Live weight of a deer.

Dumbazz · Post by **Dumbazz** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:42 pm

85 lbs of boneless meat from a buck I shot Friday night. Butcher says live weight would be about 3 times, which would make it 255 on the hoof.

Is this an accurate estimate???

Thanks.

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:52 pm

Sounds about right. Head, hide, blood, guts, bone and waste weigh a lot more than most think.

M&M · Post by **M&M** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:03 pm

I have a book from north american hunting club its a wild game cook book and it has a chart in it that gives live weight, dressed weight and edible meat weight, by measuring the girth, and over the years its been pretty accurate and by the chart it says that if you have 85 pounds of edible meat your deer was 191 pounds live, a good sized deer. M&M

Dumbazz · Post by **Dumbazz** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:54 pm

M&M wrote:I have a book from north american hunting club its a wild game cook book and it has a chart in it that gives live weight, dressed weight and edible meat weight, by measuring the girth, and over the years its been pretty accurate and by the chart it says that if you have 85 pounds of edible meat your deer was 191 pounds live, a good sized deer. M&M

Is that based on boneless meat?? Seems low to me?? Not arguing, just wondering. 106 pounds for guts, hide, head, legs, bones, etc??

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 10:15 pm

It's not uncommon for people who take their deer to processors to wonder if they've been shorted ... I hear it all the time ... but I'd say if you ended up with 85 pounds of boneless, trimmed venison from a buck you did well. Remember that all the various formulas for estimating live weight are just that ... estimates. You can't know unless you hang it off a scales before gutting, and then you have to figure in lost blood!

Most butchers are honest people making a living ... remember that they do have to make a living, and that most of them process lots of deer. They can't be too painstaking with trimming if they're going to make a reasonable profit.

Once you've boned out a deer, you've still got a lot of whiteskin and sinew and such to trim out ... so even your boned meat loses weight in processing.

I think you did all right.

I do all my own butchering, and always have. I've never taken a deer to a processor, and I've butchered over a hundred ... that's the best way to know you've got the meat you've got coming!

Farmer · Post by **Farmer** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:59 am

Here is a link that will help do a quick estimate of a butchered deer :

http://www.askthemeatman.com/estimate_deer_weight.htm

Dumbazz · Post by **Dumbazz** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:01 am

Actually, I got more meat than I anticipated. Along with a nice doe taken the freezer is officially full!!!!

Just trying to get an idea on how much the buck I shot weighed. 2 guys that I was hunting with said 225-250. Just curious, thats all.

DA

ps...bowhunting is completely new to me this year.

ninepointer · Post by **ninepointer** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:22 am

Grizzly Adam wrote:It's not uncommon for people who take their deer to processors to wonder if they've been shorted ... I hear it all the time ...

So true

. For the first time, I just finished butchering and packaging a deer entirely on my own (I didn't want to bother my butcher on Thanksgiving). When I looked at the stack of meat when I was done, if I didn't know any better I would have thought that "the butcher" held back a few prime cuts for himself! LOL

ONLY8PTS · Post by **ONLY8PTS** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:46 am

I used to have a book, got lost at hunting camp,and it said that you get about 45% meat from a whitail.That's pretty close to what M&M says.I butcher my own so I don't waste much at all.

M&M · Post by **M&M** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:19 pm

I believe the chart is for boned out edible meat, although I usually use just measure the girth of my deer and check it with the chart to get a reasonable idea of the deers live weight. M&M

vixenmaster · Post by **vixenmaster** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 12:49 pm

I have Buckmaster 300 lb. scale right beside me and it gives Est. live wt. field dressed wt. and est. boneless meat wt. With 85 lbs. boneless meat, yer deer est. wt. on the hoof would be 146 lbs. My personal findings are abit different than this scales. I have found that boneless meat wt. would equal out to 43 percent of live wt. Yer deer should have weighed about 188 lb. Thats a good sized deer. My findings are based on my weighing 154 deer i have killed, field dressed and then boned out meat. Now mind you a deer 's neck and rib cage will only yield about 8 lbs. of meat off a large deer.

Allan · Post by **Allan** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 3:38 pm

here are two more sites

http://www.whitetails.com/deer_info/wei ... mation.cfm
http://www.askthemeatman.com/estimate_deer_weight.htm

Dumbazz · Post by **Dumbazz** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:37 pm

Thanks for all the info. Being a new bowhunter, I am learning tons from this site.

This is the buck in question.

Rich · Post by **Rich** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:04 pm

I agree with SPH, my calibrated eyeball has him at 180-190 pounds. Very nice deer regardless of the weight, and looks like you put an excellent hit on him.

Rich

Dumbazz · Post by **Dumbazz** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:15 pm

Actually that is the exit hole. Entry was the a little further forward. He went about 75 yards into a very thick cedar bush and laid down.

Wasn't any blood for the first 15 yards then a few spots, leading to puddles, clot, etc.

For comparison, I'm 6'8", 250 lbs.