

You can expect that the yield of boneless lean meat you will get back will be around 59% of the weight of a skinned-out mule deer buck and 56% of the weight of a skinned-out mule deer doe.

Removing the head and hide drops around 18 lbs from the field-dressed weight of a buck and around 14 lbs off a doe. Bucks yielded, on average, 55 lbs of boneless meat and does yielded 44 lbs. When the University of Wyoming looked at mule deer, they found that the average field-dressed weight of a buck was 114 lbs and a doe was 93 lbs. Since many hunters take their elk to a butcher already skinned with the head removed, you can expect to get back around 60% of the weight of your skinned-out headless elk as boneless lean meat. Researchers were purposely trimming off the game fat, and the meat was also aged for 14 days before all the final weighing was done. Lean meat is defined as meat with less than 1.4 % fat. Researchers reported that bull elk yielded an average of 218 lbs of boneless lean meat and cows yielded an average of 169 lbs of boneless lean meat. Skinning and removing the head drops about 73 lbs off the average field-dressed weight of a bull elk and about 45 lbs off a cow elk. A field-dressed carcass is an animal that has been gutted with the lower legs and windpipe removed but still has the head and hide on it. In the study conducted on Rocky Mountain Elk, bulls had an average field-dressed weight of 437 lbs and cows had an average of 339 lbs. Researchers were determined to measure how much boneless meat a typical animal should give you. In 2003, a couple of studies were done at the University of Wyoming to answer this very question. But after all your hard work, have you ever been shocked when your butcher hands over a small box of meat when you come to pick up your deer order? Are you thinking you got ripped off? Deer, elk and moose are big animals, but how much meat should you expect get back from your harvest? Game animals are big, and it is hard work processing and packing them out of the mountains. Hunting season is well underway across Canada, and hunters are busy filling their freezers with healthy wild game meat.
