skeeter 7MM

Bulzeye, I said it is an estimate not an actual. Even if you dropped 15 pounds of the guts your looking at 50 lbs of meat with 1/3 formula..it is the best way i know to guess at what you'll get out of an animal. Also your 130 include the hide, head and so on...drop that weight off and you'll find a dressed deer (which is ready to be processed-hide, head, guts, legs gone) will transpire in the 60% range of meat. Again these are approx. numbers not actual, other factors are involved and one deer might be 38% while the other might be 30% of live weight...obviously with equal weighted animals the meat take will be different, therefore no exact calculator or tool to accurately perdict what you'll end up with, just a rough guess that i know of. Sorry like I said it is the best I can do and I won't profess to be the expert either. I have butchered all my own game for a number of years and yet many other guys as well. 100% honest I hardly ever weigh animals or meat anymore, it really isn't that important to me doing it myself and for those who ask me to it for them they know they are getting what they brought in. Maybe somebody has a better tool out there and will provide it for you, but this has got me close in the past.

No disrespect intended or felt

Phil J.

I agree with Skeeter here. I also am by no means an expert, but have been cutting up my own deer for quite a few years. The last 3 seasons I have weighed the deer dressed prior to processing, then I weigh the processed meat after I am done. Just been doing it for curiosty sakes.

It has varied from 30-40% of the dressed weight, like skeeter said it depends on shot placement, meat damage, etc. That is a pretty good figure though, I also have asked alot of other guys who process their own and they concur with the 30-40% ratio.

A 170# buck I shot this year yielded 55# of meat, that=32% yield. A 100 lb. doe I shot last year yielded me 35# of meat, that=35%. And I have gotten up to 40% also, but I'm really picking at the meat and grinding all the scraps I can find into hamburger.

The dang guts, hide, bone and head weigh alot fellas, no doubt there

PAhunterJEN

Thanks for the help....
Like I said, last years doe was smaller - kinda scrawny really. So it must have been almost a yearling. This years doe was almost what I would call mature size. She was very healthy overall. In fact, I would sure like to know where she was feeding because that stomach was jam packed (like a football) with green leaves.
I have heard of cattle yielding about 1/4 of their weight in meat so I think I will use the 1/3 weight as an average - as long as the deer is healthy.
As for butchering my own. I would like to someday but I still feel I have a lot to learn. This deer was only my third so I am lucky to know exactly what to do just to field dress it. My brother and uncle process their own now so I guess I will have to get together with one of them to see how it goes.
THANKS AGAIN!

MikeE51848

Well, I'm gonna quote from an official PGC publication. They say: "A deer which had a live weight of 120 lbs would have a field dressed weight of about 97 lbs and about 55 lbs of edible meat". Their formula from their graph would indicate about half the weight of a "live weight" deer results in edible meat.

Bulzeye

(Skeeter) That's the difference....

Looks like we were just talking about different levels of "dressed".
Folks around my area consider a deer field dressed as soon as it's been gutted.
My hunting buddies and I only take it that far and then it's off to the butcher.

I'd love to do the whole nine yards from kill to plate, but I don't think the wife will go for it. I'm lucky to get to display my mounts in the main part of the house. Maybe I can cape one out sometime when it's not too cold.

Split-Hoof

I've always found it to be around 40% or so meat vs. dressed weight, although this can hardly be called accurate since I never weighed the meat itself, just the dressed deer. Also, a lot depends on shot placement. On an average 200 pound buck, I'd say it's not uncommon to have around 100 pounds of meat if there wasn't much damage.

skeeter 7MM

Sorry Bulzeye about the confussion, we call it field dressed as well when gutted but dressed really means undressed(ready to butcher) to us northerners...EH! Most places here will not accept animals not skinned any longer, something I forget isn't the norm elsewhere...oops.

benhuntin

For deboned meat, you should get back at least 35 to 40 percent of the live weight. This is on an average lean deer. Obviously the more fat , the lower the percentage.

zoar

The 1/3 is right on. I have butchered my own deer for over 20 years and the
formula is 1/3 boneless, fat-free, filler- free meat compared to body size.

One the reasons I do my own deer is because of what some butchers
cut off of a deer and call edible.

shingle shot

I have done my own processing for 20 years. The reason I started doing my own is because my wife worked in a local , small meat processing plant that butchered beef, and deer in season. Hunters bring their deer in, they are weighed cut up ground or whatever. all the meat is put in big tubs. They then weigh out the proper amount, & you get a little of everybodys meat. I have seen deers brought in that have laid in the woods overnight, then laid in the back of pickups for hours without being field dressed. They have so many deer to process, that they don't tak time to trim fat, grissle, damaged meat. It is faster to grind it all, which is why you get a high ratio of meat. Ask your prosseror if you get your own meat back. Ask him if you can observe his meat processing proceedures. If he is doing a large volume of deer, there is no way he can keep it all seperated.

It takes me about 6 to 8 hours to properly process my deer. I field dress within 5 minutes of the kill. I hang the deer overnight, then debone, remove all fat, grissle, damaged meat. I cut steaks roast, & grind for buger. My ratio is app 30 to 40 %

A Kansas grain fed deer can not be improved by aging. also no need to soak overnight in any magic potions to kill any wild tastes, because the isn't any if processed right