I've always taken a deer to a processor. But over time and save some money looking at doing it myself. I know how to quarter and debone the quarters Havent done any separating or cutting steaks, Etc. I just bought a vacuum sealer. What other tips or equipment do you guys recommend for a diy processor.

Not trying by any means to shut you down. But........check out youtube. I found a TON of info on this on there. Best of luck

If you willing to make the drive to Rowlett, feel free to come over and join the processing co-op!

Not hard to do, been doing my own for years {brother took a meat cutting class in college, learned from him}. Main thing to do is separate muscles in hind quarters to remove glands between them, will cause meat to have a gamey/fowl taste. Good luck!!!!

I'd like to hear more about these glands... been making our own steaks, sausage, jerky, and burger for decades and this is the first ive heard of them.

A big cutting board, a good knife, and a grinder and a stuffer would be nice.

The glands they re talking about resemble black kidney beans. They are ( I believe) sweat glands and are in the pits of the shoulders and hind quarters. Cut those dudes out and throw them away. If you cut a piece off and eat it you will almost lose your taste for deer meat. Nasty

also if you like to make sausage or grind meat, pick those bones clean as you can, all the scrap is good for grinding or even tossed into the bean pot. When you are cutting and you have a piece that has the silverskin on it, turn it over and run your filet knife down on the bottom. It will save you some chewing later. Not all deer fat is bad, I like to cut my steaks from the quarters with an edge of fat on them. I cut my Steak roughly 1'' thick about as long as your hand. I have found that the thicker the steak, better it cooks on the grill as venison will dry out quickly and burn. I suggest turning them every 60 seconds or so to be sure and have a pink center

So on the meat side I should retain as much from the ribs and neck as possible for grind? Just carve away? I need to learn more about the glands and ind. muscles to cut up into steaks.

On the processing side. Looks like a grinder and tenderizer might be in order. I've got the knife and boards. Not sure if I'm ready to step out into sausage making this year.

Yea, keep all the meat you can ( in my opinion ) it takes some time to pick it all but in the end when you're around the table breakin bread you will feel very good knowing that you made that meat.
As far as the tenderizer, I wouldn't go that far unless you are prepared to cut steaks. Steaks are easy. I sort out the meat in the hams and go from there, all the meat in the hams have lines in which help you pull one chunk from the other. the glands are easy to find, they are tucked into fatty pockets ( hard fat) in the arm pits of shoulders and tucked into the hind quarters. Easy to find if you take your time. The longer you process your meat, the quicker you become... over time

a lot depends on how much you want to spend on getting things set up too. We processed all of our deer while my parents were still alive, it was a family event and a good time to catch up on stuff. Probably close to 40 years. We started off separating and packaging all the meat and had a small table mount hand grinder for making ground hamburger/chili out of the trimmings. Dad finally got a larger grinder and put an electric motor on it. He later got into trying making sausage, mainly pan type where there wasn't a need for a stuffer. Then he got a stuffer tube that we added onto the grinder without any cutting plates to fill casings. It worked pretty well for smaller batches (<25 lbs) of links ... we sold all the processing stuff when my parents passed but I have given serious thought about getting back into it with the help of my son & son in law at least so they know how to do it.

Anyone have a picture of what this looks like? Trying to figure out where exactly in the hams these are located.

Good knife and stone.. clever if you like fried patties... other than that just get after it and learn what you like or don't like... I cut my straps into thin and thick steaks... keep half of one or a whole for Christmas dinner.. shoulders go to jerky and hams are jerky, tenderized cuttlets... etc

People probably eat hundreds upon thousands of what they are calling glands in pulled pork and dear meat every year. I cut them out when I see them, but im 100% certain I don't see them all. I would say not a big deal to worry about.

interesting.... I've seen these before and always wondered what the heck they were. Figured it was just a weird piece of fat.

Yeah that's what I have seen I don't know if its a gland or parasite or what, but if you cut up boston but pork roasts they are loaded with them as well. Im positive that people consume them in quantity when eating pulled pork etc. and they don't give a foul/gamey taste then.

I didn't think people actually would keep that... I trim anything white off of my hams and shoulders unless making sausage

same here Nav. all the fat, silver and sinew gets trimmed.

Really cool video I found helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2UsVd9d8vI

keep it simple on those hams, there are lines that are easy to see where the different muscles are at in the ham. Separate and remove each muscle. I trim them a little then freeze each muscle with the silver skin on since when frozen it is easy to remove as skin on a catfish (same pliers work well). Then when cooking each of those muscles cut into steaks, use as roasts, slice thin for Jerky...

Those glands are between the muscles and easy to remove. If cooking a whole ham I usually go in and remove it without cutting into a muscle. It is located between two muscles close to the none.

I have found that packaging the individual ham muscles makes for more flexible use later.
I also will package backstraps in 10"-12" sections too.
When I am ready to use them, I can grind them, cut into steaks, cut into stir fry, leave whole as a roast. It sure saves a lot of time on the original vacuum packing too.
And the glands are no biggy, basic trimming of fat and icky stuff gets rid of them.

When I first started deer cutting, I had a hand crank grinder. It was very slow, and often clogged. I had to cut the meat into small pieces. I highly recommend a quality electric grinder. They can be purchased for about $250.00 and above. I bought my 3/4 hp grinder from Gander Mountain, for around $300.00. It takes me longer to wash the grinder parts, than grind the meat. It is very fast. Some quality knives are a must.