HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - Off Topic: How Much Meat On That Deer?
View Single Post
Old 01-31-2018, 06:48 AM
  #22  
Strut&Rut
Nontypical Buck
 
Strut&Rut's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: SW Michigan
Posts: 1,906
Default

Nice pictorial!

I'm assuming the 130 pounds was live weight, which gives you a boneless yield of 37% - the average is 35-40%, so job well done.

A tutorial for estimating the different weights (live, carcass, etc.) can be found here:
http://askthemeatman.com/estimate_deer_weight.htm


Also - for anyone reading through this thread, I implore you to field dress your kills. As an animal scientist with formal meat science training, the biggest factor affecting quality is temperature. The faster you get the meat cooled, the quicker you stop enzymatic breakdown, fatty oxidation and free radical formation (all of which reduce quality).

Field dress, hang (head DOWN to drain the blood from the primary cuts in the rear quarters), de-hide, prop open the chest cavity and store in a 38deg locker - all within 60 mins - and you'll have the optimal results. We all know that sometimes this just isn't possible, but if we aim for that then we at least are striving for the best quality meat possible. Buck poles may be fun, but I'd rather look at other people's prizes, because hanging them from their head for an extended time is very simply reducing the quality of their meat...

S&R
Strut&Rut is offline