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Outrageous processing fee!!

I just picked my deer up from P3 Custom Meats in Bledsoe county today. It looks great, and the price was right. The place is as clean as I have ever seen a processor too.
Awesome! Gonna use them if I'm blessed with another deer!
 
I love it when people act like deer meat is free if you process it yourself. Never mind the hundreds spent on gas, thousands on gear, guns/bows/ammo, lease/food plots if you have those, licenses, not to mention the time investment. Probably like $20-$50 per pound. But I wouldn't have it any other way…
So true!
 
I dont. understand why people don't learn to do it themselves. I couldn't find a process I liked when moving to tn due to the way we did it in MS. So for the past 20 years i've been doing my own. I started just cutting muscle groups. Very easy and cleaning them up, Then I bought a cheap tenderizer for minute steak. Then a cheap grinder from northern tools, then a sausage stuffer( cheapest 5lb gander sold) Then I upgraded my grinder when NT one burnt up. I found mixes I like ones I dislike and how much pork, bacon or cheese I want added and bought a camp chef upright smoker three years ago. I have had people start asking me to sell them sausage and summer sausage haha. I tell them to go ahead and bring the game warden to hand the cash to.

every deer I did myself I put back 150$. because that was about what I was spending. Didn't take long til I was doing everything I liked from back home and 100% knowing I had my deer and what was In it.
 
I dont. understand why people don't learn to do it themselves. I couldn't find a process I liked when moving to tn due to the way we did it in MS. So for the past 20 years i've been doing my own. I started just cutting muscle groups. Very easy and cleaning them up, Then I bought a cheap tenderizer for minute steak. Then a cheap grinder from northern tools, then a sausage stuffer( cheapest 5lb gander sold) Then I upgraded my grinder when NT one burnt up. I found mixes I like ones I dislike and how much pork, bacon or cheese I want added and bought a camp chef upright smoker three years ago. I have had people start asking me to sell them sausage and summer sausage haha. I tell them to go ahead and bring the game warden to hand the cash to.

every deer I did myself I put back 150$. because that was about what I was spending. Didn't take long til I was doing everything I liked from back home and 100% knowing I had my deer and what was In it.
The thing about high processing fees is that at least it is a 100% discretionary purchase. In reality, every cost associated with deer hunting is discretionary for most.
 
Prefer to do my own. Have been known to entertain the neighborhood kids by hanging a deer on an old swing set and processing it.
 
I bet I have $100 in labor in butchering my own deer. Never mind the equipment and other overhead I have invested.
I have no clue how someone charges less than $150 and turns a profit.
 
Do any of these higher priced processors break down individual muscle groups in the hind quarter to make steaks or do they all just debone it and start slicing? You know what I'm talking about, getting "steaks" that are a combination of 5 different muscles with all sorts of tendon and connective tissue in each bite. Yum!!

There may be some processors that do better work but my experience is that they don't do a good enough job to be worth the cost. My first deer I took to the processor and knew no different. Then started doing my own and never looked back.
 
Do any of these higher priced processors break down individual muscle groups in the hind quarter to make steaks or do they all just debone it and start slicing? You know what I'm talking about, getting "steaks" that are a combination of 5 different muscles with all sorts of tendon and connective tissue in each bite. Yum!!

There may be some processors that do better work but my experience is that they don't do a good enough job to be worth the cost. My first deer I took to the processor and knew no different. Then started doing my own and never looked back.
I would totally expect the cheaper ones to do this, along with other less than ideal practices. It's the only way to turn a profit.

I suppose with enough practice and perfect working conditions I could grind up a whole deer in no time. Still, cleaning my work area and grinder takes a lot of time….unless processors don't clean between animals.
 
Do any of these higher priced processors break down individual muscle groups in the hind quarter to make steaks or do they all just debone it and start slicing? You know what I'm talking about, getting "steaks" that are a combination of 5 different muscles with all sorts of tendon and connective tissue in each bite. Yum!!

The processor I use cuts the meat same way I do. No connective tissue. No fat. No sticky membrane. My biggest gripe about them is that they trim too much, especially on roasts.
 

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