meat to deer weight question

[scoutdog346]

90lbs of cut the way u said is a big.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

Im just curious as to why weigh them?  Ive never weighed my deer or elk.  Never really mattered to me.  Just curious??

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[Karl Blanchard]

Im just curious as to why weigh them?  Ive never weighed my deer or elk.  Never really mattered to me.  Just curious??

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  I'm the same way.  Only reason I weighted the meat from that deer I posted was because he was much larger than most deer body wise and I was very curious.

[nwwanderer]

We have weighed quite a few, good way to gauge condition of the critters and understand what is going on with the seasons and habitats.  % weight loss during rut, weight for age, etc. all are useful.  As far as meat yield, way to many variables for any accuracy.  243 through the ribs or a 338 through a shoulder?  Rib fragment through a rumen or ear holed?  Rutted out old boy or a pre-rut fatty?

[DOUBLELUNG]

So my brother shot a blacktail and we had to bone it out to get it home.He took it to the butcher and he weighed it and there was 90 pounds of meat and that was after trimming on site and cutting out the blood damaged shoulder.
My question is: If you have that much meat what is the approximate deer weight?Or has anyone ever kept track of that when boning one out at home?

This brings up a question about bears also but i'll start a different page for that.

Based on the best data I know, average meat yield from a Wyoming mule deer is a hair over 1/3 whole weight (whole weight is the difference between live weight, and weight lost from gunshot, which varies from negligible (bleeds out internally, small caliber spine/brain shot that doesn't sever a major vessel) to more than 10 pounds for total bleed out, multiple shots and/or large expanding bullets that can eject pounds of bone/muscle/gut).  The actual figure for mule deer, without rounding, is 33.8% of whole weight, so 3x meat yield, excluding heart, liver and/or other organs, is VERY close to the average live weight. 

90 pounds of finished meat (excluding organs) would be the average yield from a 270 pound buck. However, you will get back less than what is dropped off as boneless meat at the butcher, so a better estimate is to multiply the weight of what he gets back from the butcher x 3.  My own experience with deer is that finished meat is about 80-85% of boned out pack weight, suggesting his buck is around 216-230 pounds "as he lays".  Either way, a big buck!  Average whole weights, approximately, range from 50-70 lbs for a fawn, 90-140 for yearling bucks and does, and 150-175 for 2+ and older bucks.       

Other conversions that may be of interest:

Whole weight = 1.42 x Field-dressed weight (gutted, lower legs off)
Whole weight = 1.69 x Carcass weight (head and hide removed from field-dressed)
Boneless lean muscle = 0.48 x Field-dressed weight, 0.57 x carcass weight

These data are from hunter-harvested Wyoming mule deer, and include boneless lean from the ribs and flank which many hunters don't take, or are lost by hanging/drying or skinning errors.  If you don't have those, the boneless lean conversions are 0.44 x field-dressed weight, 0.52 x carcass weight. The conversions are consistent for both does and pre-rut bucks.  I don't have conversions for rutting bucks, which can range from higher yields at the start of the rut, to lower yields post-rut - especially dominant bucks.

Conversions for whitetails from PA and WI are:

Whole weight = 1.28 x Field-dressed weight (gutted, lower legs on)
Whole weight = 1.71 x Carcass weight (head, hide lower legs removed from field-dressed, minimal gunshot loss)
Boneless = 0.7 x carcass weight (all soft tissue removed from carcass, minimal gunshot loss, includes muscle, fascia, tendons, ligaments, fat and lymph nodes)
Boneless lean = .67 x boneless, 0.47 x carcass weight, 0.37 x whole weight 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Im just curious as to why weigh them?  Ive never weighed my deer or elk.  Never really mattered to me.  Just curious??

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Other than simple curiosity, the data are useful for game departments when refereeing disputes between hunters who don't believe they got back their whole animal, and meat processors.  They are also used to prosecute dishonest processors.

[Karl Blanchard]

So my brother shot a blacktail and we had to bone it out to get it home.He took it to the butcher and he weighed it and there was 90 pounds of meat and that was after trimming on site and cutting out the blood damaged shoulder.
My question is: If you have that much meat what is the approximate deer weight?Or has anyone ever kept track of that when boning one out at home?

This brings up a question about bears also but i'll start a different page for that.

Based on the best data I know, average meat yield from a Wyoming mule deer is a hair over 1/3 whole weight (whole weight is the difference between live weight, and weight lost from gunshot, which varies from negligible (bleeds out internally, small caliber spine/brain shot that doesn't sever a major vessel) to more than 10 pounds for total bleed out, multiple shots and/or large expanding bullets that can eject pounds of bone/muscle/gut).  The actual figure for mule deer, without rounding, is 33.8% of whole weight, so 3x meat yield, excluding heart, liver and/or other organs, is VERY close to the average live weight. 

90 pounds of finished meat (excluding organs) would be the average yield from a 270 pound buck. However, you will get back less than what is dropped off as boneless meat at the butcher, so a better estimate is to multiply the weight of what he gets back from the butcher x 3.  My own experience with deer is that finished meat is about 80-85% of boned out pack weight, suggesting his buck is around 216-230 pounds "as he lays".  Either way, a big buck!  Average whole weights, approximately, range from 50-70 lbs for a fawn, 90-140 for yearling bucks and does, and 150-175 for 2+ and older.       

Other conversions that may be of interest:

Whole weight = 1.42 x Field-dressed weight (gutted, lower legs off)
Whole weight = 1.69 x Carcass weight (head and hide removed from field-dressed)
Boneless lean muscle = 0.48 x Field-dressed weight, 0.57 x carcass weight

These data are from hunter-harvested Wyoming mule deer, and include boneless lean from the ribs and flank which many hunters don't take, or are lost by hanging/drying or skinning errors.  If you don't have those, the boneless lean conversions are 0.44 x field-dressed weight, 0.52 x carcass weight. The conversions are consistent for both does and pre-rut bucks.  I don't have conversions for rutting bucks, which can range from higher yields at the start of the rut, to lower yields post-rut - especially dominant bucks.

Conversions for whitetails from PA and WI are:

Whole weight = 1.28 x Field-dressed weight (gutted, lower legs on)
Whole weight = 1.71 x Carcass weight (head, hide lower legs removed from field-dressed, minimal gunshot loss)
Boneless = 0.7 x carcass weight (all soft tissue removed from carcass, minimal gunshot loss, includes muscle, fascia, tendons, ligaments, fat and lymph nodes)
Boneless lean = .67 x boneless, 0.47 x carcass weight, 0.37 x whole weight 

  What are you, a biologist or something



 

[Skyvalhunter]

Or a mathematician!! 

[DOUBLELUNG]

 What are you, a biologist or something



 
[/quote]
I just play one on TV

Skyvalhunter, I confess I do like to geek out on numbers.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Wardens also use it ... for example, in Idaho and Wyoming (probably elsewhere too), If you have a set of 6-point elk antlers and the boned out meat, and the meat load looks suspiciously small, they will weigh it and expect around 260 pounds of boned out meat.  There is some leeway, but if you have a legitimate reason for substantially less, you are well advised to take photos showing that he was missing a hind leg, had a gangrened shoulder from an older wound, dwarfism, you Texas heart shot him with a .416 Rigby and it exited through a front shoulder ...

[Skyvalhunter]

Or you and your buddies got really hungry and decided to pig out. Or the possibility of a grizz packing away part

[DOUBLELUNG]

Or you and your buddies got really hungry and decided to pig out. Or the possibility of a grizz packing away part

More legit reasons to document!

[DOUBLELUNG]

Another bit of trivia: I hunt with a 2200 ci pack, 2200 ci will hold 84 pounds of boned out meat.  That means almost any deer I kill I can bone out and fit in my pack, making one return trip out (that used to be relevant, before my health declined).

[Karl Blanchard]

Another bit of trivia: I hunt with a 2200 ci pack, 2200 ci will hold 84 pounds of boned out meat.  That means almost any deer I kill I can bone out and fit in my pack, making one return trip out (that used to be relevant, before my health declined).

Well good lord!!!!!  I've had my 7200 stuffed pretty tight with elk meat a few times.  Wonder what those devils weighted out at

[DOUBLELUNG]

Another bit of trivia: I hunt with a 2200 ci pack, 2200 ci will hold 84 pounds of boned out meat.  That means almost any deer I kill I can bone out and fit in my pack, making one return trip out (that used to be relevant, before my health declined).

Well good lord!!!!!  I've had my 7200 stuffed pretty tight with elk meat a few times.  Wonder what those devils weighted out at

I packed a boned out cow off a steep ridge, left the pack where my buddies could drive to it (I had a meeting I could not cancel).  They weighed the pack at 136lbs , I weighed the pack later at 7 (Kelty Tioga).  If thats not the heaviest I ever did I am even dumber than I thought.