I know a lot of processors shut down due to being full. I talked to our processor yesterday in Mills county. For 2019, they had a little over 1,200 deer come through. This year, 1,930, an increase of ~60%. That's a bit nuts!

It'll be interesting to see how long those numbers will stay up, I imagine there will be some fall off.

QSYB, what processor do you use in GW?

Wesley Head. I think he's the only processor there now. The place downtown quit taking deer 2-3 years ago. We've had smoked link, german, summer, and breakfast sausage as well as snack sticks from Wesley-they've all been good. I didn't care for his jalapeno-cheddar link because he didn't use high-temp cheese, but that's personal preference more than the product. He'll give you a sample if you want to try before you buy.

Shot a little buck during draw hunt at Balcones Canyonland NWR. Neither processor in Bertram (Brizendin’s and DB Game Processing) would take it. Called three others south of there before finding one that would.

There wasn’t much else to do with all the Rona shut downs

My thoughts as well. The deer didn’t get a break this year.

People who have been out of work for months need something to eat.

That was the processor's thoughts. Also, I bet after seeing some of the shortages, lots of people filled their freezers the best they could.

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but my total hunting costs far exceed the price of USDA Prime beef from the grocery store.

This could have been a season where the value of meat was far greater than the value of antlers.

Was told by an employee at Wentzel's in Hamilton they took in about 500 deer in 2019 and they were over 700 in 2020. They stopped taking deer at one point owner said they were having a hard time just getting people to come to work and cut meat off the bone.

Hamilton Quality Meats stopped taking them for a short time as well, not sure how many they took in 2019, when I dropped mine off this year my tag was 1992.

I shot a buck on draw hunt and then shot another one opening day. I took them both to my local processor and they had them ready in a week. As the season went on they got so busy that they only accepted wild game on Wednesday's.

I'm sure a lot of this was an uptick in locals. I know quite a few people that had to quarantine, a deer blind is a good place to do so. Also, a bunch of people on good leases still paid/hunted so as not to lose their spot. And if you've tried to buy a freezer lately, you know they've been selling like hotcakes. Have to put something in them.

I haven't taken a deer in 15 previous years. I get no joy out of hunting them like when I was young. I flat wouldnt give 2 red cents to kill a Booner.

I shot 4 this year and packed the freezer. Have about .40 cents in hardcast home rolled ammo in the deal. I also didnt take them to a processor. Kind of defeats the purpose of saving money.

I took 2 deer to Hudson's in Austin this season and it has been the best sausage I have gotten from them. Last time I was there I mentioned this to the butcher working the counter and he said they have butchers lined up wanting to work right now. Many of the higher end eateries in Austin cut hours of their butchers due to covid. They are now making sausage to make ends meet. At any rate, I have seen a difference in quality.

ClearFork in Graham two seasons ago took in close to 3000 deer, unbelievable. They had two to three reefer freezer trailers to store the overflow.

I know we all like to "feed our family" off the rewards of our hunting, but plain and simple, the economies of it just do not add up unless you get to hunt free and close or maybe public land?

I do think there were more folks "working" from the deer stand than normal though this year.