How much meat off a boned out bull

Nathan K

FNG
Joined
Sep 28, 2020
Messages
53
Here's a site I found while curious myself.

I shot a small spike bull this year. 4 quarters, straps, loins, brisket, neck meat, ended up around 80 lbs fully processed by myself.

I shot a cow this year. She was small and I got about the same amount back. I had it processed.
 

Ucsdryder

WKR
Joined
Jan 24, 2015
Messages
5,487
Do it yourself! My butcher took my back straps. He lost a customer for life, i had used him for years.
How does a butcher take your backstraps? When they get checked in the butcher inventories everything. When you picked it up and didn’t have straps what did he say ?
 
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
Not a huge bull by any means. Unit 34 NM satellite bull taken last weekend by my buddy netted 250 lbs of meat back from the butcher after adding 30 lbs of beef ribeye trim to burger. We quartered bone in and got all the neck meat and everything we could from ribs.
 

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Joined
Oct 24, 2020
Messages
48
I have deboned and done the gutless method on four different elk packed out from the mountains. I usually pack out 200 to 225 pound of meat. There is a surprising amount of meat in the neck and the "rib roll" that a lot of hunters don't take off if they are not required to by law.

I then usually get back around 170 - 190 pounds of meet from the processor.....of course this depends how much was jerkyed or process where you loose a lot of wet weight.

If you are having ground or burger made, then there is no reason to lose a lot meat... As Long as it isn't dirty or bloodshot, most scraps should get tossed into the grinder. Especially then if you did chopped and forged jerky...A lot of scraps can be used to make that.
 
Joined
Oct 24, 2020
Messages
48
I've only take a few cows (this fall will by my first bull hunt) and butcher most of them myself. But I did take one cow to butcher and got back about ~125 lb.
I've shot one cow. Pulled off 180 pounds of meat, and got back about 140-150 pounds after being processed.
 

HookUp

WKR
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
Messages
957
How does a butcher take your backstraps? When they get checked in the butcher inventories everything. When you picked it up and didn’t have straps what did he say ?
I had around 8" of marked back straps off a 325" bull that was shot in the neck. The cow shot last year had 40" at least I put up myself. No other steaks to be found. I asked for prime steak cuts and burger. I got around 3-4 lbs of steaks off 180 lbs boned out meat. its possible they ground everything and were just lazy. I will never take elk to a butcher ever again.
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2014
Messages
931
Location
Kirtland, NM
I think it’s funny how so many report that butchers steal WG game. What are we/they going to do with it? Can’t sell it, don’t want to eat it. I’ve said it before that there are crooked people in every profession out there but why are processor’s looked at like we are perfect and don’t make mistakes? We definitely do. Everyone makes mistakes, what matters is how you handle them.

Here’s an example.

Did two lambs for a customer. He only wanted chops cut and said he wanted the rest cut into “chunks.” Office personnel took the order down just as he said. Meat cutters understood it as chops and the rest deboned “chunks.” When the customer picked it up he said he wanted the rest cut into “chunks” for smoking. His idea of chunks is different from what a butcher will call chunks. Only thing we could do was apologize. He was kind about it and said he will make it work. Myself and the other co-owner decided to process a wild game animal he brought in later for free. We are going to surprise him about it when he picks this one up.
 
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
2,591
Location
Tijeras NM
I think part of losing meat could be from bad meat too. Blood shot, spoilage, larvae etc. get the hide off ASAP and get it cooled down, keep it clean, get the meat in bags quickly and get it packed out quickly if it’s hot or hanging if the temps allow it.
 
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