Butcher or DIY

[Skinnj01]

Coming west for elk. I typically processes all my own whitetail. Just wondering if it would be better to DIY or take to a processor? Price? Time? Kind of putting the cart before the horse but just planning. Thanks

 

[Nickofthewoods]

I would try to get your meat home in coolers and process there if you can. Approx $350 to process most places. More money and time if you get specialty items made.

 

[spike camp]

For sure DIY

1. You know everything you received is 100% your own meat.
2. Much better quality control.
3. CWD
4. Saves you $300-400

 

[muddydogs]

Process at home. Have enough tools and cooler space to get the meat off the bone and into garbage bags then in the cooler on ice for the trip home. You can hold cooled meat for 10 days with very little effort. Drain the water a couple times a day, add ice as needed and rotate the meat around to keep to cooled.

Depending on where your hunting and which states your traveling through you might want to have a propane burner, pot and needed stuff to boil out the skull if European mounting so you won't have any issues with CWD states. Takes about an hour of good simmer time to get the skull clean enough to pass inspection but it will probably need a degreasing boil once home.

 

[Orions.Quest]

Process at home. Have enough tools and cooler space to get the meat off the bone and into garbage bags then in the cooler on ice for the trip home. You can hold cooled meat for 10 days with very little effort. Drain the water a couple times a day, add ice as needed and rotate the meat around to keep to cooled.

Depending on where your hunting and which states your traveling through you might want to have a propane burner, pot and needed stuff to boil out the skull if European mounting so you won't have any issues with CWD states. Takes about an hour of good simmer time to get the skull clean enough to pass inspection but it will probably need a degreasing boil once home.

Great advice right here. Debone the elk and boil the skull (or skull cap) and process the meat at home on your schedule.

 

[jwatts]

Process at home. Have enough tools and cooler space to get the meat off the bone and into garbage bags then in the cooler on ice for the trip home. You can hold cooled meat for 10 days with very little effort. Drain the water a couple times a day, add ice as needed and rotate the meat around to keep to cooled.

Depending on where your hunting and which states your traveling through you might want to have a propane burner, pot and needed stuff to boil out the skull if European mounting so you won't have any issues with CWD states. Takes about an hour of good simmer time to get the skull clean enough to pass inspection but it will probably need a degreasing boil once home.

What he said. Depending on where you're hunting you may not even be able to leave your unit without cleaning the skull and deboning the meat. You also have to make sure none of the states you are traveling through have similar laws. I cannot bring a cervid back into MS without having the skull clean and meat deboned. You can't drive through Arkansas unless the skull is clean and the meat deboned. The elk unit we hunted in WY required something similar. It took about 4hr to clean 2 bull elk skulls using a washtub and propane burner on the side of a BLM road before we came home. We deboned it all in the hotel parking lot.

 

[Skinnj01]

Process at home. Have enough tools and cooler space to get the meat off the bone and into garbage bags then in the cooler on ice for the trip home. You can hold cooled meat for 10 days with very little effort. Drain the water a couple times a day, add ice as needed and rotate the meat around to keep to cooled.

Depending on where your hunting and which states your traveling through you might want to have a propane burner, pot and needed stuff to boil out the skull if European mounting so you won't have any issues with CWD states. Takes about an hour of good simmer time to get the skull clean enough to pass inspection but it will probably need a degreasing boil once home.

Didnt even think about the skull and CWD. Thanks

 

[Poser]

If you have the skills, equipment and time, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t DIY. An elk is just a big deer.

 

[Billy Goat]

Here is another option. I debone and bring home in a freezer or a cooler and then take to a local processor. I can do it myself but just find it's easier for me to take it to a local beef processor. They get meat that had most of the work done already. All they do is cut steaks, cube some of it, burger the rest. Makes it so I don't need to drag my stuff out. Plus I bring them work throughout the year otherwise and they don't charge much. Be worth finding out if there is someone close by that would do that for you. Had 3 elk done like this last year for $180 total. Definitely could do it myself for free, but my time is worth something as well.

 

[Azone]

I do the DIY route, I have always felt the last step in a successful hunt is processing your own meat. If your pressed for time or dont mind letting the money go, a processor would be handy. But make sure the processor is a good one that does not have a reputation for screwing over customers or ruining meat. Good luck this fall.

 

[Skinnj01]

Thanks for all the in put guys. I will be doing DIY. Thanks for the motivation. Just more rewarding. Always said the meat tastes better too.

 

[87TT]

I've only used a processor 2X in 45 years of hunting. Both times I wasn't real satisfied with the finished product. I am on my second grinder and the first few years I used a hand grinder.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

I process my own every year, but I take the grind into a butcher and have it made into burger and specialty items. With the money I save cutting it up myself, I can get more specialty items. As long as you have the time, work space and a way to keep it cool while you process it, its nice to be sure everything you cut is something you will want to eat in the future.

 

[waitforit]

Process at home, but you have a find a way to make that an enjoyable part of the overall hunt experience. Otherwise it is a massive chore. All about time and attitude.

 

[muddydogs]

For me processing the meat is as much fun as the hunt. I'll strip a bunch of meat to be ground then freeze the strips to be made into stuff in January and February when its cold and nasty outside and I have nothing better to do plus this gives me time to pick up some cheap pork butt's or whatever I need to finish processing the meat. Burger and breakfast sausage is usually made right away.

To keep the meat cool while hunting and at home I use a small chest freezer I have on a Harbor Freight lawn cart so it can be rolled into the toy hauler. While out hunting I have found that running the chest freezer for 2 hours a day will keep the meat under 40 degrees even when the outside mid day temps hit 60 ish. Once home I have a cheap temp control unit I picked up off Amazon that I set to 36 degrees that the freezer gets plug into to control the temp. Once the meat is processed as far as I'm taking it for the time being I can use the chest for extra freezer space as needed.

Some guys don't think they have the space to process an elk but if I can get it done in my small kitchen then anyone can. I set up a smaller folding table right in the middle of the kitchen, cover table with plastic sheeting and go to work one quarter at a time. My grinder sets on the kitchen counter with just enough room between the top of the grinder and the bottom of the upper cabinets to work. The stuffer gets clamped to the kitchen counter after a drawer is removed to make room for the clamps with barley enough room to swing the top open for loading.

 

[Chowell]

DIY
Buy a good grinder, after a couple animals it will pay for itself and you know the nest is yours and not someone else’s that laid out forever or any bad case scenario

 

[WyoBowhunter21]

I cannot recommend more on something than cutting up your own game. It brings a whole new level of satisfaction and you know where your meat came from. I am not saying all butchers don’t give you your actual meat but i have had experience where the butcher literally ground up grissel and not good meat into the burger. Doing it myself mean I know what is in the meat and what I cut off


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Tortorelli89]

My vote is for DIY. Don't think you can go wrong

 

[Antarctica]

I cannot recommend more on something than cutting up your own game. It brings a whole new level of satisfaction and you know where your meat came from. I am not saying all butchers don’t give you your actual meat but i have had experience where the butcher literally ground up grissel and not good meat into the burger. Doing it myself mean I know what is in the meat and what I cut off


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

+1 on this. The satisfaction of doing it all completes the process of 'woods to table' for me.

Also, and having never killed an elk (I want to someday, that's why I'm on this board), I can only speak for deer, but the quality of meat you get from butchering it yourself is far and away better than the butcher. When you butc her yourself, you are dissecting the animal muscle by muscle, which exposes silverskin which can and should be removed. I didn't really like venison better than beef until I started peeling the silverskin on everything, and then I loved it. You can do it at the time of butchering or after its thawed but doing that (time consuming) step will greatly improve your meat.

Butchers just run it all through a meat saw, understandably. If they took the time to prepare meat the way I do, the'd go broke. But it is so worth it.

Get a grinder (even if you start out like most of us with the old kitchen aid attachement) and DIY. Then get a big grinder and a press and start making sausage. We make it a family operation and all enjoy the results.

 

[Idaho_bow_hunter]

I currently live in the Midwest and do my own processing. I enjoy doing it myself. I recommend a grinder and sausage stuffer. With that combo I can make deer sticks, brats, summer sausage, Italian sausage and more. I just mix in a pork shoulder.