By Courtney Nicolson – Associate Director Marketing & Communications, Sportsmen’s Alliance
You’ve got a big game animal on the ground, congratulations! Now what? You’ve got some work on your hands, or perhaps instead, to hand off to a local wild game processor. Here’s some tips for deciding when and where to DIY and when to utilize a butcher.
“It was the heat of the moment…”, I don’t remember the next line of that not so famous classic rock song but that was the relevant message here. While eastern and northern hunters might not begin their big game hunting season until well into fall or winter, out west and down south, hunters start their season closer and closer to summer. Get a big bull elk down with your bow on and you will be battling not only the sweltering temperatures, but insects as well. You need to get that animal gutted and cooled down as soon as possible. Rushing to a wild game butcher’s hanging cooler might be the best course of action. In the winter, a deer can be hung in a home garage and slowly processed quarter by quarter over a few days while staying cool. It can be a challenge to keep meat at a proper temperature with ice for long periods of time.
If you’re hunting in a party, the first person to tag out is not going to be able to bring their animal all the way back to their home to begin butchering. The animal might be quartered and packed out and then stored in a cooler in a truck waiting nearby for a day or two but eventually ice will have to be replenished. Animal processors typically work with whole, unskinned animals, but most can also be utilized to process skinned quarters brought in at a price per pound. An organization I am a part of hosts a youth hunt every year and we require the girls to drop off their game to be processed. This is so they can continue to accompany the other girls on the rest of their hunts to support them.
Price can be a driving force in making the decision to self-process. Some folks have more time than money, some have more money than time. For me personally, I fall into the first category. If I spend $45 on a pronghorn tag, I don’t want to spend $100 to get it processed when that money could buy another whole tag and double my amount of meat. I’ve found that if you live in a rural area with many processors to choose from, the prices can be quite competitive. If you calculate out the number of hours you spent processing, you’d be surprised at the hourly rate you came up with!
One time in Wyoming, I had a friend who was a tv show host join us on our hunt. They had a tight turnaround time and had to leave the following day to partake in their next hunt. They made the decision to donate their meat. We took their pronghorn to the local butcher who charged a small fee to butcher it and donate it to a local location. Some butchers can partner with organizations who might cover the costs of the fees. The donation of meat can be a rewarding experience and make a huge impact in the local community being turned into many meals for those in need. For more information on donating game meat visit the NRA’s Hunters for the Hungry website.
Butchering your own meat comes with an initial investment in gear. You can keep the costs low by using knives and cutting boards you already have, purchasing a cheap meat grinder whether a hand crank or electric, and using butcher paper to wrap. However, there are endless upgrades and accessories you can purchase like a vacuum sealer, sausage stuffer, dehydrator, smoker, the list goes on. If your family likes to eat summer sausage, snack sticks, jerky, and custom hot dogs and sausages, you might prefer to have a processor do all of those for you. Between the seasonings, casings, high temperature cheese and time spent, it might be a bigger project than you’re interested in taking on.
I would not call myself a perfectionist. Not by a long shot. However, if there is one thing that I strive for the utmost perfection at, it would be butchering. The time and attention I put into making exact cuts, trimming every last strip of silver skin and sinew is unlike any other task. Certainly, much more detail oriented than cleaning my guns (shhhh). There’s something about seeing a perfectly packaged piece of venison through the clear vacuum seal bags that gives a deep satisfaction. I dislike when I eat someone else’s processed meat and I bite into a steak and find a chunk of hair, or bite into a burger and pull a sinewy string out from between your teeth. However, most processors do a mighty fine job and the result is quite satisfactory. Many hunters are concerned that when they bring an animal to a butcher the meat that they get back might not all be from their actual animal. The concern is usually focused around ground meat which is more practical to process when lumped together with multiple customers into one batch of grinding. If you put the time and care into caring for your animal post shot, you don’t want someone else’s funky meat back in return. You’ll want to ask your processor a few simple questions to determine if they are the right choice for your expectations, and most will exceed them.
In conclusion, for me, processing my own game animals comes down to two key factors: pride and storytelling. There’s nothing I love more than to host friends and family around my dinner table to enjoy a meal together. When that meal features wild game that I have brought home and butchered myself, as most nights do, well that pride is just multiplied tenfold. I am proud to be able to tell the story of every moment of the encounter with that animal, from the first moment I laid eyes on it, to the weight of it in my pack, to the final rest after being pulled from the grill. Life, and all of its moments, are meant to be savored.
Courtney Nicolson is an outdoor industry media & marketing professional with 12+ years of experience in the hook & bullet sector. Her career has spanned from television production with Sportsman Channel and Outdoor Channel, to sales with Hunt to Eat apparel, to writing for major?publications such as Wildfowl Magazine. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Marketing & Communications with Sportsmen’s Alliance, an NGO founded in 1978. Volunteering and mentorship are at the core of what she stands for and has been a Hunter Education instructor for 5+ years as well as a mentor with organizations like Sisterhood of the Outdoors. Courtney lives in Rhode Island, and spends her free time fishing and farming in the summer and chasing grouse and woodcock in the fall.
