Deer - Dressed weight?

[Panther]

Clearly I have never bagged a deer (yet), but is there an average dressed weight for a whole dear?

i.e. - once it's completely done and in the freezer....give or take, how many pounds of meat would you get from a deer?

[CGUARDSMAN]

too many variables. where you live the deer are generally a lot bigger than where i live so it would be way different. the biggest one i ever too field dressed at 205 but i do not know what finished processing weight was.

[big rockpile]

We debone all ours and I would say average 60-80 pounds of meat.

I usually don't weigh them.Went on one hunt where they did,shot one Big 10 point Buck that weighed 145 pounds Field Dressed and an Old Doe that weighed 65 pounds Field Dressed.

This is why I can't see the $75 they want to process one.

big rockpile

[MERRYMEDIC]

My dressed deer weight varies on wether I get one I patiently waited on during the season or that little runt at dusk on the last day cause I want deer meat in my freezer.

[Clifford]

The meat off of the bone usually only accounts for about 30-35% of the live weight. Hide, inerds and bones weigh more than the meat.

[tn_junk]

Last deer I killed was a real old doe. Ground it all up. 105 lbs field dressed yielded about 45-50 pounds of ground meat (no fat added). Would've maybe been more, but we did it ourselves and we absolutely ain't professional butchers.

galump

Originally Posted by Panther

Clearly I have never bagged a deer (yet), but is there an average dressed weight for a whole dear?

i.e. - once it's completely done and in the freezer....give or take, how many pounds of meat would you get from a deer?

Way to many variables to answer this question correctly. I process deer for people to make extra money and do know for a fact that there are too many variables involved such as "What caliber of rifle did you use?", "Where did you hit it?", "Is it a buck or a doe?"

If you have two deer harvested. One is a 100 pound doe, and the other is a 100 pound buck. You will take home more meat from the 100 pound buck then you will the 100 pound doe. A buck has more muscle tissue then a doe has.

What caliber and where did you hit it? The larger the caliber the more damage. Was it a clean head shot or did you shoot it straight through both ham hocks? A lot of people will bring me a deer shot straight through both shoulders with a large caliber such as a 30-30, or 30-06. I will end up throwing away the majority of both shoulders due to blood shot and too much bone fracture. Which means less meat going in the freezer. Type of bullet also has an effect. Hollow point or solid, how many grains?

The best answer I could give you is if you made a clean head shot on a buck you may take home up to 60 percent, less if it is a doe. Also, who did the processing. If you take it to a processing shop which does 30 - 40 deer a day, you may only take about a 1/4 to 1/3 of your deer home, as the processing shop is going to only cut off the major big muscles off the carcass and throw the rest away. Bring it to someone such as me where I take the time to almost scrape every scrap of meat off the bones that I can find and you will take home a lot more. But you will also pay more for my processing.

Hope this helps you out.

[brownegg]

They actually sell a tape measure that gives you a fairly close idea to what the live weight, dressed weight, and edible meat amount is by taking a measure around the girth ( right behind the front legs ). Here is one example from off the tape. 38" around the girth is 125# dressed, 70# edible, and would of been 156# live weight. It isn't exact because of different variables but alot closier than guessing.

[hunter63]

I'm gonna guess #135 dressed, #60 for the freezer.
Can't really figure $ per pound, if you do, don't go hunting.
Got a turkey (1st one) figured about $1000 a # for a #24 bird.
$10k 4 x4
$10K land
$4k new shotgun, camo's, calls, boots, beer, food, etc.
1st bird, priceless!