Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Average amount of processed meat?

Just trying to get a general idea of how much meat from a smallish 5x5 would be normal. Talked to the processor yesterday and they said there are two full boxes, 24"x16"x8" for the meat. I have to still get out to pick it up (processed locally in Colorado). Nothing fancy, mostly burger with a few steaks and a couple of roasts. Does that sound about right?

Sounds about right to me. 100# or so.

On most game animals you will realize approximately 36% of live weight of
processed meat.

Thank you. Had no real clue for an elk!

Most people way overestimate the amount of finished product they get from a critter and you hear some outlandish claims. You have boneless meat, then you trim it even more.

Sounds light to me, but just a little.
I'm betting they made lots of burger, too bad if they didn't trim the flat irons for you, I bet they went into burger. Lots of great steaks on an elk, many don't utilize them though. The sirloin is also a very good cut for a steak. Tri tips probably went to grind as well.
Those straps should have made quite a few nice steaks, I would look in the boxes and ask about the straps and see how many steaks they cut from them.
Burger alone should fill 1 box on a decent sized 5x5. We're getting over 50 lbs from our small cow elk and a spike combined.

Congrats on the bull !!

This seems to be spot on.A lot of what your get back depends on how much you waste.Some people only take the best parts and waste the rest instead of utilizing all the edible meat.

They were going to cut the back straps into steaks and the inside loins left whole. I have not looked at the box yet, just had a phone report

If a smaller 5x5 then probably good on that amount meat.
2 boxes just seems light to me but might not be.
Heck after processing 2 elk it seemed like we had tons of meat, lol.
If they had to hang it a few days to get to it then you'll have some dried meat loss too.

I've been processing my own since I shot my first deer back in 1965.

I cut all the meat off of the bones, and I trim anything white off the meat, including my burger meat, which I add 10% beef fat.

I figure that I put about 1/3 of the animal's live weight into my freezer.

The year that I shot my American Buffalo I had it processed. I told them to cut the backstraps and tenderloins into 1 1/2 pound steaks/roasts, and to grind everything else into burger with 10% beef fat added. I got 495# of burger and 1 box of steaks/roasts. The first steaks that we ate was so tough that I ground all of the other steaks/roasts and made it into jerky.

I don't remember ever weighing all of the cut and wrapped meat from all of the deer and elk that I've shot, but I do remember getting 175 pounds of burger off one 6x6 bull elk that I shot. I shot a young bull moose in Alberta this year and only brought 3 quarters from it home. I had 150 pounds of burger meat before adding 10% fat plus maybe 50 pounds of steaks/roasts.

Your amount sounds correct to me. I always get a chuckle out of people who claim the processor “stole” their meat. Thinking they should fill a chest freezer with a single elk. (Not saying that’s what you’ve done) The consensus is correct. A little over a third of the live weight as it lays on the ground

Just picked up my mule deer 66 lbs (approximately 2 1/2 yr old) and yearling cow elk 65.5 lbs.

Backstrap cut into short length (12") on both animals
Tenderloins
50 lbs pan sausage (elk)
Hamburgered the rest

Used to figure on 135 lbs yield from a mature sized cow elk, after taking the backstraps and tenders and neck meat off.

Did you bring in the entire carcass for processing or just quarters? How much meat was lost due to where it was hit?

Don't know I do my own and don't pick it up in a box. I can tell you from a small 6pt I got over 60lbs of burger and a bunch of steaks. Last year on a big bodied 5x5 I got almost 80lbs of burger and a lot of steaks. Never really weigh it all as I'm not worried about cheating myself.

Piece of mind is a good grinder, a sharp knife, and work.

Entire carcass. No meat loss from the shot - two through the chest broadside.

Here is some of my stuff.I killed a big cow elk and got 130lbs of boned out meat.A red deer hind boned out a 105lbs.The red stags I've killed boned out from 135lbs to 185lbs.Young Nilgai cow boned out @105lbs.Biggest South Texas whitetail buck boned out @ 75lbs.Biggest South Texas whitetail doe boned out @ 48lbs.

Two boxes of the size you mentioned, seems light for bringing in the entire carcass.

I process my own and when carrying packaged elk meat from my shop to the house the other day, I had 4 boxes(2 of my boxes were very close to the size your processor used). Each box probably weighed in the 40-50 lbs range.

The smaller the animal, the smaller the percentage of meat, I think. Both within species and between species.

One year I shot a 16 month old bull moose, butchered it myself at the Yukon River cabin I was staying in - totally boneless. It filled 5 1/2 apple boxes, packed before freezing - topped the last box out with chum salmon from the fish wheel. 6 or 7 fish, I think.

Wien Airlines( now defunct) had a hunting-season special backhaul from Galena to Anchorage - 300 lbs for some ridiculous amount- maybe $25. I addressed the boxes to my wife in Kenai, and they transshipped it to there at no extra cost. DEAL!!

When I took it into the Galena terminal (where they froze it overnight) and we put it on the scales the agent asked if I'd weighed it. I had not, but the weight came out to 300 and 1/2 lbs.

Minus the weight of the salmon, the wrapping paper, and the cardboard boxes I'd guess 260 lbs for the moose meat- about right for a 600 lb "yearling" . I've weighed 3 other moose of that age class; the boneless meat has varied from 233 lbs to 270 lbs.
after wrapping or vacuum seal.