Boneless meat percentage

[smith88]

Just a quick question, what do you guys expect to get back as a percentage when you get an animal custom cut? 40, 50, 60%??

[DiabeticKripple]

40-50% depending on how much meat was destroyed by the shot.

[smith88]

High neck shot on an elk. Very little meat loss.

[waldedw]

According to the meat butcher / trim guide here is what they say.

A 1200 lb. steer on the hoof with 1/2" fat and average muscle mass will yield approx. 750 lbs. of dressed weight bone in beef, that 750 lb. dressed carcass will yield approx. 490 lbs. of boned out trimmed meat.

I would assume the same percentage would be close for wild game.

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by waldedw

According to the meat butcher / trim guide here is what they say.

A 1200 lb. steer on the hoof with 1/2" fat and average muscle mass will yield approx. 750 lbs. of dressed weight bone in beef, that 750 lb. dressed carcass will yield approx. 490 lbs. of boned out trimmed meat.

I would assume the same percentage would be close for wild game.

Dont forget moisture loss from hanging them in your garage for a 10 days.

[smith88]

Originally Posted by Dubious

Dont forget moisture loss from hanging them in your garage for a 10 days.

That wouldn't affect the weight from on the rail to the amount of cut meat. And live weight of an elk is hard to get haha

[smith88]

The elk I shot was 323lbs on the rail, no head, hide or legs below the knee. I received 58lbs of cuts and 59lbs of trim back. Carcass was in great shape, very little hair, no spoilage or guts. I'm not happy....

[waldedw]

Originally Posted by smith88

The elk I shot was 323lbs on the rail, no head, hide or legs below the knee. I received 58lbs of cuts and 59lbs of trim back. Carcass was in great shape, very little hair, no spoilage or guts. I'm not happy....

Yup based on those numbers I would say you are about 60# short

[Ranger CS]

Originally Posted by smith88

That wouldn't affect the weight from on the rail to the amount of cut meat. And live weight of an elk is hard to get haha

Yes it could, depending on the amount of time spent hanging on the rail aging.

[wildalberta]

im going to say u got the shaft there. i would expect 150-200# boneless return.

[Dick284]

At the very best 55%-60%

Usually closer to 50%

[elkslayer132]

I shot a 340 pound bull elk (hang weight) this year and got back about 170 pounds of boneless meat.

[Dubious]

Learn to cut your own game guys by the time you do a few the equipment (grinder) will have paid for it’s self. A home kitchen chefs knife cutting board table butchers paper and YouTube is all you need to get started.

[sns2]

You got screwed bud. Watch youtube. Cut your own. The bigger the animal, the easier it actually is to recognize and separate muscle groups for all your cuts. Most of us got nudged to do our own by high prices and questionable yields. You control the cuts. You control the cleanliness. It really isn't hard.

[SuperCub]

I've never cut an elk, so will not comment directly to the OP.

I can say that this sort of complaint is VERY VERY common among those who get game cut up by someone else. As a meat cutter myself, I've seen it 1st hand many times. Bust up a shoulder to a fast bullet and see how much meat can be lost just in that.

[silver lab]

Was the 323lbs totally drained of blood (at the very least a couple days) or was that weight taken as it was skinned and hung? It does seem you are a little short but I have cut a few elk in my day and I can tell you there is a pile of meat on an elks neck also blood ain’t light, I would also say elk have on average more loss then a typical deer.
Not sure who you used but some butchers are harder on good meet then others, especially in the hunting season rush.

[smith88]

Shot the elk on the 30th, and skinned. Weight was taken on the 4th when butcher shop was open again.

[buckman]

Unless you know the butcher on a personal level you always take a risk.

Cutting game is not that hard and you will be sure of everything being only off your animal, especially the ground and sausage.

[DiabeticKripple]

Originally Posted by sns2

You got screwed bud. Watch youtube. Cut your own. The bigger the animal, the easier it actually is to recognize and separate muscle groups for all your cuts. Most of us got nudged to do our own by high prices and questionable yields. You control the cuts. You control the cleanliness. It really isn't hard.

this is part of the reason i do my own. I didnt want ANY fat in my roasts and steaks, and was very picky about what went it the grind pile. The result is almost pure meat in the grind and zero hair.

[old dog]

Ya u got shorted by what u described. About 60# as suggested. Unless we want specialty items, we butcher ourselves. We trust our butcher but a mistake can happen. Did u talk to the butcher to see if he would check the other shelves for your name on the meat and tell him what u r thinking. Helps keep everyone on there toes.

[sns2]

Originally Posted by diabetickripple

this is part of the reason i do my own. I didnt want any fat in my roasts and steaks, and was very picky about what went it the grind pile. The result is almost pure meat in the grind and zero hair.

100%

[catnthehat]

I usually look for a 1/3 of the rail weight, but I don't use any fat that I can cut off and am very picky about what I grind.
A good friend and butcher/sausage maker once told me that 'if you will not fry it up and eat it don't put it in your sausage or burger"
Cat

[Duramaximos]

Suggestion, perhaps find a hunter willing to show you the ropes for your first deer or two.

Well worth the investment in equipment. A good vacuum sealer ($200), and a decent grinder ($250) would be a good start.

If space is an concern consider buying a dedicated freezer and a stand alone temp controller ($250 + $50). The controller will let you run the freezer at 2C while you process quarters into roasts, and grind. When everything is packed up, remove the controller and let everything freeze solid. Poor man's walk in cooler. This hack has saved me on a number of warm weather harvests when leaving things to hang in the garage was out of the question.

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[old dog]

Meant to ask if the rib cage and backbone was with it. I normally just take in the four legs with bone in. And bone out the back straps and neck meat and rib meat

[fishnguy]

This year’s young bull provided me with 77 kg (~ 170 lbs) of nicely but not wastefully (though some may disagree) trimmed meat. This excludes the rib meat because for the first time I cleaned and cut the rib cage for barbecue or something. There was little, if any, meat waste due to the bullet penetration; it was a very clean shot.

Last year, a bigger bull provided me with 88kg (~ 195 lbs) of nicely trimmed meat. That included rib meat as well. There was some, but not much at all meat damage due to the bullet. It was, like yours, a high neck shot.

The least I got from an elk was about 65 kg (~ 145 lbs), if I recall correctly, which was a young cow (very little to none as far as shot meat goes as well).

I have no idea how much any of the mentioned above weighed before processing, so I can’t tell in terms of percentage. Nevertheless, 117 pounds you have received seems pretty low. In fact, I got that much off a deer. But then it could also be a very nice young cow you shot (I have no idea how much any of the animals I ever shot weighed before processing).

I have never used a butcher even though I don’t particularly enjoy processing myself.

[brewster29]

Originally Posted by smith88

The elk I shot was 323lbs on the rail, no head, hide or legs below the knee. I received 58lbs of cuts and 59lbs of trim back. Carcass was in great shape, very little hair, no spoilage or guts. I'm not happy....

I have cut up at well over 30 bull elk. I usually get 45-48ish % of hanging weight in clean, well trimmed (no fat and most silver skin removed) ready to cook boneless meat. Varies a bit due to shot damage, fat percentage, cleanliness and hanging time (affects amount of dried stuff trimmed) and my degree of patience. Bulls are generally leaner than cows and return higher percentages.

You might be 20 lbs light in your return. Nobody ever gets back as much as they expected...

[silver lab]

Originally Posted by DiabeticKripple

this is part of the reason i do my own. I didnt want ANY fat in my roasts and steaks, and was very picky about what went it the grind pile. The result is almost pure meat in the grind and zero hair.

And zero CWD....

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by smith88

That wouldn't affect the weight from on the rail to the amount of cut meat. And live weight of an elk is hard to get haha

It actually does, moisture evaporates out of the meat the longer it hangs. Game meat is pretty lean so it’s not going to be super high but it’s there. http://www.mossbackfarm.com/2013/06/...e-information/

I still think your light some meat, meat cutters make mistakes like any business does, when they do that meat they use to fix there mistake has to come from
Somewhere not saying this happened but this happened to one of my friends. He took an early season deer to a popular Calgary meat cutter a few years back. It took way to long he started to call them weekly they kept telling him if we haven’t called you it’s not done yet, after waiting months he finally went in and confronted them, he watched them search there freezer then take cuts from a bunch of other peoples boxes and made up an average amount to make him happy because they lost his deer.

[reddeerhunter]

How small are these bull elk some guys post? My last 3 went 640,670,670 on rail. Wainwright bulls.

Of which 390 avg lbs deboned meat came off.

I always assumed a cow 400 on rail and bull 650 as norm.


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[reddeerhunter]

How small are these bull elk some guys post? My last 3 went 640,670,670 on rail. Wainwright bulls.

Of which 390 avg lbs deboned meat came off.

I always assumed a cow 400 on rail and bull 650 as norm.


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