SniperB when I did butcher my own they were skinned the day they were shot. I remember one very cold year my dad had a guy give one to us that was froze solid what a pain in the * to skin. It had hung for a few days in way below freezing temps and he didn't want to to it. Obviously the meat was fine but getting the hide off sucked.

You don't say...

the food saver is a slow down , have to do about 5 bags then do something else while it cools my son will make 5 bags pack 5 bags and keep going

we do 2 pound bags so half as many than if your packing 1 pound bags folded up paper towel to keep the juice in the back of the bag with the meat and out of the food saver

my son has been packing bags for me for several years burned through my original food saver and my dad had an extra he won in a fishing tournament he gave me

a commercial #12 grinder 3/4 hp cut grinding time so that deer are medium grind one pass really speeds things up. used to use a grinder on a kitchen aid muzer had to make the peices small and clear the silver skin from around the auger at half a deer

not fretting over as much of the silver skin cut time it wraps aroudn the auger and most of it gets caught there , the bigger grinder can go longer wihtout needing to clear that silver skin now get about 2 deer done before clearing the grinder claims 6-10 pounds per minute hard to feed it that fast maybe 5 pounds a minute but that still makes a lot of ground in a hurry

try watching that video it gets it off the bone fast and in a cooler with ice or 2 gallon zip lock bags to chill

another trick is a loop of rope and a ball put it under the hide and then step down on the loops in the rope gives you pressure without using your arm strength the butcher does this but with a winch and a ring in the floor at many places.

you get faster the more you do , we were doing 3 a night at camp that is about the limit for me in a night to get skinned and on the table

my first one every year is slower

I want to get a chamber vac eventually. That's the way to go if you're doing a lot of packaging.

I did that once, my girlfriends son at the time wanted his mother to see the deer he got, well the skin froze to the meat, it took two of us 3 hours to skin, and yes it sucked bid time!

here is a video to help with the front 1/4s

with the other video if you follow that 10-15 minutes to bone out the tenderloins straps and hind quarters and get the front quarters and neck done for the camera it is around 6 minutes with him doing it
following this method you can bone out a shoulder in 5-7 minutes he does it for the camera in 2-3

the method definitely cut time out for me cutting in the right place and not wasting time and energy near as much

Quartered one last night in about and hour and cleaned the mess. Sheri spends more time finishing but it is perfect when done and put in freezer. Probably 4 hours total time. Would not want some else processing my game.

The more you do the quicker you get, plus you learn shortcuts, like not gutting your deer first, or at all, once the skin is off everything you want is hanging in front of you, and what you don't want stays in the woods, you can do them on the ground too if you can't hang them, just takes a little more time.

It makes things faster to have the tools you need in a pack....I have a small block and tackle that self locks, an old fabric shower curtain to lay the boned meat, a meat hook to hold onto the boned meat, a 3 1/2" knife, and a hooked razor utility knife...along with some mesh game bags..and a frame pack to carry it all and your meat out...

You cool the meat in the bags depending on your weather, and can let it age or cut right away, your cutting for yourself, so just cut it up how you like it. A final trim just before cooking and your good to go. I mentioned 30 min, but I've done small deer in under 20 minutes, put it in the pack, and go get another one....you can do it....

i skin as soon as possible. morning deer are skinned in the woods, afternoon kills are done in the garage.i have a winch in the rafters for skinning and it works for the deer also. remove front quarters, remove backstraps and tenderloins. cut at pelvic bone and lay ribs aside. split hinds, clean and place in freezer.the hinds get frozen since i have a bandsaw that will make 2 roasts and as many round steaks as i can get. fronts get aged for about a week, then ground to burger.back straps cut and vacume packed at the same time. liver is eaten that night!

I skin them while they’re warm. It takes me around 45 minutes to break one down, cut, trim and package. Not a lot to a deer, even faster if the back legs are just cut into steaks.

I have my time down to almost zero.
My wife does the gutless method, then does a meticulous job of cutting and packaging.
I have to carry the finished product down stairs to the basement freezer.
I am blessed with an all star wife.
In my earlier life it would take an afternoon and a 12 pack to get it done.

Zim

I used to have my son help me, but the bugger moved to Texas....

It probably takes us 4 hours.
We skin as soon as home and hang for a couple days depending on temp.
Not sure how you guys are doing it in an hour or so.
We pull off all silver skin and take off as much meat as we can.
I can break one down in 10 minutes and have in the house.
We probably spend 3 hrs cleaning it up and packing for grinding and vacuum packing the loins.

1 1/2 hr from 1/4s to freezer. only steak backstraps and rest is burger. take to locker and they grind and mix while i wait and get my own meat back. takes 10 min. tops. then wrap at home. grind cost with 15% beef suit usually around 12-15 bucks. wouldnt clean grinder for that n they do better job. just me

3 hrs per deer. I take the time to cut out all the silver skin, tendons, big arteries, etc. But when I'm done, I have a quality piece of meat ready for the grill.

We don't have that problem with Food Saver maybe that's because we have 5 of them. Whenever we find one at a garage sale we pay as little as possible. You need that many because as GCP says, they over heat in a short time and you have to wait about that long until they work again. We were getting a generic bag at a local fleet farm that was about half the price of regular food saver bags.

Couple hours to get one broken down into cuts and packaged. I’ll usually do the grinding the next day and that will take an hour or so. I’ll typically grind about 20 lbs off a good sized buck, 10 lbs off a doe and the rest are roasts, backstraps, etc. Never had a problem with food savers. Mine has a moist food setting that I’ll use when I’m packing ground meat, no need for paper towels in the bag, etc.

Have ground 40 lbs so far this season - need plenty of chili to make it through Tennessee’s harsh 30 degree winters..

Got really lazy on last weeks deer...the whole front shoulders went into vac bags to be turned into pulled venison at some point.

Not too bad once ya learn it. first one may take a while. it's all about following the seams of the muscles. i just cut mine into crockpot size pieces. you want to cut off all the silver lining & fat off the meat. i like to vaccume seal & label the meat

some one here gave me a link a couple years ago to a e-bay store that sells the bulk rolls of bags , I haven't bought any since but it was much less than what I was finding at the store and they are definitely working