Question for Hunters: Do any of you process the meat and tan your hides?

[victor3ranger]

I have never sent one to the processor, have always done it myself. That way I know how it was handled. After all the meat is cut, ground or what ever it is then vacume sealed for storage. With all my kids hunting as well as the wife, we eat deer meat year round and hardly ever buy meat at the store.
The wife has had me tan a few of the deer hides for her, its a pain in the butt, however she likes it so I do it.

 

[zcruse]

This has been a subject of a small bit of contention in my family - My dad hates processing deer and always wants to pay to have it done, I disagree. I've processed quite a few. I prefer to do them myself so that I know that I got all of the meat from my deer and none from anyone else's. Also, the meat tastes better w/o adding any fat to the ground and, despite telling processors that I didn't want any fat added to my meat, they always do.

On the hide tanning, I've never done that. The only taxidermy I've done was a euro mount for a deer I shot a couple of years ago.

 

[MSFoster]

Been wanting to do this myself as well and been doing a lot of research online found a site called whitetail systems I believe that has a beginners kit that I think I'm goin to buy to get started. Good luck to you. If you tan something post some pics so we can see how it went.

 

[dennishoddy]

Might look into a vaacum packer to help preserve the meat, preventing freezer burn

 

[Tyson C.]

the first one i did a freind showed me what to do. the secound deer i went and watched the processor cut it up and get a few pointers from him. since then, i cut them myself. if you have never done one, get with someone that has so you can learn hands on where to cut and how deep to cut.

as for tanning, the write up on here is mine "my how to tan a coyote hide" top of page sticky. the tanning process would work out for deer, no major changes. you just need to have good table, knives, room temp, and time. also if you plan on tanning the hide, know what size of gun you are using/shot placement cause you might be doing some stitch work to cover the hole. i use a .223 and break hearts, so my hole size is about the size of a #2pencil and usually no exit wound. use a 7mag and you have a baseball size hole probably to patch on the other side...LOL. hit me up if you have any questions.....

good luck this year!

 

[Mitch Rapp]

make it 5

6....

I need to get a grinder, I will sometimes take one to a processor for smoked sausage, but may try that myself too this year. Without a grinder we cut stuff into little slices like fajita meat. That was amazingly good.

 

[sesh]

6....

I need to get a grinder, I will sometimes take one to a processor for smoked sausage, but may try that myself too this year. Without a grinder we cut stuff into little slices like fajita meat. That was amazingly good.

7!
I strongly encourage you to buy yourself a grinder and make your own smoked sausage, we did about 20 lbs of smoked last year, it was great and you can probably do it better than I can. I took out 5 lbs to "experiment" on, we minced up jalapenos and the such, it turned out awesome. This year I'm going to add some of that high temp cheese to the mix, should turn out fair to middlin'.

 

[Toney]

I think processing your deer is part of hunting.

 

[dennishoddy]

Sausagemaker.com

 

[ranchking]

My Wife loves my sausage!