Remember beef has been bred for decades to yield more meat. Also many beef steak cuts will include bone, as in T bones, 7 bone chuck, and round steak.......and so on and on. Generally wild game is processed boneless due to CWD concerns, hunting harvest will often incur trim loss, as compared to captive bolt or "head shot" harvest in the beef industry. As a rule of thumb I figure half of a big game critters live weight is carcass, and half of the carcass weight is meat. So take live weight and multiply by 0.25. Example (450 x 0.25)= 112.5 pounds of meat. One can use this equation backwards to estimate live weight from meat harvest after butchering.
Last edited by Angus1895; 12/31/16.
