This past Sunday, I shot an elk. I still have about 75-80lbs. of meat in the frig aging, waiting to get trimmed and frozen. Been trimming, grinding, baggging and freezing meat for the better part of the last two days.:drool:Anyhow, this came about by my buddy being a neighbor to a fellow whose brother was killed in a motorcycle wreck. The neighbor of my Bud was executor of his brothers will. This guy had a private herd of elk. His brother(executor) didn't want to maintain the herd, so my Bud told him that he knows some guys(me included) that would be glad to help him get rid of the elk.This was not an elk hunt, it was an elk shoot. They were in a 10 acre fenced enclosure and fed grain regularly. I look at it this way............it's an opportunity to fill a freezer with meat. And it's filling up fast!!!:thumb1:I shot a cow that probably went about 550-600lbs. I'll probably get about 150lbs. of trimmed/de-boned meat off this critter. I've got most of the small stuff ground up into burger now. Mostly what's left is the larger "roast" type pieces to cut into smaller chunks to freeze.I only cut myself once so far!!!!

I've been helping a buddy do this through the hunting season. Making burger, vacuum packing, etc... Lots of work that for sure...

Good deal! I love elk meat!If she was 550-600 she was HUGE and should yield a lot more than 150lbs of meat. The big bull I shot last year was about 375lbs hanging weight, which would have put him about 500-525 on the hoof, and he was one of the larger bodied elk I have seen. I ended up with about 150 lbs of grinder meat and about 50 lbs of back-straps and steaks.

Good deal! I love elk meat! If she was 550-600 she was HUGE and should yield a lot more than 150lbs of meat. The big bull I shot last year was about 375lbs hanging weight, which would have put him about 500-525 on the hoof, and he was one of the larger bodied elk I have seen. I ended up with about 150 lbs of grinder meat and about 50 lbs of back-straps and steaks.

Live weight appox. 550-600lbs. Field dressing weight.........subtract about 25-30% of body weight Carcass weight............minus hide and head, subtract another 15-20% of body weight Trimmed packaged meat..........minus all bones and extra fat, subtract another 15-20% body weight With all due respect AH64ID, if your bull weighed 375lbs. hanging, he wasn't "that big" of a bull elk. Nice, but not big. You forget that I've got a BS degree in Agriculture with major in Animal Science.............I know critters. I used to judge farm animals for market, and I work with horses daily. I'm a pretty fair judge of size...........on critters!!!! You're doing real good to get 30% of live weight into the freezer of any critter.......fact!!!

Well let me rephrase the hanging weight (in case I am not using the technical version), it's more of packing weight. 4 quarters and a neck, no guts, hide, head, or legs. .just the part that comes off the hill. Of the 375 lbs that came off the hill about 190-200 was put into the freezer, and I am not sure there was even 10 lbs of fat on this bull. Being an older animal there was more meat than a young animal per lb, I would put the meat I was able to save at about 35-40%. Thou honestly we have never weighed the guts, maybe they are heavier than the 50 lbs we account for. The bull my dad shot had a noticeably bigger body and we only hauled about 30lbs more off the hill. My bull was in the top 10 for body size in the last 25 years and his was top 3, out of 60+ bull elk. I didn't think about the cow you shot being penned and fed, she probably had a very large fat percentage which would correlate to a much lower freezer:live weight. Considering I have never butchered a farm raised elk I can't really correlate them to wild animals. It does make me curious thou, how much fat was on her? I have a degree in Wildlife, so I am fairly familiar with wild animals, at least the ones that stay wild. Wild game and stock have very different body compositions based on food/fat/energy burn. A 500 lb beef will put less meat to freezer than a 500 lb wild elk would. We have found the older the animal the higher percentage of meat goes to the freezer. The deer I shot this year put about 30lbs in the freezer and was about 125 on the hoof but was also a yearling and didn't have much muscle mass due to its age. Same thing with elk. The 2 year old cow I shot was right about 25-30%, but it was January and she had a bit of fat on her, probably more than all the bull's I have shot combined.

Yall both need to be careful because Mike has wood.

Yall both need to be careful because Mike has wood.

Yall both need to be careful because Mike has wood.

That gets eat up by his screaming beaver!!! Lmbo Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Yall both need to be careful because Mike has wood.

Hahahahaha:lmao: And don't forget, he "pays" for it also!!!!!

--- Update to the previous post...

Well let me rephrase the hanging weight (in case I am not using the technical version), it's more of packing weight. 4 quarters and a neck, no guts, hide, head, or legs. .just the part that comes off the hill. Of the 375 lbs that came off the hill about 190-200 was put into the freezer, and I am not sure there was even 10 lbs of fat on this bull. Being an older animal there was more meat than a young animal per lb, I would put the meat I was able to save at about 35-40%. Thou honestly we have never weighed the guts, maybe they are heavier than the 50 lbs we account for. The bull my dad shot had a noticeably bigger body and we only hauled about 30lbs more off the hill. My bull was in the top 10 for body size in the last 25 years and his was top 3, out of 60+ bull elk.

I didn't think about the cow you shot being penned and fed, she probably had a very large fat percentage which would correlate to a much lower freezer:live weight. Considering I have never butchered a farm raised elk I can't really correlate them to wild animals. It does make me curious thou, how much fat was on her?

I have a degree in Wildlife, so I am fairly familiar with wild animals, at least the ones that stay wild. Wild game and stock have very different body compositions based on food/fat/energy burn. A 500 lb beef will put less meat to freezer than a 500 lb wild elk would. We have found the older the animal the higher percentage of meat goes to the freezer. The deer I shot this year put about 30lbs in the freezer and was about 125 on the hoof but was also a yearling and didn't have much muscle mass due to its age. Same thing with elk. The 2 year old cow I shot was right about 25-30%, but it was January and she had a bit of fat on her, probably more than all the bull's I have shot combined.

I've found just the opposite when comparing wild to farm animals.

Farm animals, whether it be cattle, hogs, turkeys, etc., are specifically bred to grow the maximum amount of muscle in the shortest amount of time on the least amount of food. Domesticated critters normally have a great fat content than wild critters, but they also have much more muscle. Often they, have less thick hides, less hair on the hide, no massive antlers. The only thing that would affect this in the negative is if they have a very high fat content on the carcass.

Wild critters generally have more/thicker hair, often thicker hides, head gear/antlers, more guts to total body weight and less fat.

I worked in several slaughter houses. The "neatly trimmed" packaged meat percentage from live weight was just under 40% for cattle. Remember this though...........they have the means, tools and manpower to get every scrap of meat off the carcass and use it in.........whatever. The average "Joe Smoe" hunter (especially some that I've seen) do a ____ job of butchering their critters. They leave so much on the carcass it should be a crime.......wanton waste IMHO!!! Then they take the "parts" to a processor to butcher it for them and make burger etc. How much is Mr. Processor trimming away????

That's why I said, that 30% of live weight into the freezer is good. Sorry I came off sounding harsh!!

Later!!

I agree that stock grows larger faster than wild game, but lb for lb are they more or less meat? A typical wild bull will have such low body fat that there is nothing to even pull off, and it's so lean you have to mix it with beef or pork fat to make burger or sausage. I haven't ever held one, so what does the average beef hide weigh when wet and still has the hair? I would say that an average elk hide weighs about 60 lbs. Not really on this topic but I couldn't beleive how thick and heavy the hide was on some feral pigs I shot a few years ago, it was probably 25-30% of their body weight. It has always amazed me how much weight does go into the garbage thou! I try to do a very good job not wasting any meat. A lot of the meat from the lower legs is a PITA to get the tendon's and gristle out, but still a lot goes to trash relative to the grinder bag. I have seen some pretty ____ poor butchering over the years too. Some would be lucky to get 10% to the freezer! I will agree that on average 30% is probably a good number. We seem to get a little less on younger animals and a little more on mature animals, even with that I am still surprised your only getting 150lbs from a 550 lb cow, thou the fat content surely is a large reason for that.

Yeah, the loin area over the kidney area onto the rump of this cow there was close to 2" of back fat there!!!! Heck, the heart.......yeah, I eat the heart also............had fat on it once I trimmed the pericardium off. Not to mention the rest of the KPH (kidney, pelvic, & heart) fat inside the body cavity!! She probably would've died of congestive heart failure if I hadn't shot her!!!:lmao2:Anyhow, my new 7 cubic foot freezer is about 2/3 full. Mostly elk and some geese.

We like heart as well! I have seen a few deer in post-fire years that have that much fat on them.