For the self processors

Early season and especially hot days, how much time are you giving yourselves to gut and get the meat chilled?? Considering tracking time, too. We are giving about 20 minutes before tracking and gutted as soon as found. Skin asap on the lease and throw in cooler of ice. But overall, from the time you kill to the time it hits the freezer, how much are you allowing? The other day we put one down in a creek of running water after gutting to help chill down while one went and got the 4 wheeler to get it on out of there.

Mine are deer by deer.. Asap Is always the goal but sometimes.. Circumstances won't allow that.

That being said.. I still ice them for at least a week before I start grinding them

That's one thing I've never done, I've for a week. I cool for 24 hours and cut and freeze.

I shot a doe last evening at 6:30, gave her 30 Min then recovered. Immediately field dressed, went and got truck,loaded her up and 30 Min ride home. Cleaned and quartered and in the cooler by 9. First one of the year so I had to knock the rust off but that was as quickly as I could get it all done.

Spotlite said:

That's one thing I've never done, I've for a week. I cool for 24 hours and cut and freeze.

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It's a pain but never had any foul tasting meat doing this. I got lazy one night years ago and took a deer to a processor. When I cooked it...it stunk up the entire house. Vowed never to do that again. Not downing processors but if I do it all.. I know what I'm getting. Try icing them. Works great

oops1 said:

It's a pain but never had any foul tasting meat doing this. I got lazy one night years ago and took a deer to a processor. When I cooked it...it stunk up the entire house. Vowed never to do that again. Not downing processors but if I do it all.. I know what I'm getting. Try icing them. Works great

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Oh yea definitely agree on icing down for at least 24 hours. But I've just never let it go any longer. I did have one cubed one time at a place and it hung to long, color of the meat was already turning. Didn't taste good to me, tasted "old". I like mine red. Even icing down I leave the cooler plug open so the water doesn't leach the meat.

This time of year I will get the deer cut up and in the cooler soon as possible, for the first time this year I'm going to try the " no gut" method of cutting one up, never done it before, but a good friend has done it for years, and numerous people on here recommend it, cleaner overall and as long as the deer isn't gut shot, no chance of getting any internal contaminates on the meat.


It doesn't hurt to let the meat " age " , most quality butchers will let meat hang for a few days in a cooler before they cut it and package it for sale, its supposed to help with making it more tender, I wouldn't want it sitting in icy water for two or three days, but I've left quarters in a cooler wrapped in a plastic bag sitting on bags of ice before, till I had time to cut it up, or take it to a processor.

It sounds like the processors cooler wasn't cold enough , or he went past the usual 5-7 days which is considered normal for venison, beef can hang 10-14 days , and some old timers would hang up to 3 weeks, but at that point they had to trim away the parts that were turning

I do mine like oops1, works great for me

Repurpose an old refrigerator.

Jeff Raines said:

Repurpose an old refrigerator.

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When I'm finished with my barn that's what I'd like to do.

What yall talking about, load the deer up and ride around town for several hours so everyone can see it.......

transfixer said:

This time of year I will get the deer cut up and in the cooler soon as possible, for the first time this year I'm going to try the " no gut" method of cutting one up, never done it before, but a good friend has done it for years, and numerous people on here recommend it, cleaner overall and as long as the deer isn't gut shot, no chance of getting any internal contaminates on the meat.

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I started doing this myself a few years back, got the idea from the instructions I found on how to clean a hog in the field. I put my deer on the tailgate belly down. Cut down the spine with a razor hook blade. Then I pull the skin down off the quarters, cut out the backstraps, and cut off quarters. Cut off bottom of legs with tree loppers. Never touch the guts or head. If I want the antlers, I use a game saw to cut out of skull. Then I toss the carcass in an open area a few hundred yards from my stand so the vultures can find it (right next to where I do the work on the tailgate). It is usually gone in about 2 days.

I don't fool with a gambrel anymore, too much setup time.

Granted, I am wasting some meat, but never cared for the tenderloin and it isn't much there and ribs never have much meat anyway. The vultures gotta eat also.

This has greatly sped up my processing time and less mess and cleanup.

Rosewood

Jeff Raines said:

Repurpose an old refrigerator.

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I was thinking of doing this. How long do you let them age? I would think you could put at least 2 in a normal size fridge and they are usually pretty cheap.

ucfireman said:

I was thinking of doing this. How long do you let them age? I would think you could put at least 2 in a normal size fridge and they are usually pretty cheap.

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I let mine age for 5-7 days.I took out all the glass shelves and replaced them with wire shelves that I cut to fit.The wire shelves allow for better air circulation all around the meat,and for any blood to fall to the bottom.