thenuge15

I was wondering how much meat you lose from shooting a deer in the shoulder with a gun? I shot two does this year and one of them was a decent doe and the other was huge. The big one was a good 30-40lb bigger than the smaller one and I only got 4lbs more meat? I shot the big doe through the shoulders with a gun and the smaller one right behind the shoulder with a bow. Do you think the meat loss would be that substantial? Also what percent of the deers dressed weight do you think you get in meat w/o any bones in them?

killer243

shoulder shots ruin the most meat. normally they ruin the whole two front legs.

how much meat do you get? no where near what you would think! i forget exactly what we get about per deer. however i think it might have been like 30 or 40 pounds? not really sure but around there. but the deer are also smaller here. a big deer is about 100

cardeer

that seems like alot to loose from a gun shot. There is a chart I seen somewhere over the years that calculates the amount of meat you recieve according to the deers weight. Our does around here usually are around 110 lb area. I usualy get 60 pounds of meat.Know you also have to take in to consideration if the butcher adds pork to the burger. The 143 lb doe I got this year gave me 77 lbs of meat I think.

timbercruiser

Aim a few inches fruther back and take out the lungs. Deer is just as dead.

thenuge15

Hmm... Well maybe my processor is really picky or something. I shot a buck that dressed out at 145 last year and I think i got 45-55 pounds of meat. But thats almost all ground. The processor does 1000 a year and they get plenty of meat donated so they wouldn't be taking any.

Timber, this is the first deer i've shot through the shoulders. I just shout like an 1 or 2 inches off and hit the shoulder.

Strut&Rut

Carcass breakdown, on venison and beef...

Carcass weight is approximately 75-80% of live weight.

De-boned end product is approximately 50-55% carcass weight, or approximately 40% of the total live weight.

So for easy figures, we'll take a 125 pound deer live weight. We'll say that carcass weight is 95 pounds (~75% of live weight). And we're left with about 52 pounds (55% of 95#) of deboned meat. Interestingly, if you keep the bones you only go up slightly, to ~60-65%.

Cardeer, not only do I love your necklace but I think I need to meet your butcher...your getting 50% back from the whole deer...that's a great job of processing, or he's really adding the fat!

cardeer

He is good,he does over 1000 deer a year and also does cattle,hogs,goats. last year he told me he made over 200,000 butchering.And he is a buggy amish dude. and has 11 kids to help him.I do think he adds a little extra meat from somewhere.I have been going there 33 years.

thenuge15

Well I'm 100% sure I didn't get more than 60lbs on that 145lb dressed buck last year. O well, I guess anywhere from 40-50 lbs is still a lot of meat.

Bob H in NH

a rifle shot to the shoulder MIGHT destroy alot of meat depending on the gun and bullet, but you would loose all of the near side shoulder which is mostly stew/burger, you MIGHT loose the offside shoulder and depending on where in the should and how soon you skinned it, you might loose rib meat, neck meat and some backstrap meat due to blood soak.

Al Barrs

Yea, it depends on the size of the deer. In our NW FL deer there is not much in a shoulder, but there is a bit of stew meat that should be salvaged. Shooting a deer in the shoulder will normally anchor it on the spot, but I shoot just behind the leg apex and make lung shots. The deer will run about 100 yards, but that isn't a problem and gives my bloodtrailing dog a little workout...bottom line no meat damage at all.