Years back I had a bad experience with a meat processor and a large deer. Kevin can confirm that Illionois deer grow almost as big as horses. And this one was big even for Illinois; with an estimated live weight of 305 pounds.

What I got back from the processor was 95 pounds, including bones.

I vowed then that I'd learn to butcher my own meats. While this is important with game, it's not confined to that. You can save a lot of money by, for instance, purchaisng primal cuts and breaking them down yourself. Or dismantling whole chickens. And so forth.

Before going into details, though, I'm curious if folks here are interested or not? There's a lot of detail involved, and I'd hate to do all that typing if there's no interest.

Brook since Eddie does not hunt (bad back) I am sure I would have no need, the very closest I have come lately was with the chickens I dressed out, and I did it the "lazy girls" way and simply skinned them, I wasn't into boiling water & plucking feathers! But someone else here may well be interested. The hunters I know down in Alabama always dressed out their own deer, and I would wrap it and make sausage and freeze it. We never sent one to a meat processor, actually it was illegal for them to take in deer meat to process down there?!? One law that was kept down there in lower Alabama:o

looks like you deer processor ate good - at your expense -

You don't know the half of it, Mama. Turns out he was a thief of the first water. Someday I'll tell you about our friend's lambs that were taken to him for slaughter.

But I wasn't thinking so much of hunters, per se, on this thread. Anyone with a freezer really should consider buying large cuts and breaking them down.

For instance, you can get whole tenderloins, in cryovac packages. If you know a little about butchering, you wind up with, among other things, filets at the price of chuck. Well, maybe not that cheap. But considerably less expensive that buying them pre-cut as steaks.

Buy the bone-in pork loin and make your own chops for a lot less than the meat counter charges.

I watch the sales and buy chickens at 40% off. Three of them, averaging around 5 pounds each, run me about $18. By the time I'm done, and not counting the stock, we get about 26 servings. Compare that to buying already cut apart chickens, and you quickly see the savings.

What I'm saying is that any home cook can benefit from knowing a little bit about butchering.

There may be some out there interested. I grew up on a farm and we raised all of our food......including meat. So I'm very familiar with butchering my own meat. I don't do it now though.Hubby dresses his own deer....he is an avid bowhunter.