What's a Quartered Elk Weigh?

[Randy Newberg]

I've often wonder this myself. I've never weighed quarters when I got home, but wish I would have. On our opening week hunt, our guest hunter, Beau Baty, shot a bull. Given Beau weighs everything for llamas so that each side of the load is balanced to the pound, this seemed like a good time to film such. Thanks to Marcus for the idea and for filming it.

This was an average sized 4.5 year old (best estimate of age) bull, weighed with bone in. The elk I have shot in central and eastern MT are larger than what I see in the mountains here in SW MT. Not sure if that is a result of higher quality forage in certain habitats.

Interested what all you might have for weights on bulls you may have put on a scale.

[video=youtube_share;18GJU1C9R5E]https://youtu.be/18GJU1C9R5E[/video]

 

[Coach529]

Good info........thanks!!

 

[Wrench]

I've weighed a few elk and most of mine, skinned and headless range from 325 as the low to 470 as the high with several in the 375 area. Trimmed up its pretty humbling.

 

[Forest]

My bull out of the Missouri river breaks in 2016 had a hind quarter weight of 64 lbs. That is the only quarter I weighed just for curiosity and was an older bull than the one in your video. I feel they weigh much less than what most people think they do ha, seem to be the same guys that have 4-5 trips with over 100 lb packs.....

 

[spaniel]

As I pack out on my back, I leave the bones in the field. "Quartering" is a misnomer, as there is a ton of rib and neck meat on an elk.

In my experience I get about 200lb of finished meat of an average bull elk to pack out. Give or take, YMMV.

 

[cnelk]

Plenty of variables that will give differing weights.

There are strains of elk that are bigger/smaller than others, even in regions.

Early season elk will weigh less than late season elk.

 

[WTFJohn]

Great thread Randy. To contribute, I shot a 5x5 in CO Sunday morning and just threw a front shoulder and a rear leg on the scale. 38 lbs for the front, 63.5 for the rear. Both cut at the knee joint, but otherwise bone in. I already processed the backstraps and misc meat, but knowing the weights of the quarters I'd say I had north of 100 lbs between the backstraps/loins/misc meat & the head/horns.

 

[Redside]

I weighed my archery bull quarters last year, and my rear quarter was in that 63-65lbs range bone in. That was a SW MT younger bull. That is interesting to think about the weight difference between a archery bull and a rifle bull.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Good video! I recently (3rd season CO) packed out a very similar size bull elk (average/small 6x6) to the one in the video. I have 4 pack llamas so I did almost the exact same thing as in this video. I boned out the hindquarters but the shoulders were left bone in. I can't remember the exact numbers but each llama averaged right about 60 pounds each give or take a few. I carried the rack out on my pack since it kept getting caught on branches and the llama didn't like that. We were packing through some heavy oak brush at times. Thanks for sharing.

 

[davsco]

each llama averaged right about 60 pounds

man those are some small llamas!! ahaha

 

[jinksedagain]

My fathers bull harvested in NE Oregon that I just hung in the cooler last week was 81 and 82 Lbs for each hind quarter cut at the knee bone in and 50-ish for the fronts same cut at the knee. 40 Lbs of back strap and tenderloin.
-Jake

 

[HookUp]

Randy Newberg quality poster!

 

[Jordan Budd]

My bull out of the Missouri river breaks in 2016 had a hind quarter weight of 64 lbs. That is the only quarter I weighed just for curiosity and was an older bull than the one in your video. I feel they weigh much less than what most people think they do ha, seem to be the same guys that have 4-5 trips with over 100 lb packs.....

I agree with that! I talked to some guys that thought it was going to take 4-5 trips with the both of them. I did mine deboned solo in 3 trips. Granted it wasn't too far and was all downhill, but I could have done it in a few different situations just would have taken longer. It was heavy but do-able. Next time I'm taking the head out with the slightly lighter trip though... I had a deboned shoulder and ham when I took the head out and didn't take the lower jaw off.. which from now on no matter what I'll be skinning and taking the jaw off..

 

[Oregon]

Shot a spike Roosevelt Saturday. Took the 4 quarters only to butcher. All 4 combined weighed #172.

2 years ago I shot a big mature Roosevelt. Dropped hindquarters only off at butcher.
Just 2 hindquarters weighed #196.

 

[JPD350]

I killed a young Gila bull this year that was really small, the hind quarters weighed 46lbs each and the fronts were only 26lbs each, bone-in and cut at the knee, all the rest was barely 35lbs. A couple years ago I killed an older bull in the same area and got 240lbs of boned out meat so I agree that there can be a huge difference even in the same area.

 

[5MilesBack]

I don't quarter very often, but I sure wish I'd weighed those rears on my daughter's bull last year. Biggest I've ever seen. They were a chore just to lift with my hands to my chin to hang them, and I do barbell lifts to my chin with 95lbs pretty much year round. They were a lot bigger than the ones on my bull from two years ago, and I weighed all of that deboned meat at 268lbs when I got home. That was the only meat I've ever weighed in all my years of elk hunting.......probably because it was the most meat I've ever gotten off a bull.

 

[hunter4life]

I have weighed a couple of quarters on New Mexico bulls that were prepped just like the ones in the video. Big, old, Gila bulls generally will go 85-90 pounds for each hindquarter and about 50-55 for the fronts. I have not weighed out each backstrap and they will vary based on how much neck meat you leave attached. One absolutely monster bull my uncle killed would have been significantly heavier but he was boned out and then a bear got into the meat, so we never got a weight on his quarters. That bull was an outlier.
An older Northern NM bull I weighed went 75 for each back and 45 for the fronts.
Younger bulls will weigh quite a bit less, about like the one in the video. You know the quarters are big when you have to hug them to your chest to hold them up while your buddy ties them to a tree branch to hang. If you can grab the bone and tendon and lift, then it isn't one of the big boys.

 

[chindits]

Glad this came up and the wide range of weights. I was a little disappointed with only 200 pounds of boned out meat from a small 6 this year. That included neck, flank, shank, with the quarters meat, loin and straps. No rib meat. Little bit of one front shoulder blown out. Now I don’t really feel so bad about the weight brought out. However during the pack out I thought it sure was more.