It's not the equipement part that I'm worried about that. I have the money and the space to do it.

It's the time. I don't want to spend that amount of time doing it. I'm not lazy about it. I have tried it a few times and its not someting I enjoy and would rather pay someone else to do it right. So far I haven't had problems with mine so I will keep using them. I have gone in there before and watched them work on a few deer and I still trust them with my product.

My son killed his first deer this season and I was going to to take it to a processor. Got there Monday morning and I was the 19th truck in line. Lady told me that they might not be able to take mine before I got to the window. Asked me if I could keep it on ice for a day or two. Anyway I called my Dad and told him about it. He suggested we just do it ourselves. That night we went to Academy and bought us a meat grider. After looking on the internet for some recipes we made some darn good breakfast sausage and some great tasting summer sausage. With that said it can be done however most people just doesn't want to mess with something like that anymore. I am glad I chose to do it ourselves because my Dad had a really good time making the ground chilli meat, breakfast sausage, and summer sausage. He went all out even bought a vacuume sealer. I know what I got and I know what I am eating. I am so glad my Dad grew up slaughtering hogs and cleaned game. He taught me a lot this past week and I now can pass that knowledge along to my son. If you have the time I highly recommend doing it yourself! I have no regets at all!!!!

That is the only way to go

I got screwed twice this year.... my own fault on the second time.. but I too know the owner and live in the same small town... how do you screw your bread and butter customers ...next year I will be doing my own....

First one was a Fallow that field dressed 168lbs... I got two small crates with meat.... seemed like a small return on my meat....and the deer was not all fat, he had fat on him but I trimmed most of the fat a saw externally on the animal before I took him. Next I brought the same guy a carcas from a buck I have taken to my taxi to skin for mount.... I brought him a legless/headless deer weighing 115lbs... I ordered 25lbs of sausage and 25 lbs of snaksticks..... now when I say I want 25 lbs of sausage...that usually means finished...not get 25 lbs of my meat and make it into sausage.... should have been simple... so anyway I come get my second deer and the meat looked right, amount wise...but the bill was for ....get ready......take a breath.......$321..... WTF !!!I was like .. uh you reading the right ticket? I only brought a 115lb carcas that probably had 65lbs of meat on it after you take the bone out....holy crap....Well in an instant they say.. I refigured it and its right at 200.... well I figured it was going to be somewheres between 180-200... but it was like oops... and you make a $100 dollar mistake... ? not hardly they are F'n people.. that is what they are doing..keeping meat or overcharging...and the ones that dont ask ...well they dont know and the butcher gets the $$$....Im getting a stuffer... I have a slicer, grinder and vac sealer...oh and I think you can use your grinder as a hamburger tube packer...I think its an attachment... lesson learned...

I haven't read through all this, but I got done with processors years ago. Anyone who believes they can operate anywhere close to efficient doing one deer at a time is out of their mind.

There is a great deal of satisfaction in doing your own along with knowing how your meat was treated from trigger pull to table...

I just cant get it to taste right is all. Got a guy that does it for me when he does his.

It is pretty easy. I have been doing it my whole life. In 30+ years of hunting I can only remember taking two to get processed and was not real happy with either.

I own a deer processing and I would disagree. We do each deer individually the key is not getting to big, These deer processing places get so big that they cant keep up. We run a proffessional place. Alot of people dont understand what a gunshot does underneath the hide ect. But anyone that has had a problem with a deer processer I would challenge them to come to my place and let them get first class treatment. We try and not do over 500 a year to keep the quality right. But guys if you shot a 75lb doe in the shoulder with 30-06, you take the hide, head and legs off there goes 15lb so your down to 60, than you debone it thats about a lttle less than half your down to about 35lb than take out another few pounds for the shot up area your down to about 30lb of meat

My l;ast processor story: I took two big deer, 190 and 174 pounds, at the same time. Requested they make chops or steaks out of the straps, cube and stew the hams and sausage the shoulders. Got 22 equal sized boxes when I picked it up, paid the gal just over $200.00, and then noticed when I got home that it just didn't add up. I got 15 boxes of shoulder sausage, 5 boxes of stew/cube meat from the hams and only two boxes of back strap. The owner's only explanation was that there is more meat on the shoulders than people think, and not as much on the hams. I had hard time from laughing at the guy, what a moron. Good news is the sausage is good (breakfast, brats, hot italian and cajun).

sounds like the moral to a lot of these stories is check your goods before you go home?

Had my first deer processed 33 years ago, they did a good job but decided I wanted to learn how to process my own because it cost me 30 bucks back then. Then I learned to do my own from another hunter and have been doing ever since. Started off with my Grandpa's hand grinder(he was a butcher by trade). Wish he hadn't passed away when I was three would've been great to learn from him. My equipment has evolved as technology improved over the years, now have a quality electric grinder, good knife set, and vacuum sealer. Also have a 20# capacity hand operated meat mixer for sausage and ground meat(I add pork fat and beef fat), and a cheap plastic portable table that works great. Am gonna start link sausage next with a smoker being my next investment. I enjoy being self sufficient and makes taking a deer even more rewarding adding to the whole hunting lifestyle I live. I also age my deer on ice in the cooler for 12 to 14 days before finishing it out have found the taste improves for those who don't like the "gamey" taste which I assume is caused by the amount of blood left in the meat. Have helped other hunters process their deer when they wanted to learn how I did it. Makes me feel good to help a fellow hunter out too. They have eaten deer I processed and liked the taste and wanted to avoid the cost of having a commercial processor do it for them. You will save a lot of money doing it yourself and be more like our ancestors if you learn to do it on your on. No slam on processors here just like doing it myself.

I shot three deer this year and processed them all at home. I took the time to cut off the grisle and make it the way I wanted. I let the meat bleed out on ice for a few days and then cut backstrap steaks, breakfast steaks, stew meat, roasts, pre seasoned fajitas, and ground up a bunch of hamburger with some fat that I got from the butcher for free.

Has anyone used Syracuse Custom Meats? It is NW of Dallas. We dropped off two does there over the weekend, and I'd like to hear the opinion of anyone who has been there.

We were going to use Kuby's, but I saw online that they don't have an after-hours drop off cooler. Is that true, or did the internet lie to me again?

I learned the hard way to process deer.

I'm 54 and at 10 I skinned about 30 to 50 deer every Monday night. Good money for a preteen in those days.

Worked my way to the processing part by 14. I haven't used a processor since then.

You want to learn to process deer? Work at any Butcher Shop as a de-boner for a season or less. Your there.....

Folks, please do not bunch all processors together. That's like saying all hunters are ______, or all police officers are ______. There ARE some good ones out there. I know of a few, including us, who DO process 1 animal at a time, and you'll only get YOUR meat back, not mixed with anyone elses. Yes, it takes a lot more time and effort on our part, but I wouldn't want anyone elses meat mixed with mine, and neither do you.

As to the issue of getting all your meat back - with us, and one other processor I know for sure, you will always get all of your meat back. I'm sure there are others out there as well. I'm sure you all are experienced enough to know how much you should get back, but as stated earlier in this thread, there can be a lot of meat lost around the entry and exit.

I would invite any one of you to come by our shop and ask for a tour. We will be happy to show you our facility, and if we're working, hang around a while and watch if you'd like.

If you're in the Emory area, check out Rocky Point Meat Processing, 903-474-9617. If you're near us, come check us out. If you'd like to process your own, we can provide spices and casing, as well as beef trim for burger and pork trim for sausage.

There are still some processors around with integrity, just like there are in every profession.

If the processors nearby you aren't giving your meat back and you're worried about the grinding/sausage making because it can take a while if you do it yourself...bone out your deer, save your backstraps and process those yourselves, but the rest you have that you want to turn into burger, save those boned out pieces, hindquarters, shoulderts, etc. freeze it and bring it back in the off season to have them grind it. That way you're not competing with the high volume of deer. (if you're dead set on not having to go through that whole process, plus then you don't have to pay for the boning out eg $50 or whatever they might charge, you're only getting charged for the grindin or sausage making or whatever.)

I have used Midway in Katy for many years..not cheap but the final product is always exactly as requested and absolutely first class..

I have been doing my own pretty much from the beginning. The best thing I ever did was buy a good meat grinder.

It can get real expensive paying to have 4-6 deer a year processed. Getting a tenderizer was second best thing.

Butcher-Packer.com is a good place to get your processing stuff.

I took my first deer this year and my step son got his seventh. We managed to process both in a day. We ground up the front shoulders using a hand crank grinder and the reset we made into steaks/ stew meat/filet/roasts etc. All in all it was an awesome learning experience and look forward to doing it again next year.
I'm even thinking about getting a sausage stuffer for next season. I see nothing wrong with taking things to an actual processor, but I like the fact that I did almost everything myself.

My family has always done our own processing.

My processor has lost two straight animals, both of which they finally found but its a 2 hour drive to processor, I told em after this time I would never bring anything back they didn't say sorry how can we keep your business nothing!

Do it yourself if at all possible! You know what your are getting. My father helped my son and I on his first deer this year and I am glad he did. We had the back strap, made chili meat, and made plenty of breakfast sausage that turned out darn good. My father even experimented on some rolls of summer sauage that he made in the over and my son loves them. I won't ever use a processor. It's a pain in the butt to do it yourself but you know what your are getting plus it shows the younger generation how to process game on their own in my opinion!!!!