I've never taken the time to deer hunt yet, but I've been wanting to get some salvage deer from people that hit them on the roadway. Once it's gutted and skinned, I'm a little lost on the rest of the processing. I don't have my own processing gear so I'll probably take it to a locker.

1. Do people usually take the skinned carcass to the locker or do they cut the meat off first?

2. On average about how many pounds of meat does one get off a deer?

3. What does the typical cost come out to per pound for the cheapest process (such as ground up, jerky, links etc. whichever is the baseline)?

I know the cost may vary based on locale, but any ballpark figures would help. I may be away from Wi-Fi for a few days, but I thank you for any help in advance.

I can't remember what it cost, but the guy I used to bring my deer to would charge you extra if it was already skinned.

He didn't want to deal with other people poorly skinning deer and having to get hair off all of the meat.


It doesn't take much to process a deer though. A sharp knife, hand grinder, and some freezer paper will serve you well.

I processed my own for many years, it's not to hard if you have a place to do it, and until it is skinned it will be hard to determine the amount of damaged meat there is.
I average about 40 lbs of meat/deer.

Hard to say what might be good from a roadkill deer, and you will pay per deer regardless of the final amount of edible meat.

I now pay a processor 95.00 per deer, that covers butterflied straps, round steaks, and roasts with the balance ground.

Jerkey, sausage and the specialty stuff goes up in price a lot.

Good luck!

I pay between 80and 100$ per deer for normal, burger ,sausage, steak and a few lbs of jersey per animule.  Vacume bagged in 1lb portions and froze when i pick up. That is from the woods to my truck to him...no gutting skinning or anything.  Way better than me Dickin with deer till 10pm

around here it's 45.00 all the way to 100.00 for a basic cut of steaks, ground, loin, and roast and depending on where you go. the only thing that needs done is take the guts out.
most will charge more if you want sausage or jerky made. typically by the pound.

I pay about a $100 for a fully processed deer, which comes out to around 50 lbs of meat.  Fully butchered, packaged, with most of the ground turned into sausage.

Typically, most processors want either the whole deer, or a field dressed (gutted) deer.  

What you should do is find some processors in your area and ask these questions before the season starts.  One important detail to find out is what are policies about when the processor will allow a drop off.

Ive had different parts of my state (NY) do it differently. Some want hyde on (they sell them) or hyde off for quicker processing. A really local guy does a basic job for 35 bucks in rural NY and closer to the city/Albany area it goes to 45 or 50. More if they add pork or beef fat and start making sausage, etc

The absolute best was Bath packing where you would take boned out meat and they would make hot dogs and pepperoni. You give them 30 pounds of meat you got 60 back. Those hot dogs were outstanding. Honestly its not hard to but her a deer. When the hyde is off you can see the "primal" cuts. Cut through the connecting point and its a piece of cake. There are lots of videos on line detailing it. I wouldnt waste a processor trip on roadkill. Trucks and cars have a tendency to shatter bones and smash the shit out of everything blood tinging lots of meat. Then there was the splat on 81. I think if you had a broom and a shovel you would have collected maybe 2 lbs of meat. A semi HAD to have hit this thing. It was the biggest splatter I have ever seen

the guy my ex's father would take his deer to wanted them skinned and charged i believe $60 for burger, steaks, tenderloins and straps; add $15 for sausage so $75 per carcass

What 'gear' do you think you need to process?  

Got a table?  Got a knife?  You got what it takes to process a deer.  The table is even optional...a place to hang the deer up by the rear legs is very handy, but also optional.  

You don't need grinders or vacuum sealers or anything else.  They're nice, but optional in the grand scheme of things.  

Get yourself a $20 Victorinox 6" Semi-Stiff curved blade boning knife.  Watch the 4 video's in this series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aD43mDtk70&list=PLl7UFJ8TNZJPU3eAZ_BE_X3N1pStB5FqG&index=4


Instead of putting what they call the 'grind' into a grinder, get yourself a pressure canner and can that meat.

I can't imagine spending another $100 on having someone else cut up a deer.  It's so ridiculously easy to do.  Takes me under an hour to skin, quarter, bone, and freezer wrap an average deer.  That's having done about 4 deer in the manner in which they describe in those videos.  It's very quick once you have the hang of it.

We take a few roasts out of the rear quarters(if we need them), steak out the back straps, and the rest gets canned.  Canned venison is delicious, tender, and keeps without refrigeration for a very long time.

Wow, thanks for the help guys. Lots of good info and I'll check the links out this week. I'm surprised costs varied so much, I expected little differences but this was interesting seeing the variations throughout the country. There's a couple lockers within 15 miles of me, so I'll give them a call to see what they charge and expect upon drop off. I wanted to hear it from you experienced ones first though, so thank you for your input.

like Mama Bouche does..

"you can do ettt"

Place I use in Nashville area charges $75 per deer - that gets you the back strap, lions, and roasts either left hole or sliced and as much of the meat ground into 2 pound tubes as you want. Everything is frozen when I pick it up. They will make different types of sausage using hog fat and beef sticks for an additional fee. Field dressed with hide still on is how they want the deer. They sell the hides to a glove manufacturer.

Expect between 1/3 and 1/2 of the body weight of the deer to be usable meat if taken to a processor. If you process it yourself you can probably get a little more meat off a deer if you take the time to mess with ribs, etc.

Well I'll say it if nobody else will. I'm not sure of your experience but my first buck I took to the butcher and that will be the last I take to the butcher. It was terrible tasting quality compared to what we do at home. I stopped hunting for about 5years until I was taught how to process at home and how good venison should taste.  We are very meticulous more than a butcher could be for a reasonable price.  I'm sure quality varies a lot at each butcher and there are probably fantastic butchers out there.....but isn't part of the fun doing it yourself?  Sorry to side track the thread

I paid $75 to process the first deer I got. It was terrible, they cut It with a bandsaw, left marrow, bone and fat all over the place.

I watched videos, read online, got a knife and did it myself. The first time It took 1 hour to skin and break down into primals (quarters), I let it rest for a week, then another hour to bone and wrap the roasts. I got better and faster every time. It tastes much much better.
All I needed was a boning knife and a big chopping board.

Watch this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wQtfNMyWZaE

Oops, double tap