Every deer hunter knows that once you kill a deer, you want to get it out of the woods as quickly and as easily as possible especially if the weather is on the warm side but what happens after you get your deer back home? I know a few hunters who just give their deer away, but if you plan to keep your deer and eat it you have a couple of options; take it to a butcher for processing or butcher and process the meat yourself or with friends.

If you take your deer to a professional processer make sure it’s someone you can trust; you want to get your own deer meat back and not somebody else’s deer meat. After all, you never know how a deer was treated or handled prior to it being taken to a processer. Another factor is cost; I haven’t been to a deer processer in over 20 years, but I’m quite sure the cost of having a deer done these days has gone up considerably since my last trip.

I definitely prefer doing my own deer; trust me, I’m far from being a professional, but I have learned some basic cuts over the years from reading books and looking at videos. I debone all the meat and then cut up some steaks, thin slice the back straps, make up a few roasts and grind the rest for burgers. I prefer a good sharp fillet knife, and I’ll admit it-I’m like a brain surgeon; every bit of fat and gristle must go leaving only pure red meat.

Of course, butchering your own deer isn’t without some problems also. For starters it takes some time; I pretty much put a full day in the process. Another big factor to be considered is what do you do with your deer until it’s time to butcher? I’ll be honest; I like to let my deer hang for at least ten days before I butcher but a lot depends on the temperature. If the temperature stays in the upper 30s or into the 40s, I let it hang but if it gets higher than that you better have some refrigeration available. Fortunately, I have access to refrigeration if needed. I had more than one butcher tell me that letting meat hang at the correct temperature for a time tenderizes the meat — I believe it.

Something else I do that doesn’t go down well with a lot of hunters is I leave the hide on the deer until I’m ready to process it. I know, we’ve been told for all of our lives to get the hide off right away, or it will ruin the taste of the meat-not so. I read a Penn State study years ago that concluded that leaving the hide on did not adversely affect the taste of the meat. In fact, the study went on to say that keeping the hide on kept the meat cleaner. I’ll agree that it’s a little harder to get the hide off if you wait but the meat is clean and fresh looking, and no crust forms over the exposed meat. We’ve been enjoying excellent tasting deer meat for years.

This year I decided to grind up some of our deer for burgers. Like I stated earlier, I’m not in the professional category when it comes to processing deer and it didn’t take long to find out that the inexpensive meat grinder I used wasn’t getting the job done. I spent more time cleaning it than grinding. Bottom line is if you plan to grind some venison get a powerful enough and good enough grinder. I’ve been looking, and it appears that a few hundred dollars may be needed to acquire the appropriate grinder. Even a good stainless steel hand operated grinder may do the job. Of course, another option would be to make friends with somebody who already has a good grinder.