# ? Average amount of venison from a deer ?



## FairwayCAL (Oct 27, 2006)

i know, it all depends upon the size and sex of the animal, but... this year i am floored by the amount of meat we got off 4 "average" sized bucks. 178 lbs


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Im assuming you got 178 lbs off four deer?

Thats 44.5 lbs per deer. Whats average? Yearlings? Mature? How much trim is being done, some guys do alot, some not much.

44.5 is alot for a yearling I would think, and not much if hes a 160-180 lber which is probably close to average for an 2-3 year old deer.

I had over 80 lbs off my buck this year of well trimmed meat....86.7 lbs I believe. He was over 200 lbs dressed for sure, maybe more.


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## ruger1 (Aug 16, 2006)

A little less than 1/3 of the overall weight is a good average.


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## rburt (Apr 12, 2002)

Hard to say, I only weigh my trimmings since that's all that's processed. Without taking neck meat, keeping tenderloins and backstraps for steaks, and keeping the roasts out of both hind quarters - I get about 20-25 pounds per deer. If I were to weigh the backstraps and roasts, I think I'd be in the ballpark of what you guys are suggesting.


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

If you shoot your deer in cattle (open range) country, take the dressed weight of your *hanging buck * (cape, head, legs attached) and multiply it by .25. So for a 175 lb buck you would have 43.75 lbs of actual meat.

If however the buck was farm corn/soybean country, take the same deer and multiply by .30. That same buck would get you 52 lbs of meat. That is the significant difference between deer from the same state that grow up under different conditions.

If you have a doe or fawn, take the weight times .20, give or take 10 lbs depending on the type of food source of the deer and you'll have your ballpark expectation of meat.

Hope this helps...

Ryan


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

Wow, I don't know where those numbers are coming from, but I shot a whitetail buck once that yeilded 98 lbs of meat going into the freezer. He must have been huge. I'll include a picture of half of him here. Okay, maybe not. I think the picture downloader is broken. It is not resizing the picture for me and when I resize it myself to 550x550 I get an error that says the file size exceed the limit. Oh, well.


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

I went out to find some more info on this...

Here's a good link from a guy who does deer processing:



> Stop guessing your deer's weight. This useful formula will help you determine your deer's estimated live weight, field dressed weight, hanging weight and edible meat weight.
> 
> Live Weight X 78% = Field Dress Weight X 75% = Hanging Weight X 75% = Edible Meat Weight
> 
> ...


You can use the following formula to work backwards. If you know the weight of edible meat, you can calculate the hanging weight, field dressed weight, etc.. You can calculate from any weight.

If you know the hanging weight, than you could estimate the field dressed weight and the live weight.



> Edible Meat Weight X 1.35 = Hanging Weight X 1.33 = Field Dressed Weight X 1.26 = Live Weight
> 
> Here is an example of this formula:
> 
> 25 Lbs. Edible Meat X 1.35 = 34 Lbs. Hanging Weight X 1.33 = 44 Lbs. Field Dressed Weight X 1.26 = 55 Lbs. Live Weight


Here's a table to estimate your deer's live weight. Measure the girth just behind the front legs.


Girth/Inches <--> Live Weight(in pounds) 
24............................55 
25............................61 
26............................66 
27............................71 
28............................77 
29............................82 
30............................90 
31............................98 
32...........................102 
33...........................110 
34...........................118 
35...........................126 
36...........................135 
37...........................146 
38...........................157 
39...........................169 
40...........................182 
41...........................195 
42...........................210 
43...........................228 
44...........................244 
45...........................267




> *Field Dressed is body cavity cleaned out (no heart, lungs, intestines, etc..)*
> 
> *Hanging Weight is the field dressed deer minus the head, feet and hide.*
> 
> ...


That would come close to my earlier estimates, as I was including the entire deer. I should have instead taking my numbers from a deer that has been skinned and is "meat locker" ready..

Hopefully these numbers jive better with what you've experienced. They seem pretty solid.

Ryan


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

Based on the formula, my deer would have weighed 221 lbs. Is that possible with a whitetail?


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## ac700wildcat (Oct 30, 2006)

221 is a big deer. The big buck contest here in Devils Lake usually yields something around 230 for the winner sometimes more sometimes less. These are field dressed.


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## ruger1 (Aug 16, 2006)

iwantabuggy said:


> Based on the formula, my deer would have weighed 221 lbs. Is that possible with a whitetail?


Oh yes, here in northern MN, we see many deer in that range. I've heard rumors of 300# live weight deer from my father and grandfather. Back when we didn't shoot every deer that walked by.


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## rburt (Apr 12, 2002)

Did anyone catch the Grand Forks Herald article from last Friday I think it was (preview of the deer season)? It had stats on harvest, scores of the biggest bucks in history, AND the biggest (by weight) buck ever shot in ND. I am sure it said 500 pounds or 550 or something.

I think I need to see a pic to believe it.


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## rburt (Apr 12, 2002)

Did a little searching on the Internet after I posted that - it was Minnesota, not North Dakota (the Herald article was a preview of both MN and ND seasons).

It was 1926, shot by Carl Lenander in Minnesota, field dressed at 402. The MN DNR estimated its live weight to be 511 pounds. Here's a link (an article on the deer was in the April 2006 issue of Outdoor Life).

http://mikehanback.blogs.com/bigbuckzon ... _heav.html

And here is the picture of the "supposed" 412 field dressed weight buck, which would have been a bigger field dressed weight than the Lenander buck. This one was shot in PA early this year (bowhunting in January).

http://fieldandstream.blogs.com/news/20 ... pi_10.html


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

> Back when we didn't shoot every deer that walked by.


Ain't that the truth!!!!! :eyeroll:


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

That 412 lb deer makes my 221 lb deer look like a baby.


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