Only if you have a shifty butcher .
Even a shoulder blade shot deer would yield at least 50+% , I know first hand that you dont lose much good meat with shoulder shots and a good bullet.
I was some pissed at bringing in a 84lb dressed deer only hours after being shot through the humorous touched the heart and exited out the same place on the other side with very little bloodshot meat (tsx bullet so you know you can eat up to the hole) and all i got back was 24.5 lbs. (WTF?)
I have butchered wild big Game , domestic goats & sheep and a few other critters and there was no way i could figure out the 24.5 lbs not to mention cuts were missing.
Sometimes you dont have a choice because of the trip distance and heat and you need to get it processed so they have you by the short hairs.
Once you butcher an animal yourself you will realize what some butchers waste or discard .
I think you got hosed Barracuda.I butcher my own(deboned)and I`ll get around 50% to 60%.I save every scrap that`s fit to grind,including the neck meat and I skin `em right to the ears.I take the meat off the hocks as well,lots of commercial guy are too busy for that.I used the no skinning till you butcher method last year and saved an extra 6 or 8 .lbs because I did not have to re-skin the crust off..
Scars Are like Tattoos but With Better Stories
My buddy that is a butcher always used to say that you can expect somewhere between 50 and 55 percent of edible meat off the live weight with beef, and 45 to 50 percent of edible meat of game. Obviously there will be exceptions to the rule but throughout my hunting and ranching career I have found these numbers fairly accurate.
Compton
I don't like deer fat, so I think the chart is generous. When I butcher, I remove ALL fat, bone, lymph and nerves so my take is about 50% of the dressed weight. I lose a little more, but my meat is good for 3+ years.
Blktail
If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.