Average edible meat percentage?

[DenimChicken]

So what's the average percentage of meat harvested for overall weight? Google says around 33%, but that sounds a little low. I assume most people don't weight whole bears prior to field dressing and butchering (myself included). Trying see if a little backwards math can estimate total weight of a bear a little more scientifically than guessing.

 

[Wrench]

Here's the last bear I recorded.

24 lbs carcass
6 fat
34 bones and trim
43 carcass meat
30 hinds
31 fronts
74 hide

 

[DenimChicken]

Thanks for the detail.

Bone in or out hinds and fronts? What was your estimate on total weight?

What bones are you including in bones and trim if you have carcass in separate category?

 

[Jon Boy]

Here's the last bear I recorded.

24 lbs carcass
6 fat
34 bones and trim
43 carcass meat
30 hinds
31 fronts
74 hide

That was a big ass bear

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[DenimChicken]

That was a big ass bear

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That's what got me asking more questions. Sure seems like a brute based off of those numbers. My most recent bear had 70lbs of meat with the quarters bone in.

 

[Jon Boy]

That's what got me asking more questions. Sure seems like a brute based off of those numbers. My most recent bear had 70lbs of meat with the quarters bone in.

Most of my springers have been 175 lbs max!

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[WiscoHoundsman]

33% seems low. But may depend on the bears condition. An example is my last bear compared to my dads. Same year and within 2 miles of each other (Wisconsin fall bears and 6yr female vs 2 yr old male) both weighed 240 gutted. The sow had 3 inches of fat on her back and the boar had none. I k ow that fat added up to quite a bit of weight so we likely got more meat off his boar. But the boar had a bigger frame. We got about 2 coolers of boned out meat each. With a little ice.

 

[Marbles]

Well, on my bear I just left the guts in the field. It was something like 50 pounds for the skull and hide, about 145 pounds for the meat on bone. Got about 110 pounds back from the processor. My guess is the bear weighed 220-250 pounds on the paw.

 

[Wrench]

That was a big ass bear

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