Giving meat to Friends

[Doodle30]

I got thinking about this a few months back when a friend brough a bunch of deer and elk sausage on an ice fishing trip. I knew he didn't hunt and he said that he got it all from his neighbor. All professionally processed and wrapped. My guess is that he may have have 20-25 pounds. I told my friend that I thought that we should pay his neighbor for the sausages. He said not to worry about it his neighbor doesn't care.

Let's say that you are lucky enough to fill 2-3 tags in a year. Whitetail, mullie and maybe a moose or elk. For me that would be a lot of meat and would be more than happy to share with friends but I'm not a fan of cutting meat so from now on everything will be professionally processed. If you give 4-5 friends 20-25 lbs that could add up.

This is my question: Am I being cheap if I were to ask friend to pay cost for cuts I give them.

None of these friends are hunting buddies. My hunting buddies and I share with consideration to cost.

Am I cheap and what do you guys do?

[PoppaW]

I would expect a favor in return. I would not ask for money. But if they had sausage and would not share then they would be on the bad list. I think as soon as you take money you could be inviting trouble with F&W. Selling wild game is a bad thing. If you give your buddy a few packs then nothing will be said. Just return a favor in the future.

[winged1]

In the concept of 'giving', yes, I'd say it would be cheap. How ever, if agreed to share the costs before 'recieving', that works. To barter,trade, or sell, would be yet another thing.

This is my question: Am I being cheap if I were to ask friend to pay cost for cuts I give them.

i would say YES You are being CHEAP i wouldnt give a dime to anyone for wild meat .If they are none hunting folk and would like to try some wild meat i would give it for free .

[marlin1]

Originally Posted by Doodle30

I got thinking about this a few months back when a friend brough a bunch of deer and elk sausage on an ice fishing trip. I knew he didn't hunt and he said that he got it all from his neighbor. All professionally processed and wrapped. My guess is that he may have have 20-25 pounds. I told my friend that I thought that we should pay his neighbor for the sausages. He said not to worry about it his neighbor doesn't care.

Let's say that you are lucky enough to fill 2-3 tags in a year. Whitetail, mullie and maybe a moose or elk. For me that would be a lot of meat and would be more than happy to share with friends but I'm not a fan of cutting meat so from now on everything will be professionally processed. If you give 4-5 friends 20-25 lbs that could add up.

This is my question: Am I being cheap if I were to ask friend to pay cost for cuts I give them.

None of these friends are hunting buddies. My hunting buddies and I share with consideration to cost.

Am I cheap and what do you guys do?

personally I give it away . Common courtesy would be they return the favour somehow. I have a buddy on disability and give him as much meat and fish as he can take , not expecting anything . Others give me back in other ways , free freezer , ect. I think wild meat is valuable , and the work and effort involved is hard to put a price on

[Scott N]

I usually just give it way, but if you use a butcher, it can get a little expensive. Maybe another option would be to ask your friends if they would be willing to share butching costs with you before the hunting season? I see nothing wrong with asking to share the cost, especially if you are getting stuff like jerky or sausage made. It's not cheap to have someone do that for you. If you get a large animal like a moose or elk made into sausage and jerky, it's going to be easily over $500 to process at a butcher shop.

[sheepguide]

the meat thatI give away is just gifts. No one I give it to expects it. If they did then i would expect them to share the cost of processing.

[ctd]

I give some peperoni and steaks to my family, I also receive halibut and Salmon from them. It is kinda an exchange. Neither party expects it.
As for my buddies if we shoot something we split the cost of butchering.

Although we give away some meat here and there it usually isn't a large cost.
If I had a friend who was on a fixed income, disabled or what not or did not hunt. I would try to involve them some how, even if they came out on a day trip with me one day to look for tracks. (I wouldnt expect them to pay). It would be a good day out quadding and walking in the woods.

I would have no problem accepting money from someone to cover the cost of Professional Butchering. After all that is not hunting, that is a third party cost.

My thoughts are, if you can go out and enjoy a sport that you enjoy then pass on some enjoyment to your friend and family in the form of fresh meat then awesome. If you can pass on the basic need and help a person who is less fortunate then yourself then my hat is off to you, you have my utmost respect.

After all Hunting and Fishing is about passing on the Riches of the land to those who own it. For all to enjoy.

In closing if your in a situation where times are tight and it would be better for others to help with your costs then it should not be a problem to ask to cover some of the Butchering.

If that meat has been in your freezer for a year and you just want to pay fo ryour next trip then maybe you shouldnt go hunting this year.

[Doodle30]

Originally Posted by ctd

I give some peperoni and steaks to my family, I also receive halibut and Salmon from them. It is kinda an exchange. Neither party expects it.
As for my buddies if we shoot something we split the cost of butchering.

Although we give away some meat here and there it usually isn't a large cost.
If I had a friend who was on a fixed income, disabled or what not or did not hunt. I would try to involve them some how, even if they came out on a day trip with me one day to look for tracks. (I wouldnt expect them to pay). It would be a good day out quadding and walking in the woods.

I would have no problem accepting money from someone to cover the cost of Professional Butchering. After all that is not hunting, that is a third party cost.

My thoughts are, if you can go out and enjoy a sport that you enjoy then pass on some enjoyment to your friend and family in the form of fresh meat then awesome. If you can pass on the basic need and help a person who is less fortunate then yourself then my hat is off to you, you have my utmost respect.

After all Hunting and Fishing is about passing on the Riches of the land to those who own it. For all to enjoy.

In closing if your in a situation where times are tight and it would be better for others to help with your costs then it should not be a problem to ask to cover some of the Butchering.

If that meat has been in your freezer for a year and you just want to pay fo ryour next trip then maybe you shouldnt go hunting this year.

I have a stack of tags from last year which means my wife and I just bought an Elk and Bison package yesterday.

Thankfully none of my friends are in a position where they need handouts but I would definitely help them out with free meat if that were required.

The meat that I would be giving friends would be at the time of processing. It's not me cleaning out my freezer so I can hunt again and that's why I don't think there should be a problem with them sharing the cost of processing. Seems silly to me to send meat for processing only to get it back and give away 100 pounds right away.

I'm not rich but also not poor. Having said that I also can't afford to pay $3-400 to have meat processed only to give away to freinds. Cost sharing is something that I would let them know before hand.

Maybe the question I should have asked is can someone help me put this much meat in the freezer.

Thanks for the comments thus far and I will continue to read.

[BigRackLover]

Originally Posted by Doodle30

I'm not rich but also not poor. Having said that I also can't afford to pay $3-400 to have meat processed only to give away to freinds. Cost sharing is something that I would let them know before hand.

x2

If I give away anything over the size of a grocery bag, I ask people up front to pay for processing costs - I don't ask for gas money, tag costs, etc ... that would be cheap.

[marlin1]

Originally Posted by marlin1

personally I give it away . Common courtesy would be they return the favour somehow. I have a buddy on disability and give him as much meat and fish as he can take , not expecting anything . Others give me back in other ways , free freezer , ect. I think wild meat is valuable , and the work and effort involved is hard to put a price on

I guess I should mention we process our own meat so cost is minimal. My buddy helps with this but I do give away meat as gifts as well . I always seem to get something back though . Just the other day the nieghbor passed some elk over the fence , what goes around comes around as they say. I know processsing can get expensive , this is why we have always done it ourselves .

[chuck0039]

Originally Posted by marlin1

I guess I should mention we process our own meat so cost is minimal. My buddy helps with this but I do give away meat as gifts as well . I always seem to get something back though . Just the other day the nieghbor passed some elk over the fence , what goes around comes around as they say. I know processsing can get expensive , this is why we have always done it ourselves .

I do the same. Proccessing can be very expensive so I have learned to do my own cutting and the last couple year I have tried to make my own sausage so I don't mind giving some of it away to my friends.

If you have to take meat in to get sausage made I don't see why your friends who normally get some can't go with you to the butcher and pay for some of the processing costs. you would not be receiving any money for the meat and your not paying the bill only to give a portion of it away?