Pay processing or haul it raw?

[Ange86]

Making my first Newfoundland trip in October and wanted to hear from guys that have done both. I’ve always butchered my own (elk/deer/pigs/birds etc) but am most concerned with border crossing issues? We’ve hauled elk back (Colorado to Kentucky) without issue. always built coolers that fit the bed and store our gear and sleep on top if need be. Meat on racks and ice and/or dry ice below with drainage. From what I understand, outfitter has a place to keep it cool until departure, but if that turns out to be a bust I’ll be forced to do processing. Thanks in advance

 

[medvedyt]

from canada to usa you will need the bones removed from the meat so unless you have time someone will have to do it for you.

 

[Thebigbaby]

Raw dawg fo sho.

 

[WMR]

Brother and I brought two moose back from Canada. We did one each way. Brother killed his on day one, so it went to the processor. While that was being handled, we continued the hunt. I shot mine later in the hunt. We had a trailer with a freezer as well as multiple coolers. Brother’s bull came home cut, wrapped and frozen. Mine, bagged and cooled, got processed back at home.

We bought back no part of the brain or spine. The legs came back still on the bone. No issues whatsoever at the border.

Good luck to you. I hope you get a big one.

 

[WMR]

FWIW, I very much prefer to age my venison prior to processing. That’s not always possible, but I do so whenever I can.

 

[Ange86]

FWIW, I very much prefer to age my venison prior to processing. That’s not always possible, but I do so whenever I can.

That’s a large part of doing my own processing

 

[777dogman]

Friend of mine got turned away at border because bones were still in meat. He had a friend in Nova Scotia so he took moose there and deboned it. Delayed his return home a day.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I’m half and half on this one. On one hand, I like processing my own moose, on the flip side, if I could pay a reasonable fee to have it done for me, I’d save the wear on my back and shoulders for somebody else to do it.

I’ve cut up a lot of moose but sometimes enough is enough. I shot a large bull 2 years back, my buddy shot himself a nice bull and a guy I work with got his first and didn’t know how to deal with it so we ended up with 3 bulls hanging and like 4 solid days of cutting.

By the last day of that, I just sort of accepted that my back was going to hurt, shoulders were going to burn no matter what I did.