Hubby shot an elk last night...who processes their own meat ?

[unionwirewoman]

Hubby shot an elk on our property last night.....had to gut her out in the dark...not fun . It took 4 people to drag her to the truck . 600 + lbs . We spent all day cutting meat and just got done grinding burger . We've already cut up 2 deer and an elk.....time to go hunting again ! He got a nice 4 point ....for those of you who count both sides ..it would be an 8 point buck . I shot a 6x5....great mass on it ! Who else cuts thier own meat ? It's too expensive to send it in...and it's nice that we don't waste gas driving around hunting ! More deer around my area have been killed on the highway than were harvested last hunting season....at least that's what the fish and game department released .

 

[wendy]

we are going to start. i got the price of processing a deer and it has gone up yet again!!!

poor hubby has been hunting on our land 4 different times but has seen nothing. some people that live close to us put out a feeder on the pipe line and my husband has seen deer there. so they are not around our place

so hopefully he can get a couple this year. he likes to get at least one. his work sch. is so crazy he does not get to hunt as much as he would like to. he is scouting some other places to hunt. last few years he was able to go hunting right here on our land. but i guess some neighbors got saw the deer around here too and took advantage of that

wendy

 

[unionwirewoman]

Have you guys ever done it before ? There are definetly some tricks...if you need advice....I can help .
Your hubby might not be catching them at the right time of day . Deer do tend to follow the same trail.....just not at the same time everyday . If it's raining or if there's a buck around , they will change thier patterns . If anything maybe one person could walk the land and try to flush one out to the other person . I'm not sure how much land you have....you could always ask your neighbors to hunt on thier property too . Although if they're anything like ours ( out of state sob's who don't even live here ) they might not let you .

P.S. we have 36 acres

 

[ams3651]

my dad, son and uncle do their own and for those hunting with them. The only thing they dont do is stuff like bologna but they do the cuts themselves and grind the hamburger. Theres a little butcher shop off my grams cellar. They do my uncles hogs too.

 

[skand]

I'm just gonna move in with you guys. We're on almost an acre about 2 miles out of city limits. It's great for everything, except the hunting part. lol

 

[wendy]

Quote:
we have 13 acres that backs up to the national forest and the neighbors land that joins part of ours is 15 acres that no one lives on they just have it fenced off. other than that 15 acres everyone else has 3-5 acre tracts. but our land is long rectangle shape and runs right to the national forest ) so that is nice ))
Just wish the people down the way did not have a feeder there, plus they have a creek. we have no creek or pond, yet anyways

wendy

 

[65browneyes]

We processed our own elk several years ago. Nearly sent us to divorce court! LOL He piled the meat in my spare fridge and broke all the shelves, didn't get enough suet in the ground (it was like eating sand, FAR too dry), and I'm not sure I ever got the smell out of my kitchen. I didn't want to do it in the first place, but DH wanted to save the $$. Haven't done that since! I don't care what it costs, we get it done by a professional processor.

He finally got another archery bull tag this year, and took a beautiful 6 pt. 400 (or so) pounds of meat was $430 processing with ground, roasts, breakfast sausage, jerky and summer sausage. Our #2 DS took his first deer (rifle, 2 pt). We had it done into steaks and summer sausage to the tune of $160 for about 75 pounds of meat (muleys aren't very big around here).

DH has another archery hunt in December (deer).

Any guesses what we're giving our siblings for Christmas this year? LOL



ETA congratulations to your DH on his elk!

 

[seismic wonder2]

I wouldn't say you shot it at night. I'm pretty sure it's illegal even in MT.

I think you meant to say "Yesterday after noon"

 

[smom1976]

 

[unionwirewoman]

Quote:
Very clever.....He shot it at 5:15 pm....so shooting light ends at 5:40 ish . With the days now being shorter...I tend to think of night as 5:00 . Needless to say I was a little irritated to have to gut out a 600lb elk in the dark !Although I was definetly happy he got it so we could cut it up and put in our freezer ! I guess I forgot to mention the whole 2 hour process of dragging it back to the truck...at 600lbs...we had to call friends to help .....I'm strong , so is he , but that's just a little tough to do out in the woods .