Butchers getting Expensive

[Lunatic]

1 minute ago, hammer4reel said:

What do you really need ?

a boning knife , a cutting board , a small grinder and some wrapping paper ?

basic cuts a deer takes an hour .

done , wrapped and put away .

 

.

You nee clean facility with decent amount of room and yes, tools.
You do everything fast. You skin, cut and package a deer in an hour?

[hammer4reel]

4 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

You nee clean facility with decent amount of room and yes, tools.
You do everything fast. You skin, cut and package a deer in an hour?

Wasn’t counting the skinning  in that hour ,

‘I skin deer as soon as I get home, and break it into 6 pieces .

goes in fridge for 3/4 days .

hour is to bone it out , cut and wrap .

 

break the deer down outside , once start to cut can just bring a piece in at a time .

 

[hiking]

Yes they are going up in price, but so are plumbers, electricians, auto repairs and everything else

[Live to Hunt]

Just now, hiking said:

Yes they are going up in price, but so are plumbers, electricians, auto repairs and everything else

Exactly 

[SPEARFISH]

I haven't been to a butcher in years, other than to donate a deer as part of a management hunt.  I get whatever cuts I want, I know it's clean, and it's cheap.  I vac seal everything and it lasts until I use it.  Sometimes I make kielbasa, sausage or jerky.  No silver skin either.

[archer36]

19 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

What do you really need ?

a boning knife , a cutting board , a small grinder and some wrapping paper ?

basic cuts a deer takes an hour .

done , wrapped and put away .

 

.

It's skinning and disposal of bones and scraps that's the major issue. I put it straight into the garbage but it's a mess. If you are not pressed for time it can be an enjoyable 5-6 hours from start to finish. Making chop meat and vacuum sealing it all. If your pressed for time then the $85 is money well spent. Hell, I don't work for $15 an hour.  Look at it as a hobby. 

Edited February 18, 2019 by archer36

[TroutandBucks]

I dont have the space being in a condo now to do my own deer. At some point in the future I would like to try to do it myself. My deer do get pricey but that because I typical get alot of specially stuff made and ask for very little if any ground meat

[Greybeard]

Most time consuming part for me is cleaning up each chunk and wrapping it, after chunking it down and bringing it into the kitchen.  Not much extra needed that I don't already have in the kitchen, just need to get extra freezer bags or bags for the vacuum seal.  4-5 hours from the time shot to the time it's in the freezer.  Taking just the meat to have specialties made isn't that expensive, not in PA anyway.  $2.80 per lb for franks or sausages.

[Gunsmoke]

The cost of basic processing is inline.  The specialty stuff is expensive and can get out of hand quickly.

[Buck154]

3 minutes ago, Greybeard said:

  Taking just the meat to have specialties made isn't that expensive

That's what I did. Skinned and cut up and took like 40 lbs of meat to have some specialties made

[Silver Belly62]

Usually do most of my own anyway, including ground, sausage, jerky.  Use to have a couple butchers around here that I could skin, quarter or bone out the meat to have snack sticks done which would save everyone some time but now they wont take it unless it's the whole deer either.  Sucks cause the turnaround time was usually quick

Edited February 18, 2019 by Silver Belly62

[Lunatic]

27 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

Wasn’t counting the skinning  in that hour ,

‘I skin deer as soon as I get home, and break it into 6 pieces .

goes in fridge for 3/4 days .

hour is to bone it out , cut and wrap .

 

break the deer down outside , once start to cut can just bring a piece in at a time .

 

There is satisfaction in cutting your own meat, and I do some of it, but for the most part it isn't worth my time. $85 for 3 to 4 hrs of work is money well spent. Yes it takes me 3 to 4 hrs although I worked as a butcher back in the 80s.  Most of us don't have big enough, clean area and proper tools, including  sink near by, to do it efficiently. Also most of us don't have the time. If I kill a deer on Sunday I can not get to it till next Saturday but then I prefer to hunt on Saturday than cut.
$85 is a bargain for me and the butcher I use does much better job than I could do it myself.
 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Lunatic

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Imo basic cut for $80-100 vacumme packed is well worth it.

By time I waste my day to skin, quarter, fridge, cut, trim, grind, vacumme pack, clean the table, cutting board, grinder, and the bloody mess in the fridge- not to mention spending $ on freezer bags and garbage bags.. might as well let the butcher take care of it and it will be labeled in 2 person portions perfectly.

As for the Cape fee..
I watch my butcher skin a deer when it's not being caped- cuts the head off first then slices the hide wide open from ribs to where the head used to be. Skin is removed in about 15 seconds. When a shoulder mount is needed it definately takes longer. (Maybe 15 mins or so)
But they also need to bag it, store/freeze it, meet with you an extra time to hopefully come and get it the next day.
Also- if I was a butcher I wouldn't return the Cape unless the whole tab was paid.
And if I was a butcher i would want the basic cut cost up front. I'm sure they get stuck with people's deer and no money. Not sure why they dont take a deposit? In the taxidermy world you are a fool for not taking a deposit.

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[rocky]

I don't care if a butcher was only charging $25.00 to do a deer, I would still butcher my own. Just knowing how the deer and meat was handled from the field to the table is worth all the time it takes me to process a deer myself.

Edited February 18, 2019 by rocky

[Stan Putz]

17 minutes ago, JerseyJaysTaxidermy said:

And if I was a butcher i would want the basic cut cost up front. I'm sure they get stuck with people's deer and no money. Not sure why they dont take a deposit? In the taxidermy world you are a fool for not taking a deposit.

 

Yes, I'd say I got stuck with 2 or 3 each year that I had to eat or donate. I tried taking a deposit for a while when I ran my business, but more often than not they'd show up broke or claim they didn't have enough for/gas/mortgage/diapers that week if they paid a deposit, and the last comment was always, "Cmon man, all the deer I brought you in the past and all the business I sent your way, now you're saying you don't trust me"? I got tired of that fight and having to keep track of deposits paid. At the time I was getting $50, but yeah, if I was getting $500 and had to pay the tanning fee and forms and whatever else you pay up front, I'd get a deposit too.

Specialty items are just that, specialty items. There are up-front costs involved (pork & pork backfat, casings, spices, commercial smoker) as well as the butchers knowledge & recipes that he's worked years for to perfect. In reality, you can buy pepperoni or dried beef or jerky for a fraction of what it costs a butcher to do it with your meat from the store, but if you want his time and expertise  on your venison, that's what it costs.

Back in the day I could skin, de-bone, grind, wrap, and label a decent size buck start-to-finish by myself in about 3 hours, a doe in about 2; that doesn't include clean-up. But I was pretty fussy about what I gave customers back, and I was selling the hides (for a while until the hide market took a crap), so I took extra care when I was skinning them. Not a lot of money made when you figure in electricity to run the freezers, freezer paper, bags, and pay helpers, even back in the 1980s & 90s....

Edited February 18, 2019 by Stan Putz