Fresh Kill into Meat Ratio

[Doe.Deer]

I am new to hunting and my question about how much meat you actually get off your kill.

If I kill a 250 pound black bear... after all said and done roughly how much meat do you get?
If I kill a 700 pound moose... after gutting it out take it off the bone etc.. how much meat do you get?

My fiance has hunted for many years but we want to start doing sausages and butchering ourselves. I am new to hunting but I know how to cook. This will be interesting for me.

With all these recipes online I am just wanting to know what to get. For example you kill the 250 pound bear, get 100 pounds of meat, and I want to get stuff ahead of time. Casings, salts, extra spices, port fat, nitrates...

What is the ratio? How much fresh meat do you get once all done?

[Rob]

Usually about 1/2 I think

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Bears are heavy boned animals. Yields will be lower than expected.

[Doe.Deer]

Okay that's a start... thank you both I had no idea!

[wideopenthrottle]

I did some googling for you and found these 2 items I thought you might be interested in...I always thought it was closer to 1/3 guts 1/3 skin and bones..1/3 meat but they say 50%


I am new to hunting and my question about how much meat you actually get off your kill.

If I kill a 250 pound black bear... after all said and done roughly how much meat do you get?
If I kill a 700 pound moose... after gutting it out take it off the bone etc.. how much meat do you get?

My fiance has hunted for many years but we want to start doing sausages and butchering ourselves. I am new to hunting but I know how to cook. This will be interesting for me.

With all these recipes online I am just wanting to know what to get. For example you kill the 250 pound bear, get 100 pounds of meat, and I want to get stuff ahead of time. Casings, salts, extra spices, port fat, nitrates...

What is the ratio? How much fresh meat do you get once all done?

You will get about 50-55% of the weight of the animal. Here is a chart of average weights by species, which will vary by region.

Species Average (lbs.) Exceptional (lbs.) Upper Limit (lbs.)
Antelope 80 100 125
Whitetail Deer 125 225 350 +
Mule Deer 150 250 400
Bighorn Sheep 175 250 300 +
Black Bear 200 400 650 +
Caribou 250 400 600
Grizzly Bear 500 1,000 1,500 +
Elk (Wapiti) 500 800 1,000
Moose 650 1,200 1,600 +
note - females weigh approximately 1/3 less than males

http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&products_id=331

[Whonnock Boy]

Skinned and hanging I get 50-55% meat, however, I hang, skim, and am very picky about what gets put into even the hamburger. If you were very clean, did not hang and butchered right away it may be as high as 60-65%. Of course some of that higher value is moisture content in the meat itself from no "aging".

[caddisguy]

I have only had one (spring) bear but it seemed like most of the weight (more than 50%) was the head/bones/hide/insides. On average does the 50% rule apply to black bears? I was thinking 35-40% but am curious what more seasoned hunters have to say.

[M.Dean]

The Wife and I just finished cutting up our Grandson's WT Buck this afternoon, once it's all de-boned, rind cut off, the inch and a half of fat cut off, and we keep a lot of the scrapes in bag's for my fat dog, we get a little over 50%. That's guessing the weights, I do have a scale down there, but I'm too old to go back down there and weight out every package for ya! And that's with a clean kill shot, through the neck, hit a small deer through the front shoulders and deduct another 20 or so pounds of meat. Every animal is different than the next, every shot is different, as is the fat thickness, etc etc. So I'd go with the 50% or a bit more and buy your ingredients from there?

[Whonnock Boy]

I should note that the numbers I was speaking for was ungulates. I do not know about bears.

[albravo2]

Trust me Doe, don't buy sausage fixings until the critter headed into the casings has a hole in it.

It will definitely improve with a few days aging if you go buy everything after you know exactly what kind of sausage, and how much, you're making.

[srupp]

Hmmm here is an offer...your from Williams lake..I have the grinders, mixers, professional chamber sealer..if time matches up ill take you through the whole process from hanging, cutting, grinding burger making and one sausage recipee..its an idea..
Took university meat cutting course and private sausage vourse by mr.hanz ludo. .
The offer is free
Cheers
Steven rupp
Williams lake

[fuzzybiscuit]

Wow! Great offer Srupp.

Not it sure about a bear but with a deer I usually get a little less than 50%. But, I'm pretty picky and trim the meat before packaging.

[two-feet]

There are lots of really good things that you can do with pieces that others would consider scrap. Some examples include heart and liver, osso bucco from the shins, bone marrow, lard, jowels, tongue. Some people dont even keep the ribs. Your yield goes way up if you have the cullinary skills to make these offal cuts shine. Lots of info online on how to prepare these things, a good place to start is youtube steve rinella cooking.

[Daybreak]

I wasn't too keen on liver but made a breading with flour, chili peppers, garlic powder and a whole whack of curry powder and any other spice else you might like. Sliced the liver about 3/4 " and quick fried it in oil after breading. It is exceptionally good and like you say, it nicely increases the yield from an animal. I have always eaten the heart which many people are really missing out on.

[Doe.Deer]

Thank you everyone... Sorry for the late reply! Went scouting this weekend to where we have our group hunt at the end of Oct.

Spent the morning looking up sausage recipes... oh I can't wait... I appreciate the feedback. At least now as I only have the grinder/food saver everyone else I would need to buy. I can start figuring how much it will cost and what I need. Another list on the go

[Doe.Deer]

Hmmm here is an offer...your from Williams lake..I have the grinders, mixers, professional chamber sealer..if time matches up ill take you through the whole process from hanging, cutting, grinding burger making and one sausage recipee..its an idea..
Took university meat cutting course and private sausage vourse by mr.hanz ludo. .
The offer is free
Cheers
Steven rupp
Williams lake

Thanks for the offer, I will have to take you up on that. Almost too good to be true!!! I wasn't raised with hunting background so starting late in life any help I appreciate!

My fiance was at your place week or two ago and said you were just full of information... specially on moose calls which we are practicing since.

[MichelD]

Do you really like sausage that much?

By the time I finish butchering a small deer for example, after making boneless chops out of the back strap, sawing the ribs into strips, turning the hindquarters into roasts or roasts suitable for steaks, saving the shanks whole for soup, rolling up the shoulders into roasts, putting suitable smaller pieces of meat aside for stew and odd bits for burger, once ground I have 7 to 10 one-pound packages of burger that could also be made into sausage.

I find that cuts of venison are preferable to sausage and love the versatility of ground venison.

But that's just me. Some people are crazy about making pepperoni but I don't see the attraction myself.

[Doe.Deer]

I agree with you for your ratio for deer. We have a bear tag and was thinking about making most of it into sausage (besides the ham bones)

I have never made sausage before and I would like to experiment on fresh sausage and other styles.