How long does it take you to butcher deer?

[Grizzlyadam]

It pretty much takes me all day if I'm doing it myself and taking my time. If my wife helps, we have done them in two hours.

[Wlog]

I've done one 80#.

Skin, debonned into roasts, scraps for grinding burger, vac sealed, throw bones away and cleanup = +5 hours.

I'll easily have this done for $100 from now on...

I don’t disagree with dropping it off at the butcher being worth the money. I don’t like depending on them every time though. I still use a butcher when I know I don’t have time to do it myself, I just like the piece of mind of knowing exactly how it was cared for and not worrying about whether or not anyone will be around for me to drop it off. I’ve had some bad experiences with butchers in the past. I’m sure I’m not alone on that.

[Wlog]

Sounds like I’m in the same ballpark as most with the amount of time. Keeping it in the fridge and doing a little at a time sounds like a good plan if you have the fridge space.

[VaBowKill5]

I wish I was faster but I’d say start to finish 4-5 hours. But I usually skin them and let hang for 5 days but after hanging is done about 5 hours.

[ZSV]

I've done one 80#.

Skin, debonned into roasts, scraps for grinding burger, vac sealed, throw bones away and cleanup = +5 hours.

I'll easily have this done for $100 from now on...

I don’t disagree with dropping it off at the butcher being worth the money. I don’t like depending on them every time though. I still use a butcher when I know I don’t have time to do it myself, I just like the piece of mind of knowing exactly how it was cared for and not worrying about whether or not anyone will be around for me to drop it off. I’ve had some bad experiences with butchers in the past. I’m sure I’m not alone on that.

I do it myself for the piece of mind also. A lot of butchers around here advertise that you might not even get the meat from your deer back. It might be from someone else’s and who knows how that was cared for before taken in.

[ThePreBanMan]

Takes me about 4 hrs and I'm not very good at it. I saw a you tube video of someone de-bone an entire deer in under 15 minutes I think it was...

[Swedishbowhunter]

I wish I was faster but I’d say start to finish 4-5 hours. But I usually skin them and let hang for 5 days but after hanging is done about 5 hours.

There are some good videos on youtube that helped me process deer much faster & better. The bearded butcher butchers is a great youtube channel that I like.

[Swedishbowhunter]

I've done one 80#.

Skin, debonned into roasts, scraps for grinding burger, vac sealed, throw bones away and cleanup = +5 hours.

I'll easily have this done for $100 from now on...

There are some guys by me that will skin, debone, cut, grind and wrap a deer for 40-50 dollars. They are ok to use in a pinch, but they definitely dont do as good of a job as I would do.

[john1984]

It depends on how picky you are. If you truly want to get ALL the RED meat without any WASTED, it would take forever.

I'm very skeptical about guys who claim to butcher deer very fast without any waste...

I call B.S.

[Jackson Marsh]

It depends on how picky you are. If you truly want to get ALL the RED meat without any WASTED, it would take forever.

I'm very skeptical about guys who claim to butcher deer very fast without any waste...

I call B.S.

I've seen it in person. My FIL can do it clean and quick, it's a thing of beauty to see it. He was a butcher for a few years, plus they butchered farm animals.

[cspot]

It depends on how picky you are. If you truly want to get ALL the RED meat without any WASTED, it would take forever.

I'm very skeptical about guys who claim to butcher deer very fast without any waste...

I call B.S.

I've seen it in person. My FIL can do it clean and quick, it's a thing of beauty to see it. He was a butcher for a few years, plus they butchered farm animals.

Just like anything the more you do it, the quicker you get. Good equipment helps alot too. A good grinder with a sharp knife and plate can fly thru burger. A bad grinder with a dull blade take forever to grind. The type of cuts you do also has an effect.

[crankn101]

I dont remember how long it takes me but its not that long at all. I steak out the backstraps and a few cuts from the ham area and the rest I grind for jerky.

[Lockdown]

From hanging with hide on, quartering, wrapping steaks in freezer paper, then putting trim in ziplocks... probably 7-8 hours if I’m butchering alone.

I’m pickier than all my friends. That’s also why I get 8-10 more pounds off a doe than they do.

[treeroot]

4-7 hours. Somedays I'm faster than others. Plus some deer have less fat, which sometimes takes me longer to deal with.

[Jmitch]

The last one I did was an average sized doe. Took between and hour and half and 2 hours to debone quarters cut steaks and clean up the rest of the trim for 2 of us. And probably 45 minutes maybe an hour to quarter and debone the hanging carcass. What I've been doing this year is freeze all my burger meat unground in gallon ziplocks then thawed all my deer from the year at once and do them all together. Saved a ton of cleanup time. Plus I'm usually trying to get one cut up after work quick so it helped make that process a little faster too.

I would say I'm pretty picky about getting as much meat as possible off. And pretty picky about steaks, roasts and stew meat as far as fat and silver skin but for burger and sausage meat I do let a little slide and dont kill myself to get it all off. Maybe it helps but if it does I honestly havent noticed. It probably is "worth it" to pay someone else to do it but that's just not how I'm wired I guess. Really like the control and flexibility doing my own gives me