Got my elk back from butcher...somethings fishy

[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.

People do that? 

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

From the sound of it he was still in camp and took all of his meat to the butcher. I agree, I wouldn't want to leave the tenderloins unattended. Lol.  I butcher my own.

[jrebel]

Why has the OP updated us yet.....I am getting anxious.  There are still a lot of unanswered questions.  I hope he got it figured out. 


Out of 5 east side archery cow elk that our camp has harvested in recent years 4 hung at between 296 lbs and 350 lbs.  We seem to net about 50% packaged meat.  190 in quarters seems light to me for such a big bodied bull.   

[jnutzalot]

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)

We  removed the tenderloins and packed them - I obviously would not be expecting tenderloins if i left them in the body cavity...

Did the bull have hoof rot by any chance? 

no

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..........

This is what the butcher said it weighed in at. I don't know what to tell you. My first Elk so I'm not sure what other people have encountered but it seemed about right to me.

[jnutzalot]

Why has the OP updated us yet.....I am getting anxious.  There are still a lot of unanswered questions.  I hope he got it figured out. 


Out of 5 east side archery cow elk that our camp has harvested in recent years 4 hung at between 296 lbs and 350 lbs.  We seem to net about 50% packaged meat.  190 in quarters seems light to me for such a big bodied bull.   

So I'm waiting for a call back - The Manager says he is trying to get a hold of the employee that did the butchering of my elk. No real answers as to the mystery of the lost tenderloins... No real reasoning behind the weight, or why it took so long. Although some on this board seem to think that maybe 70ish lbs is about right for processed meat, so who knows at this point.

He said he noted a shot on the hind quarter while processing, which is true, but it was really low towards the knee. We cut out the blood spot and thought it looked pretty good when I took it in. Maybe it was worse than I thought.

[bear hunter]

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!

I did  but they were frozen in the game bag. I should of pulled them right away then cut and rapped. But they cut and rapped them for me. Thinking about it maybe 200 pounds out of 4 quarters is right.

[Michelle_Nelson]

jnutzalot,

When did you harvest your Elk?

How long after harvesting did you get your Meat to the butcher?

Did you drop all 4 quarters and the back straps off at the butcher?



A 50% yield is what you should expect when butchering a "Whole Carcass", minus guts, hide, head, and lower legs.  Your yield should be considerably higher if all you have are the quarters and back strap.  Of a 190lbs of quartered meat (bone in), I would expect a return of at least 140-150lbs.  IF the meat has been properly cared for.

[jnutzalot]

jnutzalot,

When did you harvest your Elk?

How long after harvesting did you get your Meat to the butcher?

Did you drop all 4 quarters and the back straps off at the butcher?


A 50% yield is what you should expect when butchering a "Whole Carcass", minus guts, hide, head, and lower legs.  Your yield should be considerably higher if all you have are the quarters and back strap.  Of a 190lbs of quartered meat (bone in), I would expect a return of at least 140-150lbs.  IF the meat has been properly cared for.

November 7th I believe and had to butcher by the 8th. Temperatures in the high 30s low 40s. Hung for a night and morning and then went into the butcher.

Yes I dropped off all 4 quarters, tenderloins, backstraps, and some misc neck and rib meat.

In retrospect I should have just held on the the backstraps and tenderloins. It's not like they are hard to carve up.

[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.

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

The statistics that show a 50% yield is from a "field dressed" carcass. What we're talking about here is four quarters removed from the carcass. I asked if the 190 pounds included rib cage or backbone. He said it didn't. No way is it going to be 50% bone, 50% meat in this case. More like 75% meat and 25% bone.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Some of the comments people have made on this thread are just ignorant.  No other way to describe it, ignorant.  Pretty sure they just wanted to be a part of, or create more drama.  They don't bother to ask questions they just want to tell the OP how much he got screwed.  Of course it is ALWAYS the business who is at fault and ALL butchers are corrupt and skim meat off the top.    

I've never heard of it taking 3 months to get an animal back from a butcher.  I've never waited more than 2 weeks.  I could see how it could possibly take another week if I had smoked products or some kind of special order.  Though I butcher the majority of the animals I harvest, I prefer to take Beef and Elk to my butcher.  Due to lack of time and space to do it properly.

Now maybe they did have your Elk butchered within the 2 weeks after dropping it off.  Due to this being there busiest time of year maybe communications got crossed or paper work got put in the wrong box or folder and they forgot to call and notify you that it was finished.  Once things slowed down and there freezers started emptying out they probably started going through the boxes that were left and getting a hold of people. 

They could quite possibly still have some of your meat in the freezer.  They may have thought they grabbed all the boxes.  Then again maybe an employee accidentally grabbed one of your boxes of meat and gave it to another customer with his order.  Things like that do happen unintentionally.

Could some of your meat have been bone soured?  Maybe they found an infection in one of the quarters due to an injury the animal had?  They may have had some loss due to that.  Ask them if they wrote down any notes to that effect. 

I use to work for a Butcher.  They call them Deer Processors in the south.  I have cut into quite a few hams and right into fist size puss pockets full if Key Lime filling.   I've also cut into shoulders that had these puss pockets.  More than likely a result of a tine to the body during a fight.  The outside heals before the inside does and the infection remains and builds until the body either takes care of it or it comes to the surface.

And for those of you Drama Queens, how do you know the OP didn't leave the elk hang in camp for a week before taking it in to be butchered?  Or couldn't find the elk after he shot it and left it lay over night?  You didn't bother to ask.  You asume because someone comes on and complains they have a legitimate reason.

Ask questions before you come up with your conspiracy theories or before you start telling someone they are getting screwed.  All your doing is making the OP paranoid.  Instead of giving him good information that he can then use when approaching the butcher to find out what happen to him Elk Meat. 

[grundy53]

All of your theories are possible. However, if any one of them actually happened I would expect the business owner to contact the customer right away. Also the customer already provided how Long the meat was hanging.

[Michelle_Nelson]

grundy53, in a perfect world I would agree with you.  That is how it should happen.  Then again things happen and people get busy and forget.  It gets really busy for butchers that time of year.  Things get overlooked or forgotten once in a while. 

Most Business owners want to run a perfect Business.  In reality that is impossible. 

[grundy53]

Business owners that run a sloppy business often find themselves out of business.

[Bean Counter]

Interesting how much heavier the northern deer are. I didn't weigh the ones I took up there BITD. Down where I live in the southwest with hotter climates they must be much smaller bodied deer overall. I process them all myself and am usually doing good to put 40pounds of packages of meat in the freezer.

[jnutzalot]

I'm trying to give the butcher the benefit of the doubt. Accidents happen, people make honest mistakes. Still, I feel this business has made several mistakes:

1) they massively underestimated how long it would take to process my elk - they said 3 weeks originally.
2) they took 2+months to process the animal. (it was not 3 months)
3) during that time they did not return my calls - I left several messages during regular business hours (no one answered the phone)
4) they did not follow my order instructions
5) they were completely missing part of my order
6) the manager had to ask me how much I brought in when I came to pick up the order because according to him the employee that weighted in my meat did not record it.

I just expect a business/owner to act professionally regardless of how busy they are. I don't think this chain of events reflects professionalism.

[h20hunter]

Sir.....sounds like you have been royally screwed. I'd be bent so far outta shape its not funny.

Now that you have reached this point have you had any feedback from the business regarding the employee that did the cutting? Have you begun to discuss how you will be compensated?

Accidents do happen, people do make mistakes. However whether it be a butcher, an outfitter, or a taxidermist, if there is no communication, an apparent disregard for order instructions, a gross delay on processing, and apparent complete disregard for honest business practices then they get what they deserve.