Average amount of meat

[calgarychef]

70 lbs of very well trimmed meat for a buck. I get rid of anything that isn’t nice red meat so my yield is probably 5/10 lbs less than it could be.

[Bub]

Last year I did not shoot a whitetail, but the year before I pulled 30.8 kg or 67.9 lb of pure meat. He was a good buck, but a bit on a smaller side body wise. I trim very, very well but I do not just go slicing the meat off. The only white you can find is on the shanks; sometimes I keep them that way for slow cooking. I was called anal and worse things because of the way I trim.

Last year's mulie doe was 17.8 kg or 39.2 lb net. There was some wasted meat there though because the front leg was touched by the bullet; most of it was disposed of. So I would add another 3 kg or so to that otherwise?

Last year's cow elk was 66 kg or 145.5 lb net. 2, maybe 3 year old cow, so they do come bigger, but that's how I like mine and that's the kind I would harvest every time if I can help it.

I am probably crazy, but I actually have an Excel spreadsheet and record the weight of every piece I pack, lol. I lost my original sheet to a damaged hard drive the year before; otherwise, I could tell you the average weight of a whitetail deer over the past few years

[fatboyz]

Originally Posted by Desert Eagle

Is the formula for wild game or domestic? I find the calculation to be more like 50%

It is for domestic. You do utilize more fat from a domestic animal so that adds in. I actually started being less finicky on trimming every bit of silver skin and spec of fat off my sausage trim once I saw what an industrial grinder can do. I now recover considerable more rib meat etc from deer especially. I definitely don't find any off taste doing this either. That being said if I shoot a big rutted buck late in the season I test cook a bit before I butcher it to check for Gameyness and then trim accordingly.
When I worked at the butcher he showed me how to properly set the grinder knife and plate, and to make sure they're sharp. Those great big grinders can grind 100 pounds in about 3 min. I grind it twice and Bob's your uncle!

[calgarychef]

Originally Posted by fatboyz

It is for domestic. You do utilize more fat from a domestic animal so that adds in. I actually started being less finicky on trimming every bit of silver skin and spec of fat off my sausage trim once I saw what an industrial grinder can do. I now recover considerable more rib meat etc from deer especially. I definitely don't find any off taste doing this either. That being said if I shoot a big rutted buck late in the season I test cook a bit before I butcher it to check for Gameyness and then trim accordingly.
When I worked at the butcher he showed me how to properly set the grinder knife and plate, and to make sure they're sharp. Those great big grinders can grind 100 pounds in about 3 min. I grind it twice and Bob's your uncle!

What size holes are in your plates?

[deercamp]

Not a whitetail in the province that will yield more than 70#.

[saskbooknut]

It is always shocking how much weight is lost to trimmed fat off a Whitetail. Easily 25 to 30 pounds from a good size animal.

[MooseRiverTrapper]

So 40lbs off a doe? Doe killers must be hard up to kill for 40#s of meat.

[buckman]

I used to cut game in a meat shop west of Calgary.

The average weight of boneless meat was around 60- 70 lb max for a Whitetail Buck.

We cut hundreds of deer there over the years,never saw a single one that yielded 100 lbs

[bobalong]

Originally Posted by MooseRiverTrapper

So 40lbs off a doe? Doe killers must be hard up to kill for 40#s of meat.

What does it matter to you, or do you just enjoy dumping on hunters in general. Hunting isn't just about the meat.

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by MooseRiverTrapper

So 40lbs off a doe? Doe killers must be hard up to kill for 40#s of meat.

Well if you're getting 100# off a buck you must get 75# off a doe.

+/-55 lbs.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Mule deer I shot this year between roasts/steaks and trim I bet we had roughly 75-80lbs all meat (deboned) if I could guess.

LC

[Game Hunter]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

Well if you're getting 100# off a buck you must get 75# off a doe.

+/-55 lbs.

Bahaha I enjoy good meat
I try not to add up the white meat to get 100 lbs

[fatboyz]

Originally Posted by calgarychef

What size holes are in your plates?

1/8". on My grinder I run it through on 1/4" then 1/8". At the butcher shop it's twice through the 1\8".

[mulecrazy]

WT bucks generally net me 50-65 lb. MD bucks are 60-80. Guys claiming 85-100lb off one wt buck are either talking weight when it has been cut with 50% pork into sausage or are completely full of crud. Or maybe they leave all the silver skin and fat attached to the meat. I take my time and cut it all out.

[nelsonob1]

Son got a a mature doe this weekend which we deboned on the spot and the meat weighed in at 35lbs. I don't chew as close to the hole as some but even the most practiced butcher woulnt get more than a couple more pounds.

[Bub]

Originally Posted by mulecrazy

Guys claiming 85-100lb off one wt buck are either talking weight when it has been cut with 50% pork into sausage or are completely full of crud. Or maybe they leave all the silver skin and fat attached to the meat. I take my time and cut it all out.

I also take my time. Can't say about 100 lb, but 80 is definitely possible. Like I posted above, the buck I got two years ago now was on a smaller side body wise from what I usually shoot and I pulled 68 pounds of pure red meat from it. I take all, and I mean all, silver skin out. I separate by muscle, literally, removing all the white. I know 80 is possible because I've done it. Wish I still had my old spreadsheet to see the highest yield I pulled. It was 80 something, under 90 for sure; maybe under 85, not sure.

[Peebles]

Originally Posted by mulecrazy

Guys claiming 85-100lb off one wt buck are either talking weight when it has been cut with 50% pork into sausage or are completely full of crud.

My scale works fine so I stand by my number.

Originally Posted by mulecrazy

Or maybe they leave all the silver skin and fat attached to the meat. I take my time and cut it all out.

A lot of the meat I weighed is full of connective tissue. Shanks and neck are basically impossible to turn into pure lean meat. If you are making sausage it's better to leave this on too. When leaving ten pounds attached to the legs it's a lot harder to hit this high number.

[Willowayin]

just finished processing WT buck 3 x 3 @ 2.5 yrs old, well trimmed, minimal meat loss, skeleton cleaned off, very picky as not to waste meat and I came up with 80 lbs. tender meat. I kid you not, I had to double check my numbers as I was surprised as he was so young. He was a nice size, thick neck and I'm not picky when it comes to putting food in the freezer. He was a bonus this year.
My buddy processed mature WT doe @ 6.5+ yrs old same process, some meat loss and got 58 lbs.
Age of deer was determined by teeth only way IMO to determine if an animal is really mature.

Getting 35 to 45 lbs of meat off WT doe here in Alberta, she's not mature enough, more like being a teenager me thinks.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

I wish a person could see a bigger version of your avatar. Looks very impressive.
The biggest bodied whitetail I ever shot jumped out when a friend shot a nice 5x5 buck in his bed. I managed to shoot the big buck before it knew what was up. That buck made my friends 5x5 look like a fawn beside it. I've seen three or four that looked like small elk in 40 years.

Unfortunately I was never one to take many pics of deer I shot. The deer in this pic had a big body. Taken by a guy I was guiding 10 years ago.

So this fella tips the scales not dressed 250-275 lbs......80-100 lbs deboned meat and that is a pig of a buck....seen a few mostly mule deer.....but the occasional whitey!

Beauty buck by the way!

[Tigrr]

Some as little as 60 lbs and others as much as 120 lbs. It tasted good both times.

[New2Elk]

I came across this formula a while ago in some deer hunting magazine and have been using it as guide:

- Carcass weight = Field-dressed weight divided by 1.331
- Ideal boneless venison weight = Carcass weight multiplied by .67
- Realistic venison yield = Ideal boneless weight multiplied by .70

My buck from this year was 210 pounds field dressed with some minor damage to the front shoulder. I got exactly 70 pounds off him. The formula for "realistic venison yield" comes up with 74 pounds so I would say pretty close to actual.

[skidderman]

Some pretty optimistic scales out there. Believe what you want though. No skin off my deer.

[last minute]

Some pretty optimistic scales out there

I don't think so

Believe what you want though

Oh i do

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by New2Elk

I came across this formula a while ago in some deer hunting magazine and have been using it as guide:

- Carcass weight = Field-dressed weight divided by 1.331
- Ideal boneless venison weight = Carcass weight multiplied by .67
- Realistic venison yield = Ideal boneless weight multiplied by .70

My buck from this year was 210 pounds field dressed with some minor damage to the front shoulder. I got exactly 70 pounds off him. The formula for "realistic venison yield" comes up with 74 pounds so I would say pretty close to actual.

Sounds about spot on.....some scales are like fishing stories.

[Peebles]

What concerns me about the people supporting low numbers is they are likely wasting meat. Just weighed this year's whitetail buck who was average sized, shot post-rut (Nov 30), and I lost some meat to a bullet through the exit shoulder.

33.8kg = 74.36 pounds

Any buck with an actually thick neck should break 80. Neck was 6kg, ribs 1.2kg, shanks 2.4kg etc. That's a lot of meat the lean only crew isn't touching but goes great in the canner or sausages.

[Twisted Canuck]

My biggest WT buck I got 78 lbs, and he was a really big bodied brute. Generally I'd say 55-65lbs is what I've got. I had one muley buck that was a hair over 90 lbs, he was a real beast 5x5. My personal best. I really trim all the fat and silver skin off, there is probably a bit that goes to 'waste' that might bring the weight up 3 or 4 lbs...but that's OK, I like it clean.

[vtecngsr]

This year I managed a nice 5x5 whitetail buck in 338, fully dressed at the butcher he weighed in at 103lbs.

Meat back after weighed in at 68 lbs

V

[Peebles]

Wish I could pick these carcasses over. It's not extra silver skin that's the waste, it's entire edible pieces going to the bin. I just added 230g (half pound) to my total by cutting out the tongue.

[Sitkaspruce]

Of the bucks we got this year, one was a tank and the rest were avg.

The tank weighted 195 carcass weight at the meat cutters and yielded 103 lbs. of butcher cut meat. This had to go in two containers plus the head for the flight back to Vancouver Island, which cost a few bucks!!

My buck we cut ourselves and it yielded 72 lbs. of carefully trimmed and cut up meat.

One of the other bucks yielded 57 lbs. of carefully trimmed and the other was 67 lbs.

Interesting that the tank was just an avg 4x4 (125-130") and seemed to put all his growth into his body. Figured he was 4.5-5.5 yo buck.

Cheers

SS

[Xbolt7mm]

I just cut up 2 descent size mule deer bucks and trimmed it excellent, no silver skin, tendons fat, dried meat. 55lbs on one and 60 on the other. Both two bowls of pure meat.