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I don't have the facilities right now to butcher a deer at home.
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You don't have a kitchen table?
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I used the tailgate on my F-150, perfect height.
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5 years ago, or so, I butchered 3 antelope in my uncle's garage. His vegetarian wife would have shot him, if we took them inside.
We used jack stands, garbage cans, and stacks of newspaper as work surfaces. (Since the workbenches had 4-foot piles of crap on them, and the folding tables couldn't be located.)
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Just wondering what everyone's paying for deer processing. My processor went up on her price by over 25% from last year because of the cost of freezer paper. She's charging $65 up from $50 last year for skinning, boneless cut and wrap.
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If I had a local butcher that only charged $65, I knew I'd be getting all of my meat (and only my meat), and they skinned for free... I'd
gladly pay that.
Almost everywhere around here, you pay by the pound for the received hanging weight. If you bring in a 140 lb carcass that only has 40 lbs of meat on it, you pay for 140 lbs. If you bring in a 650 lb Elk that yields 220 lbs of meat, you pay for 650 lbs. If you're dumb and bring in a rotting, Swiss-cheese Deer carcass that hasn't been skinned or gutted, and weighs in at 250 lbs, but only has 25 lbs of edible meat... Yep, you pay for 250 lbs (and extra fees to skin and gut it).
The few places that have fixed prices (up to a certain hanging weight), generally start at a point equal to 150-175 lb hanging weight (Mule Deer). So, they aren't much cheaper, if at all.
I care, greatly, about how the animal is treated. From the shot, to the table, I like to know it's being treated properly. Handling everything myself is great. But, if I had a good butcher charging that little, they'd be cutting it for me.