Boning out a buck- How much weight is saved?

[DIYARCHERYJUNKIE]

I don't want to be the guy who gets back to the truck with a bunch of dirty rank meat and says.  Its hard by myself.  I take more time and add to the trips if need be to get the job done right.  go slower as to not get any debris on the meat or hide or game bags.  Take more time and remove the bone to cool the meat faster.  and hang the meat up to dry in the shade before bagging, if at all possible.  Might take some extra time patients and effort to de bone but its worth it.

[elkoholic]

keep a kill sheet in your pack, we take off the quarters like you are leaving the bone in and do our boning work on the sheet. It keeps the meat nice and clean...

[headshot5]

keep a kill sheet in your pack, we take off the quarters like you are leaving the bone in and do our boning work on the sheet. It keeps the meat nice and clean...

Solid advise. 

[MtnMuley]

I will play the devils advocate, even though I also bone out most our elk we get.  Leaving it on the bone helps keep it clean and you don't mess up the cuts of meat, It's also easy to hang.  I always feel the deboned meat stays warm when it's all stuck together in a meat bag. Keep in mind we hunt rifle elk in Idaho, it's usually cold.  Not arguing here just giving another side, like I said, we bone out most the time.

  I will always haul out quarters if it's convenient, but a lot of the time find myself boning.

[packmule]

I will play the devils advocate, even though I also bone out most our elk we get.  Leaving it on the bone helps keep it clean and you don't mess up the cuts of meat, It's also easy to hang.  I always feel the deboned meat stays warm when it's all stuck together in a meat bag. Keep in mind we hunt rifle elk in Idaho, it's usually cold.  Not arguing here just giving another side, like I said, we bone out most the time.

  I usually debone too, but meat does stay cleaner and there is far less waste too. When you expose more surfaces of the meat to the air, dirt and ice theres more to trim off.

X2

[packmule]

you dont have the luxury of having a helping hand when deboning a bull miles in and on steep hillside...sometimes things get dirty when you are trying not to get dirt on it

x2 again, good posts huntnnw, keep up the good work 

[LITTLEBUCK]

When boning out the meat, what do you do for proof of sex?

[Dhoey07]

I haven't had the need to quarter or bone out a deer to get it out.  We have halved a couple deer to get them out, but never quarters. 

Elk is a different story.

[jstone]

I almost always bone out my deer and or elk. Because i am usually MILES from the truck, and it saves weight. Cut all the meat off of the ribs, back straps, tenderloins... ect...... and so on.....

[Okanagan]

Some interesting (and some odd) comments.  I've boned out totally or partially many kinds of critters in many situations and prefer it most of the time, depending on time, temp, terrain and other factors.

A professional butcher boned out a buck for me on our kitchen table and showed me how as he went.  Amazingly quick and no waste other than mostly white soup bones.   I haven't backpacked bones since, nor do I drag much.  I've dragged a few 50 yards downhill to a road and boned them out beside the vehicle.  Since moving to a city, boning the critter out eliminates having to get rid of anything non-edible once I get home.

Some actuals:

- Average blacktail fork horn buck from north Cascades weighed 48 lbs. boned out.
- Huge bodied Canadian mule deer pushing book size weighed 220 lbs. boned out.
- Huge bodied blacktail/mule deer cross from north Cascades weighed 115 lbs. boned out, with much of one quarter lost to bloodshot.
- Two other exceptionally large bodied N. Cascades hybrid bucks went 105 and 97 lbs. boned out.
- Spike blacktail from Vancouver island weighed 36 lbs. boned out.

My fallible memory recalls that writer Ed Park said that the average WA State fork horn mule deer in his experience weighed 62 lbs. boned out, based on several that he had weighed.

The two huge bucks listed above are near the extreme big end of size spectrum, very rare, but weighed by me.

Two options for boning out are to do it without gutting the animal or do it after gutting.  At dusk I sometimes gut one and bone it out in the morning, always depending on weather and temps.  You can split the hide down from the spine on the gutless method, but it does not bleed out quite as well IME.  Very fast however and other than slightly more moist, no taste diff that I have noticed. 

As said, no need to get any meat dirty:  use clean side of hide and a plastic sheet that can double as ground sheet, mini-tarp, etc.  A split open garbage bag makes a good clean tarp.  DO NOT step over the clean ground sheet nor the exposed meat/carcass!  Sand/dirt etc. from your boots WILL drop onto the meat.

I like to use clean bleached logs with no bark to lay meat on, or make a clean airy surface of clean dead no bark poles/sticks to hang, cool and drain meat.

Meat boned out immediately will be a little tougher due to muscles contracting through rigor mortis without being attached to bone to keep them from staying contracted (at least that is my understanding of it).  It will be slightly tougher, but rarely enough to make noticeable difference.

[trophyhunt]

When boning out the meat, what do you do for proof of sex?

leave the testicles connected to the meat, you can get rid of the penis.  I was ticketed a couple years ago in Idaho for not doing this, the game warden said they are going to crack down on that law.

[CP]

A quick Google found this:

“Hide Factor
•   Fawn: (100 pounds) 6.7 percent
•   Adult doe: (140 pounds) 7.9 percent
•   Adult buck (160 pounds) 8.7 percent
•   Bucks: more than 160 pounds 9 percent

Bone Factor
•   Fawn: (100 pounds) 13.8 percent
•   Adult doe: (140 pounds) 13 percent
•   Adult buck (160 pounds) 12.4 percent
•   Bucks: more than 160 pounds 11.7 percent

Blood Factor
•   Fawn: (100 pounds) 6 percent
•   Adult doe: (140 pounds) 5 percent
•   Adult buck (160 pounds) 5 percent
•   Bucks: more than 160 pounds 5 percent

Using this guide as an example, a 180-pound buck would have 16.2 pounds of hide, 21.06 pounds of bones and 9 pounds of blood. Unfortunately, it's difficult to estimate the live weight of a deer if it has been field-dressed because the weight of a deer's innards varies depending on its health and diet.

- Pennsylvania State University, Department of Animal Science and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, 1968

[Okanagan]

When boning out the meat, what do you do for proof of sex?

Split the nut sack as you skin it and leave a nut on each side, one on each big chunk of round meat hindquarter.  The testicles are attached only by one thin string of deer and are all but determined to detach so be careful about it and do one on each side in case the first one comes loose!

[LITTLEBUCK]

Have never kept proof of sex but will from now on when boning out. I have been checked and have been lucky I have never been ticketed. Keeping both sides is a great idea will do this year. Thanks

[CoryTDF]

When boning out the meat, what do you do for proof of sex?

Split the nut sack as you skin it and leave a nut on each side, one on each big chunk of round meat hindquarter.  The testicles are attached only by one thin string of deer and are all but determined to detach so be careful about it and do one on each side in case the first one comes loose!

I might be in left field here but doesn't the regulation only state 3 point minimum. I don't remember it saying anything about the sex of the animal. There have been cases of does with antlers. Please tell me the page number in the regulations that says this. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.