How many pounds of boned out meat would be the average from a Michigan Whitetail doe?

Roughly 25% of field dressed weight.

More about age and food scarcity.

I am in SE Wis. so , I imagine we are about the same size for deer. Last week I shot a small doe. I dont think it was a fawn. I got 27 lbs of boneless meat . i did not do crazy trying too get every last morsel off the carcass. The doe before that was 2 yrs ago, in late October. I got 33 lbs of meat from it. The one before that I got 30 lbs. So, about 30 lbs .

My three this year were 35, 40 and 45. We probably average about 30-35 per doe. Just happened to get a couple of big ones

About an hour’s worth of jerky judging from my house.

Varies......

The most that you will get is if you have an experienced friend or family member who hunts and processes his own. The least you will get is from the area processor. They go way too fast so much goes to waste and in many cases goes into their own families' freezers.

You'd be surprised that you probably already have the tools, unless you plan to have it ground.

30lbs average

About double of my last Oklahoma buck. Just kidding. Kind of.

I'd say 25-30 lbs.

That's the truth.

The last time that I paid the processor to do it for us was when I took in an over 200# doe and got a poultry 30# like all of the little ones that were strung up.
Before butchering it was obviously bigger than any others hung beside her. I got a close estimate for them all afterwards. They were all the same and the farmer bragged on how many they do in a day. At that speed, they got the bulk off and divided it however they decided. All of the processors I've used within the local counties are like that, so probably the same for you.

PS:. This was a WV doe, not Michigan. I could tell from the accent.

20-25lb depends on what you shot it with

Michigan ?

SKeen’s probably right 25-30 clean meat lbs.

The yearling buck I shot here in KS put out 42lbs of clean mean I could have probably got almost 50 off him if he hadn’t bled the way he did down the neck.

Interesting chart for Mule Deer..



Jayco

This one was about 45# this year. MN though, not MI

The one I did this week yielded 41#...pretty carefully done at home. Sorry I don’t have a field dressed weight on her as a baseline.

Nice chart.

Not everybody has the same idea of field dressed though. Some just roll out the guts and call it. Then of course you have the gutless method folk.

Hanging weight is a better mark IMO. Headless, gutless, skinned, legged.




Then of course are the "200 pound doe" people that don't own a scale.

Ham her out, cut the back straps hell with the rest

Big does around here are no more than 120 lbs and those are rare.

I dont save every scrap, or cut between ribs. I used to skin it down and cut neck roasts.

Meh...

Sounds about like me....its hindquarters, straps, loins and front shoulders(if not shot up) for me..sometimes trim the neck for roasts. Usually kill 10+ a year so dont get real picky with taking time to get every scrap.

Illegal here....

Jayco lol

The first time I had a deer that was over 150# field dressed on a hanging scale was when I realized just how much people overestimate weight.

Typical processor BS

you probably didnt get meat from your deer.

The deal used to be they fill up a milk crate with packs of meat from the processor’s freezer, go dump into your trunk and tell you to have a nice day. Everyone got about 27-33 lbs of meat.

The guy would work out plus and minus on everyone to account for shot up shoulders, ass shot deer or even rob someone else to make higher payout $$ for someone that wanted summer sausage or jerky. Then burn their ass for $8 lb for specialty things like smoked or cheese added sausage. Oh yeah sure then you’d get 40 lbs of meat from a 80lbdoe

All a swindler’s paradise.

Hell with letting some scumball lay his filthy hands on my carcass and give me back someone’s gut shot buck that rode around for 1/2 the day being shown off to friends at Napa or the welding shop.

Like peckers and paychecks.

Around 40lbs.

Just processed a good-sized mule deer doe ourselves. Weighed it field-dressed (everything from the throat to bunghole removed) on the accurate 800-pound scale we have in our garage, and it went 98 pounds. Got 42 pounds of boned meat.

Have done this same thing a bunch of times over the years with whitetails (we have plenty of them in Montana as well) and pronghorns, and get the same basic results: 40% or a little more of FD weight.

Which is one among many reasons we don't have a processor do our animals.

We weigh every deer we shoot before it’s gutted. A nice size doe will trip the scale at 125-128. I take pride in boning out a deer and try not to waste anything. 30-32 pounds of meat when it’s all said and done. The only bones remaining are the rear shanks. If you have never roasted deer shanks you are missing out on some great eating.

I used to think that also at it just might happen at some processors but not all..My youngest helps the local game processor here during the season cutting up game...Strict rules and your game is your game not someone else's..This year was a very good one for elk...Some of the game brought in is on the brink of being already soured out and filthy dirty,but they do what they can with what they got...It's really interesting to see how some of the hunters treat there game after the kill...I sure wouldn't want there's by mistake either..

Jayco

What unit are you in Snowwolfe?

Yeah, even if it wasn't a huge monetary savings to process your deer yourself, knowing it's your deer and not some gut shot nasty venison is worth the time and effort.

I've had several friends and neighbors buy a nice 1hp grinder after taking me up on the "bring it to my shop if you shoot one, and I'll show you how to do it yourself" offer.

sounds like you have some dependable processors there that take pride in their work and respect the hunters that bring in business to them.

It’s a laid back arrangement here.

I process my own. Have my own walkin cooler, let them hang for several days. Grind and trim and vac seal as I still budget time to continue hunting.

I have seen PILES of carcasses at home business processor guy’s houses, 30+ deer laying like cord word in 50-60 temps in his driveway. Not a pretty thing.

B, Cumberland County.

We process everything ourself. Gutting, skinning, boning out, wrapping, vac seal, etc. Most of our deer ends up as burger except for the straps, tenderloins, and shanks. We do keep 3-5 packages of “stew/chili” meat.

If you got two or three buds and can all go in and one guy buy a grinder, another a slicer, another a stuffer or cuber

And if possible all throw in on a doe attack and do up 5,6, 7 at one time and have wives vac sealing or wrapping, get a small co-op going.

Just the front shoulders?

What.....you don't use the back shoulders?

Lazy IMO, if you are too busy to take all the meat don’t bother shooting them. Pretty sad and illegal in most areas.

I tossed the neck roast off my Michigan slick head into the crock yesterday with Worcestershire, onions, and black pepper. Pulled the bone out and thickened up the gravy with flour and served it on baked potatoes.

Awesome quarantine meal. I love me some neck roast though deer I shoot near CWD don’t get quite the same treatment.

Mine yielded prolly 40# but I double lunged her and kept everything except the rib meat and a lot of the flank steaks.

That’s been my experience too. An average size Michigan doe is 120-130 pounds. Assuming a rib shot deer without much bloodshot meat I get about 35 pounds meat out of it.

Not illegal, no wanton waste laws, certainly not on private land.

I wont pick hair and copper jacket and bone frags out to save an extra pound of shoulder.

I can shoot 3 a day in my unit. Aint worried about rib meat either.

I can't help you with weight, but according to my records, an average size Ohio Valley doe usually nets me roughly 20 pints of cold pack, 2 rack of ribs, 4 packs of tenderloin, 2 neck roasts, one pack of inner loin, 2 packs of liver and one pack of heart.

Keep in mind a "pack" is the meat portion of a meal for two adults and two kids.. well one kid. My four year old stepdaughter won't touch anything but cereal and chicken nuggies.

Hope that helps.

lol

I’m an extra lazy pig

I toss the liver and heart to the yotes too

We lucked out. A guy we knew was moving and didn't want to keep the processing stuff he had. We got everything for $100 maybe ten years ago. Meat tubs, commercial grinder, sausage stuffer, mixer, scale, spice grinder, freaking everything except a vacuum sealer.

The guy I hunt with and I both bought vacuum sealers, so with two going, it goes rather quick.

We both laugh now at how we used to grind with a Kitchenaid attachment. We made over 90# of sausage and had it vacuum sealed this year in less time than it would have taken to just grind the pork trimmings back then.

Nephew popped this old girl last Sat. She was a big doe


I told him he had to tag it and take it, I was not babysitting his deer. People even family abuse you when let them hang deer in your walk in.

Had a church deacon I let hang two in the cooler, he went crappie fishing 3 days in a row and left his punk does in my cooler. Little Cool Bot just running it’s heart out. Fook that, I pulled them and drove them to his house. He in there sittin on his ass watching TV.

That’s it.

Anyway, this doe, probably 100 lbs dressed. He couldnt find a processor that day, they are all overwhelmed.

Him and step dad got it up in their garage and hacked off the big muscle groups and packed it on ice. Work out your own salvation. Your deer aint my problem. Let them hunt here but have your own plan is what I told him ahead.

They were in a rush so I doubt every mouse scrap got saved.

SW MO here, usually get +/- 30 lbs. from the average doe. they go 90-130 or so here, live weight. Killed a monster doe a couple years ago. Shot her in the head, dropped her literally in her tracks, bullet went through the head and into her back, hit the paunch. Sister in law and her husband wanted a deer, so they got one. Loved it, said they got 45 lbs. of meat out of her. Shot a yearling once, won’t do that again. All the work for 10-15 lbs. of meat. Screw that.

Buddy of mine killed a doe this morning just outside of Kansas City. He said it will go close to 200 lbs, by the pics I believe him. Killed her and her fawn to fill his rifle antlerless tags and then killed a nice 8 point that evening with his crossbow.

I need to set up a cool bot in my walk in.

LG with electronic frost sensor has been trouble free for 9 years so far.

I have a 25kbtu for 7x8x9H

Yeah. I have been thinking about your set up.

My walkin has a rail in it and everything. Just the compressor and evap-condensor are from the 60s and ruined.

A cool bot would probably be perfect.

Slum any chance you post a pic of you setup?

Looked that up.

25kbtu is a serious ac unit. 600 or 700?

Fraction of the price of a refer unit.

That is the fugliest doe ever. Looks like a CWD poster child! I would have let it walk right on by.😂

Style point for the turrets, though. Must have equipment for timber goats in TN! 😂

I do have a good scale in the garage. I average 45%(+/-3%) of the field dressed weight of most whitetail deer here in VA. (Not including heart and liver that I keep - if not ruined) Bucks on the higher end and does on the lower. I do strip all the useable meat and trim off all the fat to get those averages.

I hammed and strapped for a long time when I cooked a lot of muscle cuts. Now with young kids in the house, I make a lot more burger and sausage to stretch it out and because they like it more than steaks or roasts.

Just made a 25# batch of boudin sausage this evening with the hearts and livers. The kids like it and I can use an extra 3-4# of each kill...

She does look like someone done beat 'er with an ugly stick.

Interesting... turned two hundred pounds of venison into thirty pounds of chicken.


....Shes a Witch!!

nice doe

Neck roasts are great eating. I always skin to the base of the skull and take out as much meat from the neck as possible.

Wow - took venison in and got chicken back! Such a deal . . . .

Yup, I agree.
After getting the same "service" from all of the processors around here, I finally hunted with my uncles. One of them was the head of the butcher shops for A&P. We'd process our own and I'm fortunate to have been taught a useful skill. It's always fresh now and tastes much better. To heck with bloodying up the car and wasting time with driving across the county to a check in station.

For me hunting alone on foot, its usually easier to take a new tarp or heavy mil sheet of plastic in the woods. Quarter them and pack out. Cool till firm and process ASAP. Some like to let them ripen, but I like em fresh.
The butcher knives are on the second generation now.
The best things my uncles left me were hunting, butchering skills and good memories.

Hahaha!
Them stinkin processors were always pulling a new one on me. LOL!


Poultry...paltry.... i am the product of the pubik skools. I'm trying to add new words to my vocabulary.

Thanks for the replies. One of my buddies in Washington state has a nice Cabell grinder that we used when I lived back there but I have not invested in one. I got 30# back from my doe so that sounds pretty normal.

That reminds me of the time I meant to get the big beer cooler from Sheetz when they gutted the store for remodeling. They were offered to me and I said I didn't have space at the time. Wish I had that thick insulation and freezer units now......for Free. A walk in like yours comes in handy.

I'm still looking for back shoulders

It's isn't hard to break down a doe, bone the 4 quarters, get the backstraps, loins and neck roasts. I have a piece of cow panel I hang in my shop fridge and run cord through tendons on quarters and let them hang in that fridge till I have time to process. The NEC roasts, backstraps and loins off a small doe can be cut up and frozen quick. I can do all of the above in less than an hour.

40’ish probably.

That’s what we do. Makes quick work of it.

Cut & wrapped, one beer case full.