Whitetail Deer Meat Yields

[Todd10]

Here’s my yield from 3 whitetail (dressed weight) this fall.
140 pounds-very little shot damage-74 pounds of boneless meat.
130 pounds-shot through both shoulders-53 pounds of boneless meat.
105 pounds- shot through one shoulder-44 pounds of boneless meat.
The heart and tenderloins are not included in the meat yield as we eat them before processing. I do leave the thin silver skin and have never had any game taste in my ground venison. All of the heavy tendons, large pieces of fat and thick silver skin are discarded.

 

[Macintosh]

I just picked up the meat from the last two deer my family got this year (we processed the first ones ourselves, but ran out of time). One was a very nice mature buck, the other was slightly younger. While dragging and loading them, I estimated them at 180 and 160. It looks like we got 60 pounds from one and 52 pounds from the other. Which lines up pretty well with how hard they were to load onto the truck.

180 and 160–is that an estimate of dressed or live weight?

 

[Q_Sertorius]

180 and 160–is that an estimate of dressed or live weight?

It’s my SWAG of how much they weighed live. I loaded the heavier one onto the truck before field dressing it (he came out while we were driving down from picking up the other one).

I sort of miss the old days when we had to take them into the check station and get them weighed in. But the convenience of checking them in electronically is amazing.

 

[Macintosh]

@Q_Sertorius that checks at roughly 1/3 of live weight and 40% of dressed weight then.
Based on live weight/dressed weight from the chart I posted earlier:
160lb live=130lb dressed. 52lb of meat is 33% of live, 40% of dressed.
180lb live=142lb dressed. 60lb of meat is 33% of live, 42% of dressed.

 

[RifleDisciple]

In Texas I'm getting about 30-35% of live weight. I do not trim out the ribs. Gutless method every time.

Last doe was about 18lb ground + round steaks, backstrap, loins, and shanks.

Bucks down here 150-170lb on the hoof so far and yield around 45-55lbs of meat doing the gutless method. If I grind the neck I get much more grind. Lots of meat on those necks. I generally cut them in 3 pieces for neck roasts.

I have been weighing most of what we package last year and this year, but not documenting, just mental notes. Now that I'm typing this, I didn't weigh the last neck roasts, which add a lot of weight. So maybe closer to 35% seems to be about where I land down here.