knowing the condition of many deer that get processed...no way will i send mine off. i don't want my harvest to be anywhere close to the nasty, gut shot and 3 days in the sun kills many folks send to be processed. especially true when it comes to getting meat ground...like that butcher is going to clean his rig for every deer he does. i do know one guy who runs a tight ship. if i need anything done, he would get my business.
i have my butchering down pat for myself. loins get sliced and vaccuum packed for the freezer. the best part of the hind quarters get cubed for canning...which i do myself. the shanks, front and rear get vaccuumed for soup and roasts. the front shoulders get halved for roasts along with the neck roast...all vaccuum packed. if i decide to make bologna, and until i have my own grinder, the afore mentioned guy grinds my meat and stuffs the casings...i bake it myself.
i met another guy who showed me a neat trick. this old timer cooks the carcass, it must be a fresh kill and butchered promptly, he pulls the meat and adds chicken or turkey meat and corn meal to make scrapple. he salvaged 9 lbs. of meat from the doe carcass i gave him last year.