Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How much meat do you get out of an Elk

There are alot of variables in the equation of what you can take out, not to mention if your cutting meat off the bones in the field vs. a butcher doing it in his own environment on a table.

Spot

Just got back from coffie with one off the Biologist that did the G&F surey he said a BIG bull may 225 lbs of meat. As a side note the ave. Antelope buck hog dressed is 88 lbs with a meat return of 45%.

I've cut up a bunch of young bulls and cows to and I'd say that on average a 3.5-4.5 yo bull will net anywhere from 160-220 pounds of boneless meat, a mature cow will net between 130-180ish... There can be huge size ranges in these classes of animals, reguarless of age.

I cut meat commercially for two years, we could cut/wrap about 30 elk a day... and about 40 deer. It was not much fun however. LOL There was a lot of people would accuse us of stealing their meat too. In Mt you can't sell it so why would the butcher steal it? Why would a butcher want your nasty azz tenerloins you drug through the sage brush for 3 miles when they have beef to eat. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> anyway

Last year was the first time I've ever had an elk processed commercially. The hanging carcass (sans hide) with bone in was 375 pounds. I got back 225 pounds of boneless meat. I had the butcher include 10% suet into the burger but even then that only equates to 10-15 pound extra.

They chunked the neck meat for CWD concerns, apperently you don't have to keep it in CO and its not recomended??? anyway that would have probalby added about 40 more pounds to the carcass I'm guessing. He was not an old bull, probaly 4.5 yo or so,and had a slightly larger than average body to him.

To answer your question... My wife and I can barely eat one elk and a deer or two every year. On the down side.... I have two elk tags this year. A cow and a bull. So I'm going to shoot the smallest cow I see, and hold out for the biggest bull I see. I'm hoping that I don't ahve to get another freezer LOL

This is a typical mature bull in my neck of the woods.... and many will go over 600lbs on the rail (4 quarters hanging)....If my butcher only handed me back 200lbs of meat I'd ask him where the other half went <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

hey he asked and I gave good info if you don't like what I came up with fine, I realy don't care. I've got good data to support what I said if you don't believe it OK.

gotlost, my memory is as unfaithful as ever - my 5-pt bull was 124#, not 196 (although I could have done a better job on the neck meat).

Figure about 30-33% of live weight.

As stated, elk vary a great deal in size. 350 pounds for yearling cow, ~400 for a spike, 700 pounds for a "good" bull or boxcar cow and 900+ for a whopper.

I routinely weigh the boned meat and have had cows vary from 120 to 240 pounds. I've only killed one spike, everything else has been a 5 or 6. Except for the spike, the bulls have ranged from 180 to 280 pounds of boneless meat before processing.

My partner shot one that weighed in at an even 300 pounds when we boxed it up for travel and the airline scales verified it. Cost him a PILE to get that meat flown home. And yes, we subtracted the weight of the coolers to get to that 300 pound mark.

I agree with Flinch on all accounts -- 1200 pound dressed elk are laughable. At the same time, if you have 100 elk under your belt and have yet to recover 200+ pounds of meat??? Chances are, you leave a bunch in the field. I LOVE elk burger and it all grinds the same, so I take every ounce of meat I can get, including rib and neck meat.

How much would a big Roosey bull from the Oregon Coast dress out?

Alot of it is going to depend on the time of the year, that'll determine the body condition of said dead elk and therefore have a big effect on edible meat. There is a difference also in said dead elk spends the night munching away on farm crops, or whatever grass can be found in the quakies.
All that said Gotlosts figures are pretty close.
Some of the numbers you see for meat returned from game animals make me wonder what going on that we can't get beef carcasses to return such a high percentage? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Elk do vary in size between locations . A 3 -4 yur old bull in Alberta around Baniff will easily out weigh a 7 yr old bull in WY, ID or CO. The cows up there will out weigh the young bulls down here. This is strange because they all came out of the Yellowstone herd many yrs ago. I would go with the 225 lbs or so from an average cow and maybe 250 from an average bull. I probably get a little less now since I do the no gut method. If you process your own, you can always get more meat by leaving the bone in and picking the meat out when you eat it. I don't have space in my freezew=r for all the bone though.
BTW I did contact the CO DOW last year about leaving the neck in the field because of CW. They said no way. Lymph glands are way up past what anybody would cut into on the neck. You could be cited for waste of meat.

Biggest Bull I ever saw looked like a horse with horns. But that was the 1st of September, and he had not spent all his energy during the rut.

I guess he was between 800 -- 900 pounds on the hoof. He was tall, fat, and in prime condition.

By the time he was legal to hunt in November, he might have been under 700 pounds. According to Mule Deer, those big herd bulls don't eat much, if at all, for 6 to 8 weeks during the rut.

Assuming he was standing in a location where it was legal to hunt him, that I had a tag (bows only in September), and that I got him down, I expect he would have been 850 pounds on the hoof.

That roughly traslates to 340 pounds of meat and bones hanging on the hook at the butchers (head, hide, hoofs, and guts removed).

I usually lose about 30% more weight at the butchers (bones, damaged meat, etc.) That leaves 238 pounds of real meat to eat. And that's from the Biggest Roosevelt Bull, in full prime, that I have ever seen.

Just my 2 cents,

BMT

BMT good point about pre and post rut. A couple of seasons back my wife shot her bull the last day of the season, (10-31) , he carcassed just a bit over 300 lbs, that same age class bull (4yrs+) shot at the beginning of the season( 9-15)generally carcass at 4-450.