Got my elk back from butcher...somethings fishy

[Maverick]

Wow, 3 months is a loooong time to wait to get your bull back. I wonder if something happened to your elk, and It took him a while to skim meat from other customers to replace the meat? Could be why you got so little back with cuts/burger that you didn't want and no tenderloins....Just a thought.

I was wondering that myself?

[krapmit]

THIS GUYS ORIGINAL POST DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE   ....HE SAID THE BULL IN QUARTERS WEIGHED 190 LBS...My 5x5 west side bull this year hung at 440lb. and I got a 59% return (260 lbs of meat back)  which is pretty good.  You're typically looking for 55-60% return on an animal.

WHY WOULD HIS 4 QUARTERS ONLY BE 190 LBS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

[Timberstalker]

THIS GUYS ORIGINAL POST DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE   ....HE SAID THE BULL IN QUARTERS WEIGHED 190 LBS...My 5x5 west side bull this year hung at 440lb. and I got a 59% return (260 lbs of meat back)  which is pretty good.  You're typically looking for 55-60% return on an animal.

WHY WOULD HIS 4 QUARTERS ONLY BE 190 LBS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

This is a good point..........

[Bob33]

Wow! A bull like that... should have got twice as much meat back as what you got. A spike bull I got a few years ago was 160 pounds of mostly boned out meat. The only bone we packed out was the shoulders, which doesn't weigh much.

Unless your bull had a ton of blood shot meat or something, I don't see how you could get only 73 pounds of meat. 150 would be more like it.

You're not going to get 150 pounds of meat out of 190 pounds of unbutchered elk quarters. About 50% is typical, which should be around 90 pounds. If some of the 90 was spoiled, bloodshot, or dirty then 73 could be reasonable.

[pianoman9701]

THIS GUYS ORIGINAL POST DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE   ....HE SAID THE BULL IN QUARTERS WEIGHED 190 LBS...My 5x5 west side bull this year hung at 440lb. and I got a 59% return (260 lbs of meat back)  which is pretty good.  You're typically looking for 55-60% return on an animal.

WHY WOULD HIS 4 QUARTERS ONLY BE 190 LBS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

This is a good point..........

Boned out?

[Curly]

Did the bull have hoof rot by any chance? 

[ghosthunter]

THIS GUYS ORIGINAL POST DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE   ....HE SAID THE BULL IN QUARTERS WEIGHED 190 LBS...My 5x5 west side bull this year hung at 440lb. and I got a 59% return (260 lbs of meat back)  which is pretty good.  You're typically looking for 55-60% return on an animal.

WHY WOULD HIS 4 QUARTERS ONLY BE 190 LBS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

You cannot compare East side elk with west side either. The west siders run a lot bigger in some areas.
Two big cows on east side were 170- 180 hanging on the butcher hook .
Cow I shot west side was 400 lbs on the butcher hook.

My east side spike ran 165 lbs on the butcher hook.

Just not the same thing. 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Nice bull!

[bobcat]

Wow! A bull like that... should have got twice as much meat back as what you got. A spike bull I got a few years ago was 160 pounds of mostly boned out meat. The only bone we packed out was the shoulders, which doesn't weigh much.

Unless your bull had a ton of blood shot meat or something, I don't see how you could get only 73 pounds of meat. 150 would be more like it.

You're not going to get 150 pounds of meat out of 190 pounds of unbutchered elk quarters. About 50% is typical, which should be around 90 pounds. If some of the 90 was spoiled, bloodshot, or dirty then 73 could be reasonable.

Depends what kind of quarters we're talking about. I'm pretty sure he said this was with no rib cage or backbone. I'd sure expect to get way more than 50% of the 190.

Just going by the size of the bull, it's definitely a big enough elk that I'd expect 150 pounds minimum. That's about what I got from a spike! A large mule deer can yield 73 pounds of meat, which is what he got from a relatively large bull elk!

A cow elk I got many years ago was 287 pounds of meat that we got back from the butcher, although if I remember correctly they did not completely debone the meat.

[Bob33]

Wow! A bull like that... should have got twice as much meat back as what you got. A spike bull I got a few years ago was 160 pounds of mostly boned out meat. The only bone we packed out was the shoulders, which doesn't weigh much.

Unless your bull had a ton of blood shot meat or something, I don't see how you could get only 73 pounds of meat. 150 would be more like it.

You're not going to get 150 pounds of meat out of 190 pounds of unbutchered elk quarters. About 50% is typical, which should be around 90 pounds. If some of the 90 was spoiled, bloodshot, or dirty then 73 could be reasonable.

Depends what kind of quarters we're talking about. I'm pretty sure he said this was with no rib cage or backbone. I'd sure expect to get way more than 50% of the 190.

Just going by the size of the bull, it's definitely a big enough elk that I'd expect 150 pounds minimum. That's about what I got from a spike! A large mule deer can yield 73 pounds of meat, which is what he got from a relatively large bull elk!

A cow elk I got many years ago was 287 pounds of meat that we got back from the butcher, although if I remember correctly they did not completely debone the meat.

If you're getting 150 pounds of meat from 190 pounds of quarters, you're doing far better than average.

I can guarantee that you won't get 287 pounds of meat from 190 pounds of quarters.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,168940.msg2231653.html#msg2231653

[Nice Racks]

My bull was 353lbs of hanging weight; that included the rib cage. I got 13 bags and we'll over 200 lbs. I'd guess it was close to 250lbs. That was a Morton meats.

[Rob]

I shot a largish 6x6 bull this year and I hauled out 234 pounds of bonless meat.  I did leave some on the carcass I am sure.

Not sure if you got what you should have or not.  some questions that might yield less than you think:

1.  Did you convert any to jerky or sausage?  some places do a 2lb for every one pound conversion
2.  Was the meat in good condition?  if it was spoiled or became spoiled shortly after you dropped it then the butcher would have disposed of it (I would have thought they would have told you though)
3.  Was there dirt or hair in the meat?  This might have reduced your take once processed
4.  Was there extensive bloodshot meat?  this would again reduce your take
5.  how much bone did you bring in? 


Did you weigh it when you dropped it?  I took mine to Golden Steer in Bellevue and he weighed it out in front of me before I dropped it and wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Could be there was another box tucked away in the freezer he forgot to give you.

[bobcat]

One thing that just occurred to me- why is the butcher being blamed for no tenderloin? If the elk was quartered, and was brought in with no rib cage, the tenderloins would have been removed by the hunter. (As well as the backstrap)

[grundy53]

One thing that just occurred to me- why is the butcher being blamed for no tenderloin? If the elk was quartered, and was brought in with no rib cage, the tenderloins would have been removed by the hunter. (As well as the backstrap)

Unless he brought them in with the quarters.

[bobcat]

One thing that just occurred to me- why is the butcher being blamed for no tenderloin? If the elk was quartered, and was brought in with no rib cage, the tenderloins would have been removed by the hunter. (As well as the backstrap)

Unless he brought them in with the quarters.

People do that? 

Hint:  don't ever give the tenderloins or the backstrap to a butcher!