I figure some of you guys should know how a deer should dress out weight wise. A few weeks ago I took a deer that was a little over a hundred lbs. I decided to get it ground up at the butchers. When I picked my meat up I had 28 lbs of ground meat . . . .6 of that was beef trimmings that had been added for fat. I know I should'nt have had much more than that, but come on 22 lbs of meat from a 100 lb deer.
Yesterday I took another doe for the freezer and I weighed the carcass after it was skinned, gutted, head and legs removed, and it weighed 65lbs. From now on I will have the butcher put my carcass weight on my order when I take my meat to him.

This may help you www.askthemeatman.com go to the deer section then go to the section on estimate weights. another one is www.whitetails.com go to deer infosection and then go to the live weight section. These 2 sites should give you some info on what you are asking. I always thought that for a 100 lb dressed deer you would yield about 40% edible meat. We had 4 deer that dressed out around 120lbs and we got app. 50lbs of boneless meat from each deer with app 12-15lbs of hamburger going to that total amount.

Do like a lot of us do. Butcher it yourself. Its really not as hard as many hunters think. Plus then you know what your getting and know its clean. Heck for all ya know you may have gotten someone elses deer. Im not much on butchers doing my deer. Had too many problems mixing up mine for someone elses.

Thanks Liaf, I'll check that out. I do butcher some of the deer I harvest. But usually only down to roasts except for the backstrap and tenderloin. I do need to get set up for grinding and cutting the hams up into steaks, but right now I'm still in the procrastinating stage.

Don't forget you do get some waste from the shot. I don't know where you hit it but sometimes almost a whole shoulder can be wasted.

Or check out your Butcher! I think you're sharing!

If that deer weighs 65lbs as you said, you should get right around 50lbs of meat, maybe a little less. My elk (cow) weighed 225lbs with hide, head and guts removed. I got 165 lbs of meat. You can figure to get about 1/3 of the live weight of an animal, and about 75% of the rack weight in boneless cuts. If these weights are coming out different for a properly proportioned deer, then something is wrong. I would just butcher it myself if I were you. I have not been away from one of my animals being butchered. I've been there the whole time.

Yep, Charlie! When we butcher our steers, we lose about 1/3 of the weight!

I agree. Butcher it yourself. It's interestingto learn thebiology.
Also helps in learningwhy shot placement is important.
It striking how different deer are under neath the hide.

50 % is a rough rule of thumb.