Deer processing questions

[will5a1]

For those of you doing your own processing, how many pounds of meat do you usually end up with?

This season I have processed/butchered 3, with help from a buddy, all does, all three weighed between 150-175 before field dressing. We try to get as much of the meat as possible, but end up with 45-55 lbs per doe. Prior to last year I had always taken the deer to a meat locker but both the places I used to deal with raised their prices to $90 per animal, that seemed excessive, so I am doing it myself now (with help from the KY Afield DVD on deer processing).

 

[BrownBear]

Coupla things. Without putting the whole animal on a scale, I'm betting your live weight estimates are high. That would contribute a lot to what seems like low meat recovery.

Also, it's going to depend on whether you left in any bone in your butchering, or you're talking pure red meat in the end.

Weighing the field dressed deer gives you a better clue, whether skinned or not.

Size also matters, with older deer having more red meat than younger. I.e., we get a higher recovery rate from older ones than younger.

We've weighed the field dressed deer on and off, both skin-on and skin/head/forelegs off. Round numbers we get around 50% from field dressed and closer to 70% recovery from a carcass weighed without head/hide/forelegs. But we also include the ribs, tongue, heart, liver and kidneys in our recovered weight.

 

[larry wv]

A mediun size buck is 55-65 lbs here. Probley in the 120-140 pound live weight all meat no bones in the packages. Larry

 

[will5a1]

How long, on avarage, does it take you to process a deer?

It is taking me 4-5 hours, but I spend a lot of time, maybe too much time, trying to get all the silver skin and fat off.

 

[BrownBear]

With me cutting and my wife wrapping, it generally takes less than 2 hours per deer.

But here are some differences that add to our speed:

We don't hack stew meat into small pieces, and we don't grind burger. We just wrap the larger chunks (helps keep oxygen away from the interior) and label it STEW. On thawing for dinner, we hack smaller or grind as we want.

We also don't bother with what you're calling the "silvery" outer skin. And the fat on Sitka blacktails is usually sweet, so it's okay, even sweet to leave a little.

Oh, and "wrapping" for us means vacuum sealing, and our sealer does two bags at once, so it's quick.

 

[Snow on the Roof]

50% of field dressed weight is about right. I tend to be rather picky on my processing, leaving little or no "silver" so the normal time is apx 3-1/2 hours on an average size deer. Three years ago, between my wife, 2 nephews and my brother-in-law, I did seven deer. I was able to get the time down to 2 hours once skinned.

BB how is that Vacum Pack working for you? I have been looking at one inth Cabela's catalog, what model do you use?

 

[BrownBear]

We use ours a whole bunch for fish and game, plus our many visitors use it too. Probably go through 500 bags a year, being conservative. It works so well, I can barely remember how to wrap with paper, we've been using it so long. Meat (and fish) lasts a whole lot longer in the freezer. I have no qualms about 2-year old steaks. Try that with paper, but have something strong to wash out your mouth, if you can even manage to stand the smell of the stuff as it cooks.

We bought ours from a local store for $500, but looking at the details I think it's identical to this one from Cabela's. Only difference is our vacuum chamber has a clear blue cover rather than black. Nice thing about it, you can get replacement parts and even factory repair from the maker. Try that with Food Saver or any of the others in a similar price range!

Last Food Saver we bought was their premium model in the same price range as this one from Cabela's (great price, BTW), and it didn't last a year. The gasket went, and when we got hold of Food Saver they told us to stick it where the sun don't shine and buy another unit. Ain't gonna darken their door ever again.

Our unit came with spare heat strips, but never needed them. The local store sells repair kits of new gaskets and heat strips for less than $50 IIRC. I replaced the gaskets last year, though it was still working if you pressed hard on the lid to start. Now it's like a new machine. Buying a $500 machine every 5+ years versus spending over $300 every year for a Food Saver is my kind of good sense.

 

[George]

I'm also processing my deer myself, but solo, and I learned the basics from that same DVD. I think I'm getting about what Larry said, 55-65 lb. from an average buck. It's hard to know about processing time, but I'm in the same ballpark with you. I remove all the meat from the bones with the deer hanging, then transport it home and finish it. I know it takes me about 2 hours to strip the carcass in the field, then probably 2-3 at home.

I don't know exactly how many pounds of meat I wind up with, but I don't leave much of it in the woods. :haha:

One thing about the weights, if you are having the processors make up sausages, bologna, salami, burgers or any other processed meats like that, they add a fair amount of beef fat to their mix, so your returned weight might be higher.

Spence

 

[Roguedog]

I've been processing my own deer for several years now. In my experience, I get about 30% - 35% of pure, boneless red meat from a carcass. These percentages are based on a deer's live, or dead weight, which is prior to gutting the deer. If I were to base this percentage on a deer that has been evicerated, I'm sure it would be much higher. My general process is to gut the deer. I then can skin and quarter a deer in about 30 minutes. I then typically put the pieces in a cooler and cover with ice. Each day I check the ice levels making sure the meat is covered, and drain off any bloody water as needed. Doing this, I can keep a deer safely in the cooler for a week or more. This allows me to finish processing the deer on my own schedule and when I am ready and have time to do it. The deboning of shoulders and hams takes about 30 minutes. I remove as much of the silver skin as I can and generally remove as much fat as possible, without getting too picky. I then cut out the roasts which I can also cut up later into stew meat if I want. I slice my backstraps into portion sizes. Everything else goes in the grinder. All in all, from cooler to freezer is about an hour or so. Not too bad. I do have a nice commercial grinder which makes the grinding very easy. At least when you do your own, you know what your getting. I once took a deer to the processor that had the tenderloins removed. Upon receiving my meat back, guess what? I had tenderloins in the box. That made me wonder about who's deer I was actually getting back. In addition to saving money, I find the process enjoyable, at least some times.

Jeff

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well you need to figure that a land mammal has between 30% to 40% of total weight in bone, and 16% is skin, and if the internal organs are roughly 20% - 25% (stomach empty vs. stomach full) for internal organs, then you should've gotten (roughly) between 45 lbs - 55 lbs from the deer with a dead weight of 150-175 pounds...., which you did.

:thumbsup:

LD

 

[Little Wattsy]

For those of you doing your own processing, how many pounds of meat do you usually end up with?

This season I have processed/butchered 3, with help from a buddy, all does, all three weighed between 150-175 before field dressing. We try to get as much of the meat as possible, but end up with 45-55 lbs per doe. Prior to last year I had always taken the deer to a meat locker but both the places I used to deal with raised their prices to $90 per animal, that seemed excessive, so I am doing it myself now (with help from the KY Afield DVD on deer processing).

Having butchered them from pigs and cows to elk and deer you should be looking at about 50%. Hide, guts, and bones is 50% and meat is 50%. there is always give otr take but it is easy to leave POUNDS of meat on a carcus if not through. between the ribs, along the spine, around the joints etc.

 

[S.Kenton]

I have butchered LOTS of deer in the past 25 years. Normally I get around 45-50% of the live weight in meat, IF I am careful and really meticulous in the deboning process. Normally it takes me and my wife around 2- 3 hrs after I get the deer skinned. We also vacuum pack all the steaks and jerky meat and scraps. When I get around 25-30lbs of scrap, I then start the sausage making process.

 

[Little Wattsy]

Well you need to figure that a land mammal has between 30% to 40% of total weight in bone, and 16% is skin, and if the internal organs are roughly 20% - 25% (stomach empty vs. stomach full) for internal organs, then you should've gotten (roughly) between 45 lbs - 55 lbs from the deer with a dead weight of 150-175 pounds...., which you did.

:thumbsup:

LD

I must disagree... If you got 50lbs of meat off a 162.5 Lb animal (splitting your differances there) then you lost / wasted approximatley 30 lbs of meat.

 

[crockett]

Half or less- if boneless sounds about right. I think Northern deer often have more meat per total body weight. Does are often skin and bones so a lower percentage seems reasonable. I'm another one who processes on his own. In my area the local processors want the deer gutted (obvious) and skinned and quartered. At that point I figure that I might as well do the whole thing myself.

 

[Roguedog]

As a caveat, I may not be as meticulous as some. I generally take the loins, the backstrap, front shoulders, back hams, trim around the neck and that is about it. I generally don't mess with the meat around the ribs. However, I have heard that this is quite tasty and will probably do this in the future. I also wonder how these percentages would vary based on the size of the deer. Would a heavier northern deer yield a larger percentage of boneless meat than a smaller, southern variety? I don't know. I can only speak from own experience.

Jeff

 

[hoochiepapa]

We always had a general rule of thumb when guessing weight, and it was subtract about 30% for guts, 30% for skin and head.

 

[Roguedog]

At any rate, I have had a blessed season. In addition to killing one deer myself, I have been the beneficiary of two more. I have ample reserves in the freezer. I even made about 40 lbs of bratwurst this year. My only problem is that I had trouble getting it into the casings so I just froze it in gallon freezer bags. It works great in pasta, meatloaf, or just thawing out into patties and cooking on the grill.

Jeff

 

[Little Wattsy]

As a caveat, I may not be as meticulous as some. I generally take the loins, the backstrap, front shoulders, back hams, trim around the neck and that is about it. I generally don't mess with the meat around the ribs. However, I have heard that this is quite tasty and will probably do this in the future. I also wonder how these percentages would vary based on the size of the deer. Would a heavier northern deer yield a larger percentage of boneless meat than a smaller, southern variety? I don't know. I can only speak from own experience.

Jeff

No, not really.. the frame is deisgned (by God) to carry the package... I, at 6' 260lbs do not have the same sized bones as my wife at 5'4" and 115lbs..
My opinion, we OWE it to the critter t use all the meat (admittadly none of my business) but clean those ribs out and off the bones and take that extra 30 lbs of meat to the processor and have it made into peporoni.... GOOD! (or give it away to someone else who wants it)
This last season I freezered two elk so I took my deer ( http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/275191/post/1223217/hl//fromsearch/1/ )
And boned out the 170 lb-ish deer and haned 84 lbs of meat to Geitners Meat Market and turned the whole critter into a years worth of peperoni... :grin: :grin:

 

[will5a1]

How long do you all hang the deer before processing? I try for 4 days, but our warm weather this week forced me to do one after 3 days and one hung for only 1 day (it has been getting up into the 50's here).

I am going to buy a vacuum sealer this year, and an electric grinder is on the list also.

 

[vthunter52]

I find that 35-40 % boned meat(based on field dressed weight, not live weight) is about right on average. Each of us does the butchering a little different, but the results are all good. Being a wildlife biologist, I know how hard it is to estimate live weight of the animal since they aren't weighed in the woods, and most estimates are high. From the time the deer is skinned, an average size deer(125-150 lbs) takes me about 2 hours to bone, cut, and wrap. It turns out to be one of the most enjoyable moments of the hunt because it is the culmination of all the hard work, and the knowledge that I will have meat for coming winter.