Where do you process your big game

[Hummer]

^^^This.

Yea, not really the subject of the thread as intended by Gunner, but we butcher all of our big game at home and have never used a commercial processor. About 80 deer, elk and pronghorn have been cut and packaged on our kitchen islands, (and once on the pink Maytag washer and dryer in the little two-room house we lived in when building our home).

It's really pretty easy to reduce big pieces of meat into meal-sized portions. Best of all, we can control the cleanliness, the cuts and packaging, and get more yield of both steaks and scraps for sausage. It takes us about 2-3 hours to butcher and package a deer, about 5-6 hours for an elk. When I get an animal I call my wife who empties the backup/garage refrigerator so we can keep an elk properly cold before butchering.

I've toured a few commercial game processors and while their methods are impressive, I'm always appalled by their level of sanitation. We value quality food and for us it's worth the effort and $avings to do it ourselves.