there was literally nothing edible left) Hence a great loss of meat. On a well shot and looked after animal you can expect to loose about 1/3 of the hanging weight to bone and trimming. On a poorly shot or looked after animal you will loose way more.
2 Remember that it is a deer / moose that you are bringing in not a cow so don't come in with a list as long as my arm of things you want from your animal because it just cant happen.Beef are shot or pinned in the head so they do not have any damage to the body they do not have blood between all the tissues around the entry / exit wound are split down the center exactly with a splitting saw (not a chainsaw as i have seen many a moose split or even deer) remember all the prime cuts are along the spine t bone steaks, chops and prime rib or rib steaks so if you expect the good cuts don't destroy this area as i cant repair the damage you have done. Be specific as to what you expect back and in order of preference if you want more roasts or more steaks ect say so as we cant read your mind. Sausage needs a certain amount of trim in it pork or beef and fat otherwise it would be like chewing a rubber ball and yes you will be charged for this its not free to us so why would we give it to you.(If i wanted you to paint my car or house would the paint be free or would i be charged for it). we tell our customers before hand that we have to put trim into the sausage and if others don't I'm sorry for this and it is not to pad the bill or sell product its to make you a good quality sausage that you will enjoy.
3 As for being charged for cutting wrapping and freezing your game each step in the process takes time and people to do it who all for some reason expect to be paid for doing this as do you for the job you do so yes it costs money to process your game. Also you have to pay rent, power, gas and phone bills and equipment costs and trust me food service equipment is expensive or look on a website that supplies equipment and see for yourself. in order to do this as do most business also wood shavings and natural gas for smoking sausage and hams ect and paper tape ect to package your product. There is overhead in any business and it is always passed down to the consumer. If you think this price is too high try to process a deer yourself and see how long it takes. I am an employee of the company and I do this to make a living for myself and my family and yes i expect to get paid for the work i do.
4 As for bringing your game in after hours or unskinned how may of you at the drop of a hat would stop whatever you are doing to run into work and take in an animal/job whenever the customer decided to show up. I will do this as a courtesy to my customers if i am not tied up with something else. I have already been at work for probably at least 10 hours on any given day during hunting season so keep that in mind when you show up at 10 or 11 o clock at night from your long hunting trip, your animal has to be hung up and made sure its all clean so not to contaminate the other game hanging in the cooler. Also skinning takes time and you will be charged for this (again i will not work for nothing would you). We have had a group's of hunters phone to say they were bringing in several animals so you wait for them then they show up with their 6 deer and a moose all with skin on at 11 at night nothing can go in the cooler without being skinned and cleaned so you spend the next 6 hours skinning and cleaning their game so it can be put in the cooler. I do not know of any other business where you will be catered to in this way but it is expected of us. Every animal in our shop is individually tagged and processed so you get back your animal nothing more nothing less.
sorry to be so long winded but i could not take the whining that i see going on in the forums without at least educating some of these people as to what actually goes on inside the butcher shop. There are unscrupulous people in any business but as for stealing some of your meat no thanks, i will hunt my own or there is plenty of Beef pork or other meat in the shop to eat.
I will always do my best to please any customers and treat each animal if it was my own as far as cleaning and trimming and cut as close to what you want as possible and give you back the best product i can but remember it all starts with the care of the animal and shot placement you make long before i see it. Remember what you bring in is what you get back so take care of it please. thanks for you time and i hope this makes everything a little clearer for everyone.
Buckslayer