Wanted; Deer Processing Horror Stories!

[convict charlie]

Have never had a problem with a deer being poorly processed before. Last few years I have shot 2 or 3 deer in a season. Usually only drop off one to the processor and one I give to a buddy of mine. He eds up cutting it up himself and makes half of it into jerky and the other half he brings to group events all of our friends attend over the year.

On a side not about the $300 sausage well I can do one better with hotdogs. Mine was about a 3.5 year old deer. It's the second biggest we ever got on the land for weight anyways(we weigh everyone and have a contest) dressing at 134lbs. It was during muzzleloader season but had already dropped both sides of the rack. Would have been a really nice deer! Anyways I dropped it off and had hot dogs made. Few months later got the phone call it was $500! I had 200lbs of meat. Apparently it was 1/3 venison, 1/3 beef, and 1/3 pork with some cheese in it. This was five years ago and $2.50 a pound. Would have been cheaper to get it mounted as a doe!

Have done a few myself but figure for the $60-80 I'd rather spend the few hours it takes in the woods. I'm in western ny but in region 9

[shaman]

I've had horror stories on just about everything you can think of regarding deer hunting, but my deer processors have all been great. I really have no complaints.

The one story that comes to mind is the night, several years ago, when I showed up at Myers in Lennoxburg and Ron was just closing up for the night. He'd had a hard day, just gotten over the "New Mown Hay" I caught up to him in the parking lot. He didn't want to open up again, and I could see his point. I wasn't bitter. I drove home and hoisted the buck into my old chest freezer for the night and then tried to hoist him out the next morning. The buck was stuck fast to the bottom of the freezer. It took a couple of hours before he'd thawed enough to get him out and another hour or so before I could get him unstuck from himself to where I could get him to fit in the back of my S-10.

I got to the processor and the battery died on my truck. I got a jump that was enough to get me back to the farm, and then I was stuck there for a day or so until KYHillChick came down for the weekend and brought me a new battery.

[Woods Walker]

"..............then I was stuck there for a day or so until KYHillChick came down for the weekend and brought me a new battery."

Well that shouldn't have been a problem for you if you had the dogs with you. You could have killed time flushing and watching the dogs chase it down the pipe!

You should make a video of that!

[Schmidt]

I think Shaman just rewrote the rules a little bit! If you have a "horror" story about getting (or trying to get) a deer to or from the processor like his, that would qualify as well! Best, Dan

[shaman]

"..............then I was stuck there for a day or so until KYHillChick came down for the weekend and brought me a new battery."

Well that shouldn't have been a problem for you if you had the dogs with you. You could have killed time flushing and watching the dogs chase it down the pipe!

You should make a video of that!

I've been out at the farm 2 weekends in a row now and I hate to say it, but the dogs have all gotten bored with the whole poop pipe thing. I heard several flushes over the time I spent there. We're making a stone patio at the Thoughtful Spot, and it's in earshot of the pipe the whole time. The dogs stayed unimpressed throughout.

The kids that used to run down to the end with the dogs have all moved out too. I fear this story has passed into legend.

We'll see. Within the month, I'll have to move the corrugated pipe to another spot on the hill. In doing so, I'll have to drag it up out of the weeds. When it gets back on top of the weeds, it will make more noise. Perhaps that will spur them. However, I fear the worst.

Sorry Woodsie.

[Ohio farms]

I suspect that chasing the flushing sound is like chasing squirrels. After a short learning curve most dogs (and some humans) will stop chasing unobtainable things.

[DEER30]

I have always processed my own deer, or any animal for that matter, because as my father used to say "You killed it, you clean it." But in 2009 I got a first hand experience that solidified my approach to game processing. I was hunting with a good friend of mine on his family farm in southwest Virginia. We each saw a lot of deer but for me they were all out of range. By mid morning, the sun was up and the mercury was rising so I climbed down to meet my buddy and found that he had connected with young six point. After field dressing the deer, I offered my services to show him how to butcher it, but he preferred to take it to a local processor just up the road.
When we got there, it was easily in the mid 70's and we were instructed that wild game was to be dropped off at the side door. We pulled around the side of small shack and found a half a dozen other whitetails laying in the gravel driveway. Some were not even field dressed yet. The smell of guts was growing stronger by the second. We slide the door open and BANG! We were just in time to watch one of the "butchers" shoot a beef cow in the head with a 30-30. He dropped and the asistant had the animal hanging and was removing the organs in plain view. Inside the door was more deer in various stages of processing. Some had been gutted, some skinned, and some had limbs missing, but the butchers primary focaus was the beef. So the deer had to wait until he was finished with no refridgeration that I could see.
I again tried to convince my buddy to let me do it for him but he said we didn't have the time and dropped off the deer despite the mornings events. Now, he is still around so I guess nothing serious happened but all my nightmares of what could happen seem to be coming true and I am even more proud that I was taught to do this work myself.

[kellory]

Welcome to the forum DEER30, you are a tribute to your father! I also was raised with"you shot it, you clean it." Though that referred to field dressing. You should have heard the protests when my brother shot a sign, and I told him "Alright, now I want to see you clean it, and pack it out!" We were also raised with "We shoot what we eat, and we eat what we shoot." Signs are not on the menu, so leave them alone!

[Wanderer]

There's another side to scary deer processing stories. Back in the late 70's and early 80's, I was living in Waupaca Wisconsin. There was a man who was in the meat cutting business who processed deer out of his garage during and after the 9 day Wisconsin season. He had a nice setup, a good set of tools, and he kept everything very clean. Being as my dad and my grandfather were both meatcutters, I had considerable experience from my days working at the family meat market, so,in the evenings I'd go over to Jerry's shop and skin out all the deer that had arrived that day. Jerry would begin the actual butchering, and then we'd both wrap meat and clean up. As I grabbed one of the daily drop offs, I couldn't help but notice that it was a buck. I didn't need to look for antlers as the "hunter" who had field dressed the animal had left all the external plumbing attached. He had also neglected to remove the "poop chute" and I was greeted by a handfull of "deer jellybeans". After showing Jerry what I had, I began the skinning process. The deer had 3 slug channels in one of the hams and two in the other one. When I pulled the hide down towards the neck, the entire brisket came off with the hide. It looked for all the world like someone had walked up to the deer after it was down, and emptied a full tube of slugs into the chest cavity. I had Jerry call up the hunter and have him come down to the shop to look at his deer as it hung. I wanted him to see what a shot up mess we had to work with so that when he picked up his meat he'd understand why the package was smaller than he expected. When he arrived he told us that he killed it with a single shot to the heart.

[Ohio farms]

The guy must have been a member of the Warren Commission to come up with a one bullet story like that. (although, I have seen a single bullet do some strange things while going through a deer)