Is processing your own venison hard to learn how to do?

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I use my Buck.

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Buck 110?

No, it’s easy as hell. Do it once and you’ll make a lot of mistakes but by the 3rd deer you’ll have it down well. Plus, the main benefit is you get it exactly how you want it.

I use Dexter Russel boning knives mostly.

I like 3-4 restaurant busser style plastic bins. One for trash like tendons, one for fat, one for grind, and one for steak and stew cuts.

I generally just cut things into steaks, keep them large as roasts, do some cube meat for something like a stew, and then the rest is grind or jerky.

Use waxed butcher paper. Cheap and easy. I’ll put ground into a ziploc or a ground meat bag if I have them.

Do you currently take the meat off the bone or leave bone in and take it to a processor?

It wasn’t hard but there is some trial and
error. We started about 10 years ago doing patty sausage and ground deer . That went well and we started doing smoked sausage. We’ve tried different things but finally landed on the perfect smoked sausage for us. If you go down that road make sure you keep good notes so you know what works and what doesn’t.
Here is a list of the things we use to process deer and make sausage:

-good knives …a fillet knife works good for removing silver skin etc
- a kitchen scale for weighing meat and seasonings
- meat grinder..I have a smaller LEM and it’s been good. If I did more than once a year I’d buy a bigger one.
- meat lugs. They make it easy to move your meat from fridge to counter
- large cutting board
- sausage stuffer …I bought one that holds 11 pounds . It’s a hand crank and works great.

I left a vacuum sealer off. I’ve gone through a few and now I wrap everything in freezer paper . We had some stamps made and we just stamp the package with what’s in it and put it in the freezer . If I did more I’d spend money on a good vacuum sealer.
We do about 50 pounds of ground and 75 pounds of SS a year .

Yep. If you are going to leave it in the freezer awhile it’s best to be untrimmed as much as possible as that keeps the prime meat in better shape. But at the same time, it’s also nice to have some stuff ready to go. I’ll even freeze some trimmed and prepped in marinade. So you just throw it in the fridge and when it’s thawed it’s ready to go.

No it's pretty easy.

Hardest part is stuffing, I would skimp a little on a grinder and get a quality stuffer, makes like a whole lot easier.

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The Bearded Butchers channel has some good tutorial vids on it.

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I wish I had their setup

Just finished a deer. I grind it all. Usually grind two and take one for smoked sausage to the meat guy. We love his sausage.

If a big buck I buy a 15 lb brisket and 3-4 lbs beef fat. If a die I just do the brisket. I may keep a roast or two if it a big deer.

I like brisket so much more than the 50/50 pork I used to do.

I usually cook one backstrap and a tenderloin the day I kill one. I freeze the other backstrap and tenderloin in one vac pack. I cut the BS in two or three equal chunks. I like that better than cutting and freezing.

I don’t mind the work, but I hate the cleanup

Silver skin and lymph node removal is key for better tasting meat.