meat yield

[snowbank]

Over the last couple of years a number of people have talked about packing out a whole elk on their back so I thought I would provide some details. Now many of you were in Colorado and maybe the elk there are much smaller than those in Montana. I just cut up a 3 year old dry cow. I packed out the quarters on horses about 3.5 miles with the hide on. Skinned it out at the ranch, trimmed the fat and bloodshot, washed the quarters and dryed them, hung for three days at about 33 degrees and them tossed them in a freezer until I had time to cut them up.

The yield was: 71 pounds of bone (I share the big ones with my dogs), the trim was 11 pounds, ( that feeds the barn cats ). I got 96 pounds of hamburger or sausage meat and 72 pounds of steaks and roasts. I'm not as picky as my partner for many years where he would flesh the hide and claimed it would yield up to 15 pounds of hamburger. As a long term serious elk hunter it sickens me to see carcases where the rib and neck meat was left as well as the lower leg meat. Often over half is left in the woods. A couple of years ago I found a spike and then a calf where only the back straps were taken. Even the tenderloins were left.

I don't like to lecture but the waste of a tasty resource bothers me immencely. If you don't want to eat it either pack it out for others or find a new hobby. They are too hard to come by to waste.

[wawhitey]

I dont eat rib or lower leg meat from anything i kill. The dogs csn have that. Do you eat lungs? How sbout pecker meat? Technically thsts edible, and im sure there are some guys out there that would love to feel morally superior by browbeating you for not eating lung and pecker, you wasteful heathen.

[snowbank]

As long as the discussion has been expanded there are other options to be considered. One year on a pack near camp we brought out the tongue. It's kind of long and ropelike but was very tasty. My wife's family likes them pickeled but I grew up boiling them. For the yesrs I worked in years I worked in Spokane I had a standing order for testicals. He liked them fried for breakfast but said they were kind of chewy like gizzards. Another in the office requested kidneys. But when I was young I worked for a particular annoying gentleman and so I brought out the pecker. There is about is about 6-8 inches of edible meat where it connects on to the pelvis. He got it cured and smoked for xmas. He said it was tough but tasty. Lungs have no meat and can contain at times parisites and should be handled carfully.

Over the years I have worked with Germans and Croations that made very good head cheese and blood sausage but never aquired a taste for it. Given the choices I felt I was being quite coservative.

[saddlesore]

You won't get but a few pounds of meat off the ribs if you strip them off and1/2 of that is fat or sinue. Young deer and elk, I will take the ribs to barbecue though. Colorado recommends not taking the neck meat up too far to stay away from the lymph glands because of CWD. If your taste run to organ meats, fine, but they are the worse thing to eat if you have high cholesterol. I grew up dirt poor and a lot of times all we got to eat was organs, heart meat, tongue,etc. if we got that when and if we sent a beef to processor. We had to sell the rest. Many times all the meat we had was the canned stuff when the govt. gave out surplus food from USDA.. If someone else wants what I don't pack out they can go in and pack it out themselves. At my age, I'm fussy about what I eat. I bring out 4 quarters, tenderloins, back straps taken from the pelvis all the way up to the neck ad tenderloins. Scavengers need to eat too.

In early season like archery or muzzle loader, it doesn't make much sense to try to bring out every little scrap and take the chance of meat spoilage of good steaks so one can bring out trash meat. If you debone every thing at the kill sight, before it goes thru rigor mortis, you end up with tougher meat.

Google University of Wyoming , Elk Carcass and there is a PDF file on how much meat to expect out of calves,cows,bulls at various ages.

Or PM me with your email address and I will send it

[Swede]

I do not eat brains, tongue or guts. If someone wants the nads from my bull they will be waiting for you in the canyon where I butchered him. Be sure to hurry in and get there before the coyotes and birds arrive.

[Indian Summer]

Snowbank... you mentioned that you use horses. Do you look down on hunters who don’t take every scrap of meat because they are miles in and don’t use livestock?

Keep in mind that the law only requires hunters to salvage the 4 quarters, the back straps, and inner loins.

Birds have to eat too you know.

[Lefty]

There isnt as much packaged meat on game as many would like to think. I listen to some guys whine,"I only got back 60 lbs of meat from that doe, the guys that cut it up,.. "

Growing up, my mother made sure there wasnt enough meat on the bones for birds. ,. and we hand ground all that tough stuff and wrecked good burger .
All birds were plucked, cooked with skin on.

Heck my dad had us taking off cheek meat on small fish.
Ok I still take of the cheeks,..

I do a good job around the neck meat,..I love tongue and heart, I sometimes will take a bit of liver
deer: rib stays unless the ribs make it home At home I will spend more time cleaning bone.
Ill also cook the bone for the dogs

[wawhitey]

There isnt as much packaged meat on game as many would like to think. I listen to some guys whine,"I only got back 60 lbs of meat from that doe, the guys that cut it up,.. "

Growing up, my mother made sure there wasnt enough meat on the bones for birds. ,. and we hand ground all that tough stuff and wrecked good burger .
All birds were plucked, cooked with skin on.

Heck my dad had us taking off cheek meat on small fish.
Ok I still take of the cheeks,..

I do a good job around the neck meat,..I love tongue and heart, I sometimes will take a bit of liver
deer: rib stays unless the ribs make it home At home I will spend more time cleaning bone.
Ill also cook the bone for the dogs

Ill take 40lbs of really good burger over 60 lbs of nasty burger with chewy bits any day.

[saddlesore]

Ill take 40lbs of really good burger over 60 lbs of nasty burger with chewy bits any day.

Yea,I am pretty fussy what goes into my burger too. A fella can mess up a big batch of burger by putting a little bit of meat in that should have gone in the scrap barrel

[WapitiTalk1]

Ill take 40lbs of really good burger over 60 lbs of nasty burger with chewy bits any day.

Yea,I am pretty fussy what goes into my burger too. A fella can mess up a big batch of burger by putting a little bit of meat in that should have gone in the scrap barrel

This ^^

[Swede]

It has been my observation that the good butcher shops cull liberally. Sometime it appears they are too liberal with cutting out just to save time.

[7mmfan]

If its edible and not contaminated in some form, I take it. Rib meat, diaphragm, liver, heart, tongue, it all goes. I put most of the "non-conventional" cuts I to the grind pile, no one knows any better.

I am careful when cutting my meat to trim appropriately and make sure everything I eat is quality. My wife won't eat it if its gristly or fatty, or has any tendons in it, so that's important to me. However, I feel like that since I killed that animal, I owe it to it to take every ounce I can.

Here is the last bull I shot.

[WapitiTalk1]

Geezus Rory, are you part beetle

[Swede]

Those bones could have been taken in a frozen. Later they could have been used in soup. What a waste.

[7mmfan]

Those bones could have been taken in a frozen. Later they could have been used in soup. What a waste.

God don't get me started. That neck makes me feel like such a disgrace! Should have hauled the whole thing out

[Indian Summer]

Diaphragm! Holy crap you’re part magpie. A downright scavenger. I have never heard of anyone eating that.

[saddlesore]

Diaphragm! Holy crap you’re part magpie. A downright scavenger. I have never heard of anyone eating that.

Yep,now they call they flat steak I think Snowflakes pay premium for it.

Surprised the stomach was left,you can take that, wash it out and make a poor man's tripe out of it or at least a water bag and the intestines can be used as sausage casing.Keep the brains and bladder contents for tanning .Truly wasteful.

I guess when you only kill one once every ten years,you need to take everything.

[7mmfan]

I was tempted to cut the meat off the skull this year and toss it in the grind. Surprising amount of meat on a head that just gets tossed. I test drove some cheek meat, and it was dang good!

[Indian Summer]

Diaphragm! Holy crap you’re part magpie. A downright scavenger. I have never heard of anyone eating that.

Yep,now they call they flat steak I think Snowflakes pay premium for it.

Surprised the stomach was left,you can take that, wash it out and make a poor man's tripe out of it or at least a water bag and the intestines can be used as sausage casing.Keep the brains and bladder contents for tanning .Truly wasteful.

I guess when you only kill one once every ten years,you need to take everything.

Haha! Yeah Saddlesore I don’t waste meat. But if I’m worried about perishing over the winter I just go shoot a deer. Just got one skinned and hung in the walk in cooler this morning. For the record I did not hang the guts.

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

[Lefty]

Years ago I use to feel guilty about giving trim to our dogs.
The dogs perfer the chewy fatty gristle tendon, sinew.
Some times at processing we will pre-cook the dog food and package it, Other times in the kitchen the dogs get their own pan of "stuff" .

[7mmfan]

Diaphragm! Holy crap you’re part magpie. A downright scavenger. I have never heard of anyone eating that.

Yep,now they call they flat steak I think Snowflakes pay premium for it.

Surprised the stomach was left,you can take that, wash it out and make a poor man's tripe out of it or at least a water bag and the intestines can be used as sausage casing.Keep the brains and bladder contents for tanning .Truly wasteful.

I guess when you only kill one once every ten years,you need to take everything.

Haha! Yeah Saddlesore I don’t waste meat. But if I’m worried about perishing over the winter I just go shoot a deer. Just got one skinned and hung in the walk in cooler this morning. For the record I did not hang the guts.

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

Dont tempt me IS!

[7mmfan]

Years ago I use to feel guilty about giving trim to our dogs.
The dogs perfer the chewy fatty gristle tendon, sinew.
Some times at processing we will pre-cook the dog food and package it, Other times in the kitchen the dogs get their own pan of "stuff" .

My dog gets her fair share of trim, and I bring home big bones if I can for her to chew on.

[Indian Summer]

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

Dont tempt me IS![/quote]

And then of course there’s the “tube steak”.

[7mmfan]

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

Dont tempt me IS!

And then of course there’s the “tube steak”. [/quote]

It all grinds the same right?

[Tigger]

We have processed our deer for years, but one of our guys would throw the most disgusting stuff in the grind pile that we had to have one person just monitor his contributions. We tried giving him different jobs and telling him we didn't want to eat that gristle or bone, but it never worked. I can always remember him eating chicken....no matter what piece he ate, the only thing he left was bone. Ate all the gristle and fat and frankly, I am not sure he didn't eat the little bones.

We do the standard; 4 quarters, backstraps, tenderloins and neck meat.

Oh, and I can tell you that a whitetail fawn, if you take all of the meat and make it into hamburger, yields 14 pounds. However, the ability to tease your dad about shooting said fawn is priceless!

[wawhitey]

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

Dont tempt me IS!

And then of course there’s the “tube steak”. [/quote]

Wapititalk challenge. Prize to be announced later. First to post a youtube video of themselves eating an entire elk tubesteak wins the prize. Puking results in immediate disqualification. Some dry heaving is acceptable, even expected. Bonus prize for including the round steak as dessert.

[Elkhunttoo]

I'll pass on the competition

I will guarantee I'm not the best because no thank you on some of that stuff you are talking about, but I'm also not the worst. I take all of the standard cuts tigger said, and I process all of my own meat because that's the way I was raised and I'm to cheap to pay someone to do it when I know I can.

I can also agree on the fact that some people think there is way more meat on a deer then there is.

[wawhitey]

I'll pass on the competition

I will guarantee I'm not the best because no thank you on some of that stuff you are talking about, but I'm also not the worst. I take all of the standard cuts tigger said, and I process all of my own meat because that's the way I was raised and I'm to cheap to pay someone to do it when I know I can.

I can also agree on the fact that some people think there is way more meat on a deer then there is.

Oh come on, everybody knows theres 90lbs of meat on a 100lb whitetail spike.

[WapitiTalk1]

7mm what about the sphincter muscle? You could tell yourself it’s poor man’s round steak.

Dont tempt me IS!

And then of course there’s the “tube steak”.

Wapititalk challenge. Prize to be announced later. First to post a youtube video of themselves eating an entire elk tubesteak wins the prize. Puking results in immediate disqualification. Some dry heaving is acceptable, even expected. Bonus prize for including the round steak as dessert.[/quote]

What’s the prize? I’m out whatever it is.

[Swede]

I think you are safe RJ on the prize giveaway. I would not eat that stuff if the prize was Big Red.