After you take a deer, how soon do you butcher?

Question

After you recover the carcass, field dress, take it out of the hunting area -- do you freeze it whole or take it straight to the butcher? What kind of time frame do you have for that sort of thing? Do you have a butcher close enough so that if you take a deer in the morning, you could have venison burgers by nightfall?

How long do you usually take? Have you ever taken longer? Or expedited the process due to other circumstances (impending snowstorm, a promise to a relative for a venison meal before they leave, etc.)?

I am curious. Tell your stories.

Answer 1

Kill, gut and quarter the animal in the first 4 hours. Then head home. Once home, we turn on the 15 cuft spare refrigerator and put the meat in while we prepare the kitchen for butchering. All the counters, cutting boards and knives get bleached. Front quarters come in first - bottom of the feet are cut and wrap for stew meat. Roast that come out of the top of the quarter are cut, wrapped, weighted, and labeled for pot roast. Any small trimmings go into a bucket for burger. Then the next quarter, then the first rear quarter - here you get stew meat from the bottom, roasts and steaks - all get cut, wrapped, weighted and labeled. When the rear quarters are finished - the sirloin is cleaned of gristle and cut, wrapped, weighted. Then the tenderloins are checked, cut, wrapped, weighted an labeled. The meat that is left over - goes into a freshly cleaned and bleached 5gal pail - I then drive it to a local butcher who adds suet and grinds it - only takes 20 minutes. Then back home to cut, wrap, and label the burger. Then clean the kitchen, turn off the spare fridge and clean it. Whole process - for a caribou - just takes 1 day. For a moose - we usually quit around 10pm and only have the front quarters cut, wrapped and labeled. Then we get up and finish off the rear quarters and body meat the next day.



We have never dropped an animal off at a butcher. I've butchered deer, caribou, moose, and buffalo in small kitchens. The 'trick' to tasty meat butchered at home - keep everything hospital like clean - and never put more than 60lbs of meat in a freezer per day. We have three freezers - so - we can put up 180lbs a day. Doesn't matter if you have a 9cuft or a 28cuft - generally they all have the same compressor and only accept 60lbs of meat per day - if you read the manual. It's the guys that pile in a couple of hundred pounds of salmon, halibut, or meat all at once - and do not realize the meat acts as an insulation barrier and it can take a week or more for the stuff in the middle to freeze!! Yikes! You have the put the meat in, leave air spaces for the cold to get to it all.



People who hang meat in their garage - unless it is kept at exactly 42.5F all the time 24/7 it is not a help. Lower - nothing happens. Hotter - you get bacteria, foul odor and foul liver like taste. Needs to be exactly 42.5F for the enzymes to break down and age the meat.



Hanging does not make bad meat taste good. But hanging improperly will make good meat taste bad.

Answer 2

I don't gut my deer . I take the deer back to camp, hang it with a good rope over a heavy limb, slit the skin down the front and out the legs some and pull the neck skin down . Then I tie a rope to the neck skin and to the front of my truck and skin the whole deer . I stop backing when all four legs are pointing at me in the cab and then pull forward . Then I cut the legs at the knee and spread the skin under the deer to catch blood and scraps . I have my ice chest handy and throw all the meat I cut off the the neck, sides, back strap and any meat on the ribs . I cut off the front shoulders and hindquarters and put them in the ice chest and cover all the meat with ice . I then let the rest of the deer down onto the skin and remove the head and put it aside to prove the sex . Take the front leg and the opposite rear leg and lay them across the carcass then the other two legs and tie them into a granny knot and set it all on the tailgate to give to the varmints away from camp . I leave the drain on the ice chest open so the melted water can run out taking the blood with it . Be sure to keep the meat covered with ice and in 4 or 5 days the drain will be running clear with no blood . That is when I start cutting up the meat for the freezer . I don't keep the ribs . My off days were during the week and had to handle my deer many times alone and this is what I finally started doing .

Answer 3

I've only used the butcher once, before getting hooked up, remarried to my husband. Our hunting areas are 2 hours drive from home so IF we're out of town the motel owner has a shed to hang deer in. If it's a particularly warm season, we immediately gut it, forego hanging in the shed and take it home with ice packed inside the cavity. Once we're home, it gets hung in the garage with fans on for circulation. The butchering starts the next day. If the weather is in the 40s-60s the deer is hung in a tree in the backyard next to the privacy fence and processed there, packing as we cut. My husband cuts, I mark the bags freezing what we can't do asap. This all takes apx. 2 hours. He separates the loins and roasts from the lesser quality that gets ground into burger. He built an electric grinder that cut that effort and time greatly!

This year we boiled the neck and made a meatpie that was delicious! My mother-n-law even raved over it and she "doesn't" like venison so she says.

All other sinue and leftover pieces, liver, heart I boil down in a huge pot, add rice and diced veggies and any oldish frig stuff, label it dog food in freezer bags. The vet said it's the best food for a dog! I also dice up the liver and heart (if there is enough) to freeze little bits for treats. My dog sits in an instant for that treat!

And since we don't buy beef in the grocery store, except for a rare steak on sale, it takes 2 deer to feed two people all year.

This year we gave my stepdaughter 1/2 a doe processed and dated.

Answer 4

How To Butcher A Deer

Answer 5

First, you should field dress as soon as possible no matter what. The the only thing the guts of the deer can do is rot inside your deer and spoil the meat.

After that, it really depends on the temperature outside. Dry aging can make the meat of your deer much more flavorful and concentrate the flavors in a very good way, but you need to keep the meat COLD to prevent spoilage and keep bugs from laying eggs in the meat. So if you're up north and it's not going to get warm for a while, you can let the deer carcass hang outside for up to a week and the meat quality will improve for even better eating before taking it to the butcher.

If you're down south like I am, that isn't possible, so it's best to prep it and take it straight to the processor right away.

Answer 6

We don't get snowstorms in central Texas and the weather is usually too warm to let the carcass hang and age Sometimes I take it to a processor and sometimes I do it myself. Places that process deer stay open late during the season or you can call them and they will open up and take your deer.



Either way I want it to cool down as quickly as possible. If I am doing it myself I hang it up, gut it, skin it, remove the backstraps, hams, shoulders, and leave the remainder for the coyotes. I put it on ice and I have a spare refrigerator in the garage where I can let it age for awhile. I usually put at least half the meat into sausage, mixed half and half with Boston butt. I have an electric grinder and buy sheep casings at the grocery store.

Answer 7

Be sure to field dress the deer as soon as possible. I like to put a stick inside to prop open the belly when I am done, to allow it to cool off more quickly. Then I take it home, skin it, and wash the inside out with a hose. A hacksaw is useful for cutting off the feet and head, and for cutting through the sternum. If it is cold outside I let the deer hang for 3 or 4 days before processing. If not I put ice in the rib cage to keep it cool and only let it hang for about 2 days. I cut the deer into 4 manageble peices for processing (4 legs, and front and back of body). I put a piece of plywood on my chest freezer to work on, and use my skinning knife to cut with. Most of the better meat I cut into strips for jerky (I like going with the grain for jerky, but others prefer with the grain). I also make some of the good cuts into butterfly chops or roasts. The rest I grind up for hamburger, sausage, or summer sausage.

Answer 8

Deer season where I live is only in late November so you have a ready made freezer just by leaving the deer hanging outside. In general people shoot and gut the deer and will leave them hanging in the cold weather for up to two weeks. But it has to be cold. Usually I cut it up myself the same day or the next day depending on when I got it.

Answer 9

My father was a butcher, so I kinda grew up doing our own butchering... But, as to when, that kinda depends.... I gut immediately, of course...but if the weather is unusually warm, I may skin and start butchering as soon as I get home... If it's cold out, I may let it hang in the skinning shed for a few days before I skin and start butchering.... As to when I start butchering, it depends on the weather. Here in Northeast Oklahoma it may be in the 60's or 70's...or it may be below freezing outside.

Answer 10

After the kill and IMMEDIATE field gutting, I take the carcass to my truck where I have the propane stove and 2 pressure cookers. The meat bleeds out acceptably upon being cut into 1" cubes and tossed loose into pint canning jars down 1" from the top, with a dollup of bacon grease and level teaspoon of seasoned salt. 65 minutes after the top rocks, with slow natural cooldown. NO cold watere poured on the outside to speed things up, as this will boil all the gravy out of the jars and make a mess inside the cooker. Keeps for DECADES! Use in sandwiches, or scramble with eggs for a quick breakfast, or add to stew ingredients. It puts me right back in the hunting fields, working all night in the truck headlights (occasionally running the motor to charge up the battery!), escaping the blowflies by working in darkness, sustained by fresh sauteed liver still full of adrenaline, a dish the local Indians called "run all day" in their language.

Answer 11

After reading the other answers I must be a strange guy! I hate wasting a damn bit of meat. So I bleed it out & field dress it as soon as I get it away from thick brush where a bear may be but leave the hide on to protect the meat. If its hot out I cool it down with ice. I do this by filling the now vacant carcass with ice, wrap it with a water proof tarp and then fill that with ice. I want to lower the body temp fast and keep it cold for at least a few hours. I may hang it in cool weather or process it the same day or next morning. Then I skin it out hind legs up, head down and remove head. Next I remove all large muscles and cut off the shole neck for a neck roast. Then I remove front legs and cut off bone joints and the hock to fetlocks. All such bone joints full of tough tendons are pressure cooked until the meat and tendons fall off the bone and are canned for soup. Next I cut off the rib cage and cut the ribs up (there may not be much meat there folks but its meat and I have ways to make it darn good eatin). I then remove the tenderloin (cant believe some hunters throw that away!) The spine gets cut out after I get all the meat I can off whats left is just bone. Now I just have to two hind legs that I process just like the front legs. So all that’s thrown away is the head, maybe the hide, the middle of large bones and spine. I carry a bag for the heart and liver while hunting. I don’t waste NEAR as much as some hunters. And to be frank, when I see a deer carcass that some one just cut the big muscles off that they discarded it makes me mad!!! They don’t have to go as far as I do but if you get caught wasting meat like that here in Alaska a Trooper WILL nail their butt but good.



As for how soon Ive eaten the meat, I’ve ate deer heart while it was still beating; now that’s fresh! I ate deer that our group of horse back hunters shot in the evening, that evening as we processed it on a mountain, we cooked it. I also cooked deer meat just hours after harvesting it for my family. I do prefer meat aged about 4 to 5 days below 43F and above 35F. Rigamortis is my friend! There are so many things that can change the flavor and texture; touching the tarsal gland or other glands or bile then touching the meat, if the deer was scared or not, letting the meat break down in the right temps and time, clean or dirty cleaning equipment, clean or dirty hands, insects touching the meat, dirty tarps or anything that touches the meat or has a smell to it, etc etc. Throw a deer in a truck bed lined with saw dust soaked with diesel fuel and axle grease on a hot day ruined a few deer of a amateur hunter I knew.

Answer 12

Depending upon the outside temperature, I do anything from putting a bag of ice in the body cavity and hauling it to the processor or if it is cold outside (max of about 35 degrees) I will just hang them in trees until I get a pickup load or the season ends.

Answer 13

I have always taken mine straight home and butcher it.

I have a friend who has access to a cooler- he hangs his for 3 days before he butchers.





edit: Of course, I haven't hunted since the 80's-

Answer 14

After dressing it out. Move it to where I'm gonna skin it. Hang it, skin it, hose it down, section it up and pack it in salted ice. I use a bath tub. Then just cut it up in use able pieces or grind it up for burger and sausage. Then freeze it. The liver and heart though if not shot up, i'll cook that night for supper.

Answer 15

i butcher my own an for others. others i'll let it hang as long as they want. myself over night so it firms so much easier to work with.