- Aug 14, 2013
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What is a reasonable amount of meat to get from a mature bull elk? I killed my first elk this past fall and got about 130 lbs from it including a little added fat. Does this seem reasonable?
How much meat
- Thread starter MT dreaming
- Start date
That seems light, but I guess I'd ask what you mean by mature? Looked big, was big, rag horn, branch bull, was it aged by hanging, was it shot up? Do you recall the hanging weight? It is tough to say, but mature to me would be a branch antlered bull or there a bouts I guess. I've harvested several cows, shot in the lungs type harvest, that yielded more boned out meat than what your bull did, not saying he was not mature. But these cows were what I'd call full grown.
Try this info:
http://www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf
Would have made your bull just under 450lbs. on the hoof.
Try this info:
http://www.wyomingextension.org/agpubs/pubs/B594R.pdf
Would have made your bull just under 450lbs. on the hoof.
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25contender
Veteran member
- Mar 20, 2013
- 1,638
- 90
We brought boned out meat from a Bull and a cow back this year. We weighed it at the meat locker and the total for both was 388lbs. That was before We processed it ourselves. I will tell you we stripped them both down to the bone.
This was the meat off the Bull laid out then sprayed with citric acid for cooling before we packed him out. It took two trips for two of us to pack him out boned. Then one gear trip. The cow we heavy packed her out in one trip, it was straight down the mountain.
This was the meat off the Bull laid out then sprayed with citric acid for cooling before we packed him out. It took two trips for two of us to pack him out boned. Then one gear trip. The cow we heavy packed her out in one trip, it was straight down the mountain.
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Iron Mike
Active Member
WapitiBob
Veteran member
Somewhere in the 125-175 range would be normal. I did get 330# off a nm bull a few years ago. Filled two 120qt coolers to the brim with nothing but separated muscles and some trim.
woodtick
Veteran member
CrossCreeks
Veteran member
It does not seem too far off to me , if it was a large branched bull it would seem a little light.
Hilltop
Veteran member
My wife's cow elk this year was right at 140 pounds and we lost a little from one shoulder... was a good sized cow. My bull was well over 200 pounds but he was a big, old bull.
highplainsdrifter
Very Active Member
I have gotten the following amounts of boneless meat in the past:
5 pt. bull: 128 pounds
spike: 83 pounds
cow: 85 pounds
cow: 82 pounds
cow: 74 pounds
We do our own butchering.
5 pt. bull: 128 pounds
spike: 83 pounds
cow: 85 pounds
cow: 82 pounds
cow: 74 pounds
We do our own butchering.
Hilltop
Veteran member
This is a very low average? I average 65-70 pounds from my whitetail here in Nebraska... No offense intended but you may want to review your boning methods as I think you're missing some good meat.
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CoHiCntry
Veteran member
I tend to agree. Seems like most cows we get are over 100# of meat. 100-150 would be typical depending. Seems like muley's usually are in that 75 to 100# range.
I found a study done by the UW extension office where they on two seperate occasions they took whole elk and butchered them and recorded weights through the entire process the first the used 12 elk 6 cows 6 bulls 1.5 years to 9.5 years. The second was 56 elk no set age majority bulls. This is done in a butcher shop where they were able to get every edible piece of meat without blood shot meat lose and they came up with a ratio of edible meat from live weight you will get 29.225% so 1,000# live weight 292.25# of edible meat if you get ever edible scrap.
Average bull weighted in at 544# yielding 159# if edible meat. This study was done in a controlled environment, not on a mountain side where conditions can vary.
Average bull weighted in at 544# yielding 159# if edible meat. This study was done in a controlled environment, not on a mountain side where conditions can vary.
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shootbrownelk
Veteran member
What GO_DEEP said is about right IMO. I didn't weigh the meat from the 5x5 I got this year, but it was a heck of a lot more than the cow. And the cow was an adult and pretty good sized. A lot of guys who come out here to hunt (friends from the east) think they'll get hundreds of pounds of meat off a bull...ain't so.
Elkoholic307
Banned
JEandAsGuide
Active Member
My muley buck from this year was 56#s without either backstrap or 1 roast off a hind quarter(I processed these pieces myself and the 56# went to the processor for ground meat and summer sausage). I figure everything together should have been 70+.
ore hunter
Very Active Member
- Jul 25, 2014
- 699
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I got a 4 by 3 raghorn in november,,,I had 277# hanging weight minus hide and head, and 192 lbs final deboned and packaged meat,,,so you can compare.
I just found a ticket from the meat processor on the big cow I referred to earlier, 331 hanging weight yielded a little over 160lbs. Odds are the variety of results, leaving out damaged meat, is because Elk come in all sizes. There is an interesting table in the article I referred to in my earlier post, page 4. For example, in their sample of 4,185 animals, of the cows checked, nearly 1/4 were aged 3.5 - 4.5 years old and estimated to yield 164 lbs. of boned out meat, with a suggested variance of 20 lbs. Hi and Lo. Nearly 75% of the bulls were between 1.5 and 4.5 years of age, composite avg. boneless yield was 166lbs. Right there with the numbers shared by Go_Deep. Bulls in this study take a big weight jump at age 5.5 and older with average boneless yields of 252 up to 270 for the real old boys. Kind of begins to help make sense, to me anyway, out of all the various numbers when you take age into account.
CoHiCntry
Veteran member
MWScott72
Active Member
I got somewhere between 150-160 pounds off the 6x6 I shot this fall. Haven't received the tooth aging data back yet, but I am assuming the bull was between 5-6 years old - definitely not older than 6. I bet I lost about 60 pounds, give or take, to trimming, grissle, sinew, bloodshot meat, etc., so boned off meat before processing was in the 220 or 230 range. I think that 29% number given is pretty accurate - it's amazing to me how such a big animal processes down, but most of us don't eat the head, horns, hide, and guts, and there is alot of that stuff!