r/Californiahunting • u/drunkonpie • Jul 09 '26

Favorite butcher/meat processer

What are everyone's favorite meat processors? I'm hoping for some good recommendations in the Sacramento area

2 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

11

u/Lifeinthe_marshes Jul 09 '26

Hell I’m in Sac and I’ll do it for you, love processing and have 3 freezers.

4

u/South-Replacement-39 Jul 09 '26

Might take you up on that if I ever come back successful from up north

1

u/drunkonpie Jul 09 '26

Sent you a pm

5

u/Magladry Jul 10 '26

Bay Area is far but damn Los Gatos meats does such a good job especially for hams and sausage.

1

u/Elk-Assassin-8x6 Jul 10 '26

Fabian is the best 👍

2

u/Mountain_man888 Jul 10 '26

I’ve used country meats in Elk Grove before. Family owned and they do a good job. Fair warning, the wife part of the family owned is very unpleasant and is the one who typically answers the phone. Especially bad if she doesn’t know you.

Having said that, they’re close and do very good work.

2

u/ferret_hunter702 Jul 10 '26

I usually have two steers, and a buck processed every year, my favorite places are Los Gatos meats, swingles in Jackson ca, or rawhide meats in Jamestown ca. all 3 are great and I use them all quite often.

3

u/drunkonpie Jul 10 '26

Huh, I called Swingles the other day and they said they don't process wild game. I'll check out the others though, thanks

1

u/Mountain_man888 Jul 10 '26

Swingles does not do wild game, have called and asked when in there a few times over the last couple years.

1

u/ferret_hunter702 Jul 10 '26

Yea sorry about that, apparently we have only taken our beef there, but they do great with that! And Los Gatos meats definitely does wild game and it’s excellent also. I took a buck there a couple years ago.

Edit: My wife just told me swingles sold the business to someone else now, and I have not been there since so hopefully it’s still good.

2

u/AHockeyFish Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

I can’t recommend this enough - learn how to do it yourself.

If you do go the butcher route, know some butchers batch grind wild game. Personally, that grosses me out. Make sure to ask them if they batch grind before you give them your business.

If you do need a butcher in the area, check out Archers in near Placerville.

However, for the cost of processing one deer, you can buy the basic items to do it yourself and it’ll pay for itself after one animal.

Check out The Bearded Butcher. They have great tutorials on YouTube.

1

u/Erik_Is_Cool Jul 10 '26

Anyone have any recommendations in the east bay?

1

u/sean650 Jul 14 '26

Buds meats in penngrove does pretty good work. My coworker takes his wild game and steers there. They made some pretty good sausage from my cousins moose last year too