I am just curious to know how many here like or have to proceed their game killed meat.
I usally do everything by myself,for sure it is a time consuming process,but I feel i need to do it!   :rolleyes:

Felix My dad tought me how when I was 12 years old and I still doing my own and I'm 52 now.

doug77

I've always done my own meat but I did have a cow processed in Colorado this year due to the weather and we were camping and it was a 23 hr drive home!  
I enjoy taking care of my game animals.
TIM B

I skin and debone my deer, seperating the back straps, tenderloins, and a couple of the better roast and vacum seal myself the rest goes to a processor here close and is ground and packaged for $.50 a pound.  2 of the deer I kill every year are done the same way but are not ground for burger, they are made into jalapeno/chedder summer sausage.  If I ever buy a good grinder I would prolly do it all myself.

I do. I have a commercial meat grinder, commercial knives (my dad was a butcher). I use my recip saw with a regular demo blade to split the backbone and cut off the ribs. A 4x8 plastic table. Three huge stainless steel bowls. Bucket of sanitizing solution (bleach & water) Bunch of towels. Hose. Beer. And the XXL tube of elbow grease. First wrap in plastic, then butcher paper. Takes about 3 hours but I'm a picky wrapper and labeler.

This is, providing I actually render something into possession...

I do it all myself. Never occured to me to do otherwise. If for nothing else to make sure I got MY OWN meat back and so I could control the sanitary side of the process.

Next year I'm going to buy a screened tent to control the yellow jackets so I don't have to do it all at night.

Weather/ time permitting, I do . Just butchered and wrapped a doe in about 2 hours this past weekend......took another 45 min. or so to double-grind my burger (w/hand grinder) and wrap ...... meat just seems to taste better when you do the work yourself!

I have processed my own game meat for the last ten years. It is easy to do and I feel it is part of the whole hunting process. Plus I know what I'm getting when I do it myself.

My family processes all out own meats, hides, sinew, etc....   It is just part of the hunting process.   I like to have the quality control and it is way cheaper.

I process my own for the reasons others cited above.

John Stockman

I also process my own.

I process my own.  The last time I took one in to have processed, I figured that I could purchase beef on sale cheaper than I paid for the deer I harvested.

I have always processed my own deer, bear, caribou, and elk.  Maybe one day I'll get lucky enough to draw a tag and get to butcher my own moose too!

It was the way I was taught by my Father and Grandpa, and like stated earlier I guess I never even thought about having someone else do it!  For me it is truly a labor of love.  Every little bit of meat I take off a critter I think to myself..."there's another bite off a burger for my daughter or son".

Travis

Travis

I do all my own, deer,elk,caribou,moose,black bear,birds. I began doing my own from the beginning I suppose because I couldn't afford to take them for processing. Now I continue to do my own as I'm picky about what goes into the packages.

I do my own proccessing and usally do a few extra deer and elk a year. The extra ones have paid for my last two bows. This weekend the is opener of rife deer hunt and should bring in a few deer to do,I hope. I didn't want to start a business with it but my quality is better than the butchers around here. Most are friends so they get it real cheap.

I do my own, de-boned. I also make jerky and sausage with it. Cant get any better quality than that.

We have done smaller animals-around 100#-the bigger ones go to the processor.

I'm the first here to say I pay a guy. HOWEVER.....my boys and I skin it out first, and take it to Tony's house. He has a full setup. We all help, Tony does the big work, I trim, and the boys wrap and mark it, while cooking porketta seasoned backstraps over the open fire, drinking birch beer and sarsparilla that he stocks in his fridge, and I usually bring him a bottle of 12 year scotch that I may have a sip of. GREAT time!!!!! We really love going there.

I did for 20 years but THE ADMIRAL and I have gotten lazy and now pay to have it skinned, cut and wrapped - and the scraps ground and some done into keilbasa.  

I suppose when I retire and have a life of leisure I'll cut it up myself again.  It does yield more when you flense and bone the cacass as it hangs.