You might be right there Semisane on the weight of meat cut from the bone, on a deer that size. I always thought it was about 50% of the body weight, but never really weighed it.

The front shoulders I leave whole. I take them and put them on a Brinkman Smoker grill with dry onion soup mix all over them, put a water pan under them to semi steam, and cook them nice and slow. That meat will fall right away from the shoulder and leg bone. I used to make two of them for Thanksgiving every year to supplement (like we needed more food) the turkey and ham.

We used to carve off the rib meat and all the flank meat for sausage, but that is a lot of work, for a little amount of meat. But, have you ever took the ribs and cooked them over an open fire? I have a open fire rack and it is a heck of a way to cook ribs. Raise it up high and cook them things slow. When they start to fall apart, then they are ready to pour the barbecue sauce all over.

The heart... I have eaten it, cooked in bacon grease with onions. But I have a friend the pickles them, so now I just save them and give them to him (when they are not all blown up). He pickles them hearts, then slices that into sandwich meat. I don't eat it, but he seems to enjoy it. The rest of the guts, like the liver etc.. I leave in the woods for the coyotes and crows.