foxfire, butchering your own deer is really easy. There are a lot of videos out there to help you through it. Another way to learn, is to go to your local meat market, and talk to one of the butchers there, and see if one of them would be willing to come to your home and show you how it's done.

It takes me around 2 hours to skin, bone out, cut steaks, roasts, filets, etc. Then another hour to grind up meat for hamburger and sausage. I usually add ground pork shoulder to my ground deer meat so there's some fat in the meat. Otherwise, it's too dry. I pick up the ground pork at the butcher shop. I only make sausage patties. I don't bother with stuffing it into casings.

I also bought one of those home vacuum sealers at Cabela's. They're worth their weight in gold. No more freezer burned meat or fish.