Whitetail Processing - First Time

[bowhunthard88]

SHARP knives (and a way to keep them sharp). Technically you could get by with one skinning and one boning, although more is better (skinning, 8" flexible curved boning, 8" stiff curved boning, 12" flexible straight boning, cleaver or good long heavy spine knife; are my personal choices). A grinder of sorts (one to two sizes bigger than you think you need would be beneficial, I own a MEAT with a foot pedal), a vacuum packer and bags, a good large cutting board, and a couple of LEM Meat Lugs with drain boards and lids. Obviously a place to hang your deer and cut/sort/trim/clean, etc...

Butchering your own deer doesn't have to be equipment intensive; but if you do it enough, equipment that simplifies and speeds up the process will be appreciated. I only do 4 or 5 deer a year for myself, but I help a few buddies from time to time.

 

[Yoder]

I use a boning knife, heavy fixed blade Buck knife to cut through the spine. I have a meat saw but you can use a Sawzall if you don't have one. Just use a new clean blade. For skinning I use a big pair of channel locks to grab the hide to pull it and whatever folding knife I have at the time. A Gambrel to hang it is nice, especially the ones with pulleys if you are by yourself. A hand crank grinder, which is easier than you would think. It's not bad if you are only doing a couple deer a year and a vacuum sealer. It's a cheap Food Saver brand from Walmart.

All you really need is a good knife and a place to cut it. Everything else just makes it easier.

 

[butcherboy]

Ok, here’s my advice to get started. One 6” curved semi stiff victorinox knife. One 8-10” curved victorinox breaking knife. Sharpening stone either wet stone or oil. A fine steel, deboning meat hook, cut resistant glove, cutting board. As big as a grinder as you can get. Definitely plastic wrap and freezer paper not butcher paper, a stand to hold the paper, freezer tape. A chamber vacuum sealer is nice but bags are expensive and the bag will become brittle in the freezer and lose its seal or get pin holes in it and lose its seal. I have meat from 2013 that’s still as good as the day it went into the freezer by wrapping tight in plastic then freezer paper. We wrap all our commercial processed meat this way. Hb is stuffed into poly tubes and then taped closed. I have a giant vacuum sealer but use that for bacon, ham, jerky and snack sticks. You can get the larger rolls of plastic film that has the sliding cutter with it. My plastic sets on a machine that has a heat rod that cuts it and a heat pad that seals it but for diy you don’t need that. Good luck and I would be happy to answer any questions you have.