When Doug Peffer opened his big-game butcher shop, deer hunters around the intersection of Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties could pick from perhaps a dozen full-service processors to carve their harvest.
About 45 years later, Mr. Peffer’s outfit near Ellwood City stands among fewer than half that many across greater Pittsburgh, estimated his son, Johnathan Peffer, 39, taking a breather Sunday afternoon from a line of new deliveries stretching out the door.
Just beginning a weekslong processing marathon, southwestern Pennsylvania deer butchers cautioned they were nearing capacity after statewide firearms deer season started Saturday. Fewer butchers — and strong turnout for the commonwealth’s combined buck and doe hunting — mean long days for the relative handful still behind the knife, they said.
“It’s the ‘Deadliest Catch’ but with deer,” said the younger Mr. Peffer, a co-owner of Doug Peffer’s Deer Cutting, Smokehouse, & Big Game Processing, referring to the reality TV show about crab fishermen. Staff shirts at the family business in Franklin, Beaver County, reference “a dying art — a way of life,” he said.
Workers there clocked an 18-hour day Saturday, wrapping up around 2 a.m. Sunday before returning six hours later. A year ago this weekend, the business reached capacity for the first time after the state allowed hunters to pursue bucks and doe simultaneously at the start of the season.
Traditionally, Pennsylvania had reserved doe hunting for later. This year’s statewide firearms season runs through Dec. 10, with a one-day pause on Dec. 4. About 600,000 hunters are expected, according to the state Game Commission.
“You can shoot a lot of deer in one day. And if you can shoot everything, these guys are going to be working their butts off,” said Paul Anderson, 51, of Portersville, standing Sunday in the Peffer’s parking lot. He just dropped off a nine-point buck that he shot in Warren County.
Mr. Anderson once hesitated over the combined hunting of antlered and antlerless deer, he said, having found several hunted doe left to decay.
But that issue is “more hunter [behavior] than it is rules,” he said. He now sees the combined approach, which continues this year, as a way to attract more hunters to extra opportunity. The Game Commission has said that's the general idea, in addition to simplifying regulations.
A key is to think ahead when butcher availability may be limited, said Dominic Ciafre, 23, of Ciafre Deer Processing. A family business in Middlesex, Butler County, it expected to accept about 200 deer Saturday and Sunday for processing.
“It all starts in the field,” Mr. Ciafre said. “If you’ve got to hold your deer overnight, make sure it’s cleaned out, properly field-dressed. Make sure you’ve got it opened up to the air; if not, pack it with ice. Keep it in a cool area if you have to hang it overnight.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged newcomers to hunting, those without experience “have no idea how to process that deer,” said Lisa Ciafre, 53, Mr. Ciafre’s mother. The business has taken calls from hunters in the field wondering how to dress their harvests, she said.
“If they do all that right, they can hold on to their deer as long as they can keep it cold,” Ms. Ciafre said.
While the Ciafres expected to reach capacity Sunday, the business will be processing over the next few days and be ready to accept more deer later in the week, Mr. Ciafre said. Other operators indicated their capacity, too, should open up as they work through deliveries from the season’s hectic opening weekend.
“The fact of the matter is, everyone is going to fill up,” said Kip Padgelek, owner of Kip’s Deer Processing in Carnegie. Hunters “are going to have to make sure they can take care of their deer.”
For those who harvest more than they can use, he said, Pennsylvania’s Hunters Sharing the Harvest program is an increasingly popular option. Through participating processors, hunters can donate venison to local food banks.
Mr. Padgelek and Mr. Peffer estimated their shops relayed thousands of pounds in contributions in the last year alone.
At the Peffer shop, worker Zakk Bissell, 28, of Ellwood City described a family atmosphere rich with new and familiar customers. Some are city dwellers who shot their first deer; some are rural residents thrilled for their biggest harvest; and others, in need, depend on the venison to stock their kitchens as grocery prices rise, he said.
A Marine Corps veteran, Mr. Bissell counts himself as Mr. Peffer’s “right-hand man” and said he doesn’t mind hard work. Asked how he maintains his stamina over the long days, he was blunt.
“If we stop, then people don’t get their meat,” Mr. Bissell said. “There is no stopping. If we stop, then people don’t get their food.”
