Game Processing, Hudson Valley

[BDinPutnam]

Hey all-

Gearing up for my first NY deer hunt this season. Can someone recommend a butcher? I am in southern Putnam but willing to travel within reason if there's someone you know who does great work. Internet is not showing me much (other than Rich the Butcher in Mahopac- any experiences there?)

Thanks as always.

BD

 

[HighlandLofts]

BD
Why not butcher it yourself? I never took any deer to have processed. We have gotten a bunch of them between myself, my three brothers and our kids.

Other then knives and a meat grinder and a vacuum sealer that' all you need.

If you want processed meat, salami, peppeoni or anything else like that you can just take in how ever many pounds you want done, you generally get back twice the amount you take in because they add pork & fat to it.

As far as jerky goes. Pick.up a dehydrator from Wal-Mart and make your own.
Last deer season I made a bunch of deer jerky up with a bunch of scrapes wee could of ground up for burger meat.

I made he jerky up when it got dark out, I'd season it and dry it out the next day. I would make some every might until the meat for jerky was used up and the next deer was taken.

 

[BDinPutnam]

Highland I been considering it, but my in laws will be here and my father in law and I may fill two or three tags (obviously, if the stars align). Lot of work! Also one of these bucks I got my eye on is going on the wall, knowing my knife skills I would probably fuck it up. It is definitely on my list of things to learn to do.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Caping the deer is easy, i did two 8 point bucks that i shot in Triangle New Yorkistan. I cut the hide around the deer at the half way point like the end of the rib cage slice the hide on the top of the deer hide to the top of the neck. .
Cut the front legs off at the knees and skin the front half of the deer to throw of the neck and then cut the head off and take it in to your taxidermist or bag it up and throw it in the freezer until you take it in.

 

[BDinPutnam]

Cut the head off?!



I'm kidding.

 

[Yeti]

Never take it to a processor,never really know what your getting back.Could take a nice doe in and get tough crappy buck meat back,and processor gets 20% at least to sell on the side.

 

[kev74]

Cut the head off?!



I'm kidding.

Its hard to make it delicious if its still attached.

 

[Twogunwilly]

Nice, love the confidence! Enter any buck pools yet?

 

[BDinPutnam]

Nice, love the confidence! Enter any buck pools yet?

Only people I know are my wife, my realtor, my dry cleaner and some doctors.

We will be out for crossbow and shotgun and the area is riddled with deer.

 

[Yeti]

Only people I know are my wife, my realtor, my dry cleaner and some doctors.

We will be out for crossbow and shotgun and the area is riddled with deer.

As soon as you walk in your woods hunting,they will all take off to your neighbors where no hunting is allowed and wont see your area riddled again till next fall before hunting season.

 

[BDinPutnam]

Oh, I know it, and how. Big one I have been watching for several years disappeared right before Thanksgiving last year and I didn't seem him again until maybe February. We're planning on putting in some serious time as this is first year hunting here (on my property) and I have a ton of vacation time. They're coming out a good chunk of crossbow season through end of Thanksgiving weekend. Bonus is walk out the back door, 50 yards - in the blind.

 

[masterswimmer]

Here's your lesson:

 

[Airborneguy]

I finally started butchering my own last year after trying a pig earlier in the year in my driveway.

Deer are so easy, especially if you don’t mind grinding a lot of it. I think venison hamburgers are one of the best meals going, so that’s fine by me.

I skin and quarter at camp, ice the hell out of it for a few days if possible, then butcher as soon as I get home.

I may buy a processing kit for this season, but last year I used one knife to skin and quarter, then two basic kitchen knives at home. It’s really simple.

The hardest part is not pissing off my wife lol.

 

[Blimey]

Oh, I know it, and how. Big one I have been watching for several years disappeared right before Thanksgiving last year and I didn't seem him again until maybe February. We're planning on putting in some serious time as this is first year hunting here (on my property) and I have a ton of vacation time. They're coming out a good chunk of crossbow season through end of Thanksgiving weekend. Bonus is walk out the back door, 50 yards - in the blind.

Ugh, don't tempt me.

I hunted a guy's property last year. I was out a dozen times or so before gun season and saw deer every time IIRC. Absolutely swarming with deer. Gun season starts, him and his son take 4-5 that first weekend, and then the deer absolutely vanish. All gone until the season was over. I went out several more times, saw nothing, he saw very little (it was at his house so he was there all the time).

I still do a local guy. I'm sure he gets more meat than I could and bags them and labels them for $80. That's particularly valuable if I've had to spend a couple hours dragging the deer out of the woods like I did prior to last season (tractor beats dragging).

 

[HighlandLofts]

I bought an older orange back pack with the aluminum frame that I will be bringing back with me this November. I want to still hunt some big wood lots, get dropped on one road and make my way to the other side of these large tracts of hardwoods. If I get one back in, I'll have a small rope & pulleys to lift out up, quarter it up and carry it out in the back pack.
I will post a picture of the back pack tomorrow. I bought it from Facebook fore sale BULLSHIT for $20.

Do your self a favor and buy a Havlon barracuda fold up knife for about $30 or so. Replaceble razor blades. They are extremely sharp.
For splittng the pelvic bone and cutting up through the rib cage and cutting the legs off at the knees get a Schrade Old Timer fixed blade knife.

I can get a whole 1,100 pound cow dressed of with one razor invert in my Havalon and it is still sharp enough to use until the next cow came along.