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How much meat to expect from a deer?

WhitetailWarrior

New Member
For all of you guys that cut up your own deer or have any knowledge of this I am just a little curious on what to expect the trim weight to be.... So if you were to cut up a doe that weighed 147# after being feild dressed what do you think the trim weight on the meat would be, how much meat would you be able to put in the freezer in pounds..? I am aware of what it is on cattle compared to live weight as we feed out a bunch of cattle every year...But not really sure what it would be on an old corn fed doe??

Any experience or guesses????
 
You got some big does!
I will take a WILD guess on 147 lbs doe- maybe 55 pounds???? OK, I have no clue! :) Look forward to the answer as well.
 
Between the hams, loins, and shoulders you should be able to put up 40 to 50 pounds.

If you work on the neck, ribs, and really bone things out to the gnat's behind you could get 50 to 60.
 
I used to weigh what I boned out back in N. Mich. Where the deer were thin and not crop fed. A decent Doe 35 to 40 lbs. Thirtyfive most like it and yearling bucks,,which is what you got for bucks and lucky to see them at that,,40 lbs, so I have not weighed deer out here,, but corn fed as they are,,I know they are alot heavier to haul around and the meat lasts longer. guess I'll have to start weighing one,,oh shoot,,I don't have my scale anymore.
 
I have never really weighed any of my trimmings. But I kinda always figured I got right around 50lbs per adult deer, unless it was a 200lb+
 
Between the hams, loins, and shoulders you should be able to put up 40 to 50 pounds.

If you work on the neck, ribs, and really bone things out to the gnat's behind you could get 50 to 60.

Andy, I agree with Bukket. If you clean the carcass pretty well you should get close to 60 pounds off a 147 pound deer. I have read several articles that have said you get roughly 40% boneless meat weight from the field dressed weight of a whitetail. I have cut up hundreds of deer myself and have to say that is a pretty good estimate. You didn't shoot any does this year did ya??
 
I trimmed 108lbs from my buck this year & he was shredded from rutting, I didn't weigh him after field dressing but now wish I would've.
 
I don't weigh my deer before dressing, however I do weigh all meat after I butcher them. weights do not include heart, altho I do save every heart. I trim every little peice of everything, neck, ribs, etc.

Bambi Doe or Button buck 25 to 30lbs
2nd to 3rd year old Doe 35-45lbs
Big doe 45-55lbs
My 10 point Buck 62lbs
 
Long reply

I am only asking because I am pretty sure that I got worked over pretty bad by the Tipton Locker on how much meat I got back. So here is a little venting!

I am avid about an aggressive doe harvest on my farms because they are in definate need of it. This year we shot 89 does off of 1400 acres. So I try to weigh all of my does but only get about 75-80% weighed, sometimes I just don't feel like weighing the fawns. So I took 2 does into the Tipton Locker this fall, one weighed 135# and the other weighed 147# feild dressed weight.

I pickup my meat yesterday and get it home and what do you know there isn't that much there. So I go through my whole checklist of things I ordered. I had the whole backstraps and sirloin tip steaks out of each deer and that was it for cuts. Otherwise 52# on one deer and 60# on the other was made into sausage and all that good stuff. But this actually comes out to a weight of 34# and 40# of deer meat since they mix pork in with all of that. Either a third or half but I gave them the benefit of a doubt and figured it all as a third. I was also missing a package of brats and a roll of summer sausage.

So I go back in to the locker and ask if I may be missing a box because I am missing a couple of items and didn't have any ground meat. The owner pulls out my trim sheet and tells me that I didn't get any ground meat because they ran out of meat. He said that my one deer trimmed out at 26# of meat and the other trimmed out at 32# of meat! I told him that that I brought in a couple of big does and they should have trimmed out at more than that. He told me that I must be mistaken because that isn't very much meat. He said that I must have brought in a couple of little ones. Now that really #@$%#$ me off because I know exactly what I took in there. I have been doing business there for many years and he is going to play that card! I told him that I know how big the deer were that I brought in and he said that I was wrong. He then asked what he had to gain from "stealing" my ground meat.... Well its pretty basic math.... According to what my trim sheet said I didn't have enough meat to make all the sausage and brats that I made but it stilled showed up didn't it? Why not take someones ground meat and use it for someone elses sausage and everything so they can make more money.... That is where I believe all of my ground meat went. Only other explaination is that they accidentally switched my deer with someone elses with the tagging system they use.

On a side note.... Aside from last year I have never had a problem with the Tipton Locker. Last year we had a major probelm with finding bones in our summer sausage...Usually when you least expected it! So I have never complained about them in reguards to their service. But this will be my last year using them. In the service industry you just can't talk the way he did to your customers. Just as a matter of principal I would rather drive my deer 100 miles away than take another to him. I took him over 60 deer to be processed last year and that is the way that he treats me? I don't think so bud.

Just had to vent a little... Thanks for listening...If you made it through the whole thing..lol.
 
I totally hear ya man!!! There is a local locker around here and they charge a lot and it doesn't seem like you get all your meat back. We started to take our deer to a locker around 100 miles away and their cheaper and it feels like you get all your meat back.

We started making our own summer sausage jerky and breakfast sausage. We get the packages of season from Bass Pro and it turns out better then what we get from the market. I have a jerky gun and it works awesome people like the taste and it is quite a bit cheaper. However if you have around 50 to 100 deer to process it makes more sense to take it to the market.

Good Luck!!
 
Wow you brought him over 60 deer to process and he plays that ****. That makes me mad just reading it. He must be pretty stupid. :mad:
 
yearling doe this year, no rib meat some neck meat 21 llbs. i carried this deer out over my shoulder so the youngin didnt have to drag it.
 
I had a similar experience with the same locker. I took in a huge doe, and I mean huge. We did not weigh her field dressed, but she had to be 150 plus. I got 50 pounds ground meat and the whole loins. I thought now way. I cut up a button buck I shot during bow season and got 22 lbs of meat that I gound myself. I called them on it and they swear it is one deer processed at a time and I got what I brought. I say BS. I took a smaller doe to them during archery that I got 40 pounds of ground and whole loins back. Now all I ma doing is waiting for the meat we trimmed out ourselves and took to edgewood to get done. If their stuff is as good as I hear, they will get my bussiness from now on. I too used to spend allot of Doe with Tipton. Not any more.
 
As a rule of thumb, about a 1/3 is what you would get. The bones and hide a 1/3, guts 1/3 and meat 1/3.. Not for all I understand, but this is a magical number from what I have found out. Approx 45-50 lbs i would feel good about telling you.
 
The beauty of meat lockers. bend you over most of the time. I do all my own because I worked in a meat locker in high school and saw what was brought in. gut shot deer that weren't cleaned out etc. all thrown in a batch of meat for brats etc.. they said you get your own meat that was BS. Not a fan on meat lockers although there are some good honest ones out there.
 
I process my own, however my buddy and I took my last yearling doe up to the Edgewood locker to get some sticks and salami made (my buddy grew up in Edgewood). Compared to the other lockers Ive been to, it was the best hands down. We boned out the deer first and just took up two pans of meat. (weight 29lbs total) I kept the backstraps for steak. So I got 30lbs out of that yearling doe. Pretty standard for that size.

I don't like the idea of not getting my own meat back, specially when I bring in a tender doe, but thats probably going to happen at any locker. I am very particular about keeping hair out of my meat and making sure its fresh. You never know what shape other guys meat is in.

If you've got some hunting ground and you need does removed, id be willing to trade my time helping you bone out your deer for the opportunity to hunt some does!
 
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