Can someone help me convert from the yield weight of a butchered whitetail buck back to it's live or dressed weight?

I have a table from the PA Game Commission [copyrighted 1968]giving live ,hog dressed ,field dressed lean meat etc. I could give specific weight or email table if it could be posted.

Then convert 91 lbs to live or dressed please.

I can post some things so email or PM if you can with it.

Someone told me it should be 25-30 % of live weight. I think that is about right.

If it's 30% for instance the the 91 lb yield would have been a 303 lbs live weight whitetail! The farmer and I could not lift it 6" into the front loader bucket and both of us are pretty strong but 300 lbs! I don't think so.

what about gutted skined with no head or legs?

say like 170 pounds or so?

the way I always figured it & it was pretty close, meat yeild is 30% of dressed deer weight. So if you have 50 pounds of boned meat the dressed weight is around 150 pounds. Then add 25% more for guts. Live weight: 188 pounds. This is real close, I've checked it out on deer, it's close.

Dressed weight: 273 pounds

Live weight: 341 pounds

A full city-dressed carcass of most quadrupeds is generally about 45% of live weight. No hide, head, feet or organ meats included.



That would make a 91lb carcass with skeleton 202lbs live. On the other hand, 91lbs of meat only would have been from a very large animal.

Borrowed this from another forum.

Danny Boy

Savage 99, that's the one .I tried to email that to you but seems your email address is incorrect - it bounced.

Dannyboy,

There is no way that half of the dressed weight is lean meat! no way. i'm not a butcher, but I do my own cutting. 1/3 is boned lean meat! That scale is very far off reality! I've weighted deer not gutted, gutted, and then a pile of meat, 1/3 thats it!

That chart does not have a catagory for how the deer was buchered. It was cut up on buchering saws into steaks, chops, stew meat and hamburger. Thus about all the "bones" are in the 91 lbs except of course for the legs and spine from the neck.

Somehow I thought that the way it's cut up is pretty much standard but maybe it's not?

This deer was not the biggest or anything it's just the way the day went nobody wanted to weigh it and now I am interested that's all.

Here is a picture of it as it fell.

Great buck! What a neck on it! I hope your mounting it! make sure you get that huge neck!

great going Savage99! Congrats to you and your buck!

I think that deer must have been in the Olympics, he looks like he was on steroids.

Please tell me you saved his cape. It's huge.

You lose about half when you gut and take off legs at knees and skin. Then if you remove bone about half again. Those that have butchered with bone stil in ofcourse have more weight,and accuse you of wasting meat.

I asked the butcher and he says you loose 60% from live weight to the way that they cut it up. I refigured it at 88lbs of meat taking off the packaging. Thus it was a 220lb deer live weight. I am going with than number pending new information.

Thanks to all for the interest. The head etc. is going to the taxidermist tonight.

I agree with widowmaker.

I process my own deer and antelope, I field dress the elk and take it to the processor. 1/3 of weight is taken off to get to hanging weight (guts, head, lower legs, hide), 1/3 of weight is boneless meat/scraps, 1/3 of weight is bones and throw away.

Deke.

Moose converted to cleaned meat vithout bones etc...

This is from statistics...

On moose the meat weights 52% of liveweight...

520kg meat is 1000kg walking.

Elias

Elias--that 52% would undoubtedly be butchered with the bone in the meat--remove that bone and you'll be closer to 25%.