If I paid $400 to pick up a little over 100lbs of meat with no specialty sausage etc. I would be beyond pissed off. Many folks are being polite and giving the butcher the benefit of the doubt. He only deals with Michigan Elk hunters once in a lifetime.......doesn't care for repeat business.
We usually end up packing out boned meat and do the butchering when we get home. If I can get my buddy Dave to help / takeover it looks like the buzzards have already been on the carcass a few days when he is done, I do my best to get all the meat but I'm not as skilled. This year the boned out meat from a large cow filled a 165 qt cooler and weighs at least 150 lbs. that was with a little off side shoulder damage. Final butchering had less than 10% additional waste..........cost about $30 for vacuum bags.
The guy in Northern Colorado we use in years one comes out whole early is around $250 with some sausage included and gets a better yield than your guy in Michigan.
