How much meat

[highplainsdrifter]

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.

We consider elk meat to be among the best you can get. We butcher it ourselves to make sure there is no waste. I have shot and butchered 21 elk (plus another five that my wife has killed), so I am speaking from experience here. Keep in mind this is completely boneless meat.

 

[Hilltop]

We consider elk meat to be among the best you can get. We butcher it ourselves to make sure there is no waste. I have shot and butchered 21 elk (plus another five that my wife has killed), so I am speaking from experience here. Keep in mind this is completely boneless meat.

Possibly just smaller animals? Again I meant no offense your numbers are just well below the norm for elk.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Possibly just smaller animals? Again I meant no offense your numbers are just well below the norm for elk.

I wish I could say that my archery skills are so good that I deliberately seek out smaller animals to shoot just to increase the challenge, but that is not the case. With some of the animals I listed, there may have been a small amount of shot damage but that would amount to less than five pounds at most and in most cases no shot loss at all (chest shot). As hard as it is to get these animals, we are very careful not to waste meat. That is why we butcher ourselves. We have seen butchers throw away meat rather than trim it. We admittedly do not trim meat from the head, nor do we eat the heart or liver.

 

[shootbrownelk]

That's more like an Antelope!

Antelope are more like 20-25#. Bucks that is.

 

[woodtick]

I've got to say are we talking meat that's is boned out or meat that is completely processed??? Most cow elk I've killed ranged from 115-175# of boned out meat, once processed you can divide those numbers in half after discarding all the blood shot, damaged, dirty, hairy meat or that has been hung and dried. Sound like we're all talking one or the other.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

The weights I provided are completely boned, in the package, and ready to put in the freezer. Also, I do not add any beef or suet to my burger. Perhaps some who cited higher weights have asked the butcher to add suet or beef to the burger and/or the meat is not completely boneless.

 

[go_deep]

The weights I provided are completely boned, in the package, and ready to put in the freezer. Also, I do not add any beef or suet to my burger. Perhaps some who cited higher weights have asked the butcher to add suet or beef to the burger and/or the meat is not completely boneless.

Me to completely trimmed out no fillers ready to package/eat.

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

 

[CoHiCntry]

Antelope are more like 20-25#. Bucks that is.

I've never shot one with that little of meat on it.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I've never shot one with that little of meat on it.

Sorry, I mistyped. should read does that is.

 

[WapitiBob]

Sorry, I mistyped. should read does that is.

That's what I get but I hit 'em with an STW.

 

[MWScott72]

I add 10% beef fat to my burger. Had 55 lbs. of ground burger, so added 5.5 pounds of suet. That would knock my earlier estimate down by that amount.

 

[Joseph]

The first cow elk I shot yielded 176lbs of boned out meat plus trimmings for sausage. The second was slightly smaller giving us 160lbs of boned out meat plus trimmings. This was butchered by myself at home, the elk were both close enough to a trail that I could pull them on a sled down to the truck. Half at a time and tipped into the box, so the carcasses made it home and all available meat was removed. We even roasted all bones with meat left on them and made soup/broth.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Great topic. I've read online 40% of live weight = packaged meat in freezer. I think this % is too high. I process my own meat. We save every last scrap only tossing tendon, excess fat, and sinew. Our last mature Mule Deer yielded 60 lbs in the freezer. 4 year old +/- one year in my estimate. I don't have any live weight data for this animal.

 

[Bitterroot Bulls]

I love it when these threads come up. It is a fun thing to talk about.

I add 10% suet to my burger. My elk yield in double-wrapped packaging (and including the suet in burger), typically runs between 150 and 200 pounds for a bull elk. This year's bull yeilded 158 pounds of cut/ground, but I had some jerky, and processed sausuage so a bit more went to that.

Years ago, I shot a big-bodied older bull in Western MT. It was a real chore for me and my hunting partner to get it boned out. That bull filled the freezer at home with just over 330 pounds of cut/ground meat. I don't know if I will ever see one like that again.

I think it can vary a lot.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

I love it when these threads come up. It is a fun thing to talk about.

I add 10% suet to my burger. My elk yield in double-wrapped packaging (and including the suet in burger), typically runs between 150 and 200 pounds for a bull elk. This year's bull yeilded 158 pounds of cut/ground, but I had some jerky, and processed sausuage so a bit more went to that.

Years ago, I shot a big-bodied older bull in Western MT. It was a real chore for me and my hunting partner to get it boned out. That bull filled the freezer at home with just over 330 pounds of cut/ground meat. I don't know if I will ever see one like that again.

I think it can vary a lot.

330 lbs of meat. I need a chore like that! How was the meat on that older bull?

 

[Bitterroot Bulls]

330 lbs of meat. I need a chore like that! How was the meat on that older bull?

It was delicious. Very tender steaks. That bull was in EHJ like 8 years ago or so.

 

[car]

Like others had said, I usually get 60-70 lbs out of my whitetail here in Ohio.

 

[tttoadman]

We boned out an eastern OR 6x6 and had 160 in the packs. I am not a head hunter, but I have learned to avoid the yearling bulls. A 2 1/2 year old is a pretty good haul.

I boned out an old Eastern OR muley and was well over 100# in pack.

I got a boned out 4x4 muley from Frank Church at about 90# in pack.

Great point by someone to distinguish between yield and meat in pack.