How much meat did you yield from your deer?
 

Just curious as to how much actual meat you guys typically yield out of a deer. I decided to keep track this year, here it is:

120 lbs, field dressed
40 lbs of steaks and roasts (all bones removed)
13 lbs of burger

Probably could have nickeled and dimed the ribcage and hams for a smidge more burger, but after 5 hours my back couldn't take it anymore.

I got about 50% of the dressed weight from both of my deer (110 lbs doe and 170 lbs buck). But that also has some staright beef fat thrown in to the mix for the burger.

Funny how you said it took 5 hours. I said that same thing in a thread about why I take mine to a processor.The DIY guys said I obviously did not know what I was doing cause it should take me no longer then 45 mins to 1 hour to process a deer.

Dressed weight x 40% is the standard formula for boneless meat yield. So you're both right on if fat was added.

I recall the thread where the time required to process a deer was discussed. I think a lot of the guys said they process their deer down to larger pieces. The trim/grind pieces were just frozen. That's what I do at least.

If I accounted for all of the "final" processing such as removal of all silverskin, slicing roasts into steaks, grinding, etc. I'm sure it would add up, maybe even over 5 hrs. My main objective when processing is get it skinned, cut up and wrapped and into the freezer. That generally takes less than 2 hrs. Larger pieces keep better in the freezer, and silverskin is easier to remove after the meat has been frozen. I find that meat grinds much better if it is still partially frozen.

A little good info there. I want to get into DIY deer processing when I get out of college. But daddy pays for the processing now :biggrin:

No longer than an hour? Yeah right. My stuff looks likes it belongs in a display case at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse when I'm done. I guess if I were a slacker I could grind most of it in an hour.

I have been processing my own deer for thirty years, and from start of skin off to final package in the freezer all hand sliced takes a good six hours. I am pretty meticulous trimming fat, etc. , and of course keeping the meat and carcass clean takes longer.My father in law used to brag about doing it in an hour too...I wouldnt eat what he finishes with.

I am VERY VERY picky on trimming and such, I tend to yield 40ish percent the dressed weight of my deer in meat.

My wife and I cut up my doe last weekend. This was our first time doing our own.

Skinning... hour
Cutting different cuts of meat off the bone...... 2 hours
Cutting up steaks and Roasts, and packaging them.... 3 hours
Working on burger meat (taking fat and senew off)...2.5 hours
Have not done anything with the scraps yet, they are in the freezer.

17.5 hours total between the 2 of us. Way longer then it should take, but you know what? I saved myself $250 by doing it myself.

$250....holy crap!!

No crap!!!

My doe cost me $55 and the buck cost me $65 plus some extra for the summer sausage. ($5 per stick, 1 from doe and 3 from buck).