WILD GAME PROCESSING

Action Taxidermy is licensed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture as a custom game processor. We operate our wild game processing facility on two basic principles:

Quantity: We take the time to carve out every last usable piece of meat from each carcass.

Quality: We take the time to remove all the hair, dirt, blood, fat and as much of the silver skin as possible. Only perfectly clean meat is packaged.  Each package is double wrapped. First air tight in commercial cellophane food wrap, and then in traditional waxed freezer paper.  Each package weighs approximately 1 lb. and is clearly marked for each individual cut.

YOU CAN’T BEAT OUR MEAT!

As we are avid archery hunters in this game rich land, we are fortunate enough each year to harvest an animal or two. 80% of our meat consumption is the game we harvested. We take the same time and care, with each customer, as we do with our own meat processing.

AGED MEAT TASTES REAL GOOD!

About Dry Aging

Game meat that is promptly cooled and properly aged makes excellent table fare! Properly aging meat is not simply about timing, temperature, humidity, or airflow, it can only be achieved within an exact steady combination of all four:

Time: 1 week = good
2 week = perfection
Air temp: 38 degrees Farenheit
Humidity: low to moderate
Airflow: strong and consistent

We realize circumstances often times prevent hunters from the opportunity to go through the aging process.  We recommend hanging as long as your circumstances will allow.  The difference is night and day!

Waste

The sad truth is that there are significant amounts of waste in processing a game animal vs. processing a domestic animal. There are a number of reasons for this:

1. Bullets and arrow holes.  Where and how many times the animal is hit, can greatly affect how much meat ends up in a package.
2. Improper field care. Keeping the meat clean as possible is crucial! Dirty meat is not cleaned, it is removed. Therefore, the dirtier the meat, the more goes in the trash. Meat that is de-boned in the forest will suffer the greatest loss, as this maximizes the amount of exposed surface area to the elements.
3. The fat on wild game is not like that on beef or pork.  It does not have a good flavor and has a waxy consistency, and is like eating a tube of chap stick.  Therefore, as much of it as possible and practical is removed and discarded.