Whitetail Deer Meat Yields

[Dave0317]

My local processor says to expect anywhere from 15-35 percent of the deers weight back.

A smaller doe has less muscle mass and so not only less weight total, but also less percentage of the deer’s body is actual muscle/meat. A large heavy buck is closer to 35 percent because not only are they bigger, but a larger percentage of their bodyweight is made up of muscle mass.

They say 25-28 percent is the average they expect.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

Interesting. I only hunt mule deer. I didn't realize WTD were that much smaller. Most of our decent bucks yield low 70-73 lbs. We process our own meat. That is w/o making sausage, ect.

 

[elsb0048]

Interesting. I only hunt mule deer. I didn't realize WTD were that much smaller. Most of our decent bucks yield low 70-73 lbs. We process our own meat. That is w/o making sausage, ect.

FWIW my whitetails and mulies are not all that different in size: maybe 10% different.
I suspect this is a geographic thing since whitetails and mulies live near each other where I'm at and I bet northern whitetails are bigger than southern ones.

My biggest mulie to date netted 88# and my biggest whitetail netted 86#.

There's likely a slight delta to method there as the mulie was skinned in the woods and hung for a week or so before butchering while the whitetail was skinned on a gambrel and butchered same day as skinned. Typically yields a little more that way since you're not trimming off dried exterior crust or inadvertently leaving anything on the carcass.

 

[liv3mind]

West TN deer I have harvested here are typically in the 35-45# yield, generally more on the lower side of that range. I process myself and tend to get a little more than those here that use the local processor.

 

[liv3mind]

We average around 35# of processed meat per deer. I trim very heavily (our Newfoundland gets the scraps) and I cut my grind 50/50 with pork butt. It helps it stretch, adds fat, and doesn't really alter the taste much. A pork butt mix should get you between 10% and 15% fat content when mixing it in half and half. If I'm doing sausage, I'll grab a couple packs of pork belly and add that in as well for some additional fat to get up more on that 30% mark.

Used to, you could find pork butts for $1/lb and throw them in the freezer for deer season. Not so much anymore and they're getting hard to find under $2/lb. Been doing it this way for about 8yrs now and the entire family has no complaints.

This is very similar to what we do, typically we do roughly 25% pork butt, always shop them on sale and throw them in the freezer just for deer grind.

 

[MarkOrtiz]

We average 25-40 lbs of boneless meat in the freezer for Texas whitetail does.