# Meat Yield From a Moose



## Guardian Slayer (Jan 14, 2008)

I had the good fortune of taking a 750 pound Bull Moose in October and am trying to figure out how much meat I should have ended up with. I requested bone out from butcher and received 172 pounds of meat. The break down was 41 one pound packs of steaks, 11 one pound packs of chops, 7 five pound roasts and the balance as chunks which I did final processing on. I was assuming I should have had a yield of 350 pounds of meat, so any input on yield would be appreciated.


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## Bobmuley (Jan 14, 2004)

I'd be asking questions from my butcher.:thumbs_do


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## JDS-1 (Nov 15, 2007)

Somethings not right. You shot a 750lb monster and got 172 lbs of meat :set1_thinking: doesn't add up. Better have a chat with him. He's got the rest of it somewhere :angry:


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## Crazy_Boxer (Apr 24, 2008)

I think you should be closer to 250 lbs. A third of the weight is a good estimate.


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## LtlRushnArchr30 (Nov 3, 2007)

750lb moose you should end up wiht about 300-350lbs of meat. my 1000+lber yeilded a few pounds shy of 500 and my 800lber who was 12.5 yrs old yeilded 295 but he was skin and bones from the rut plus he was old.


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## Guardian Slayer (Jan 14, 2008)

My moose was five years old and looked very healthy.


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## shaffer88 (Dec 3, 2007)

i think the butcher is trying to make a little money off of you. cant say that i blame him i would want to keep a hundred lbs for myself too:--) just kidding i would talk with him and be very influential


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## LtlRushnArchr30 (Nov 3, 2007)

ya you should deffinately be in the 275+ range


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## LtlRushnArchr30 (Nov 3, 2007)

I would deffinately have a chat with your butcher.


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## brendog84cj8 (Jan 17, 2007)

My first question would be on the 750lb weight... was that a hanging weight with the legs, hide and head still attached? Was that completely skined with the lower legs, and head removed?

I always have a very hard time answering these types of questions but one thing I do know after butchering all of my own game for years is that the bones weigh a hell of a lot and if you are really serious about trimming out all of the silver skin/connective tissue out of everything you really dont get as much meat as you would think out of an animal.


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## hotrod26 (Aug 24, 2006)

If 750 was the live weight then you should have about 250Lbs. My butcher told me that you divide live weight by 3 to get approximate meat yield.


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## Nameless Hunter (Feb 10, 2007)

What he said.

From Alaska.com

Moose
Live weight 750-1,650	
Carcass weight 375-835 
Boned-out carcass 250-600




Bobmuley said:


> I'd be asking questions from my butcher.:thumbs_do


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## Guardian Slayer (Jan 14, 2008)

The 750 pounds was the weight at the tagging station after being field dressed. The butcher claimed the hanging weight with head, hide and legs removed was around 450 pounds.


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## LiteSpeed1 (May 21, 2005)

Your butcher's not running any specials on moose meat is he? I agree with what others have posted...275-350 pounds of yielded meat.


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## xswanted (Feb 1, 2008)

Something is a miss.

My cousin and uncle both shot moose a number of years ago and I believe both moose were in the 900 pound or slightly heavier range.

Both moose yielded above 400 pounds of meat.

I'd be asking questions.


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## LiteSpeed1 (May 21, 2005)

I just found an article from the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game where they had a "calf kill" in an area where there was such a large population of moose that it was becoming a burden on their food sources. It does state that a calf dressed at 102 kg and yielded 43 kg of boned-out meat. This is almost 43%. I can't get the article to copy and paste, but if anyone wants me to, I'll post the address.


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## LiteSpeed1 (May 21, 2005)

Here you go. It's down about 5 pages.
http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/techpubs/propubs/young.pdf


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## Idabowhntr (Jul 1, 2005)

I shot a shiras in Oct. not sure of the live weight. Four quarters, backstraps, neck meat and some misc. pieces I recieved 410 lbs back from the processor. Delicious too!!


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## shaffer88 (Dec 3, 2007)

*+1*



litespeed1 said:


> your butcher's not running any specials on moose meat is he? I agree with what others have posted...275-350 pounds of yielded meat.


+1


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## LiteSpeed1 (May 21, 2005)

LiteSpeed1 said:


> I just found an article from the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game where they had a "calf kill" in an area where there was such a large population of moose that it was becoming a burden on their food sources. It does state that a calf dressed at 102 kg and yielded 43 kg of boned-out meat. This is almost 43%. I can't get the article to copy and paste, but if anyone wants me to, I'll post the address.


I need to clean my glass eye. I read this too fast and my numbers are off. But check the link, it's all there.


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## WaterboyUT (Mar 11, 2006)

Somthing is not right there for sure. I got about 100lbs of BUTCHERED MEAT from my spike elk last year!


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## Guardian Slayer (Jan 14, 2008)

Thanks for the great input


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## 5MilesBack (Feb 28, 2007)

You generally get about 30-35% of LIVE weight if you go the boned out route. This depends on a few factors including......WHO is deboning, any bad meat cut out, how meticulous the butcher is, and the species of the animal. Moose heads weigh a lot. There is more leg bone on a moose than on a cow, or a deer, or an elk. A moose hide will weigh a lot more than a deer hide.....etc.

But given that the dressed weight was 750, I'd say you should have received about 300lbs. If the live weight was 750, I'd go closer to 225.


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## Guardian Slayer (Jan 14, 2008)

Thanks for the info.




5MilesBack said:


> You generally get about 30-35% of LIVE weight if you go the boned out route. This depends on a few factors including......WHO is deboning, any bad meat cut out, how meticulous the butcher is, and the species of the animal. Moose heads weigh a lot. There is more leg bone on a moose than on a cow, or a deer, or an elk. A moose hide will weigh a lot more than a deer hide.....etc.
> 
> But given that the dressed weight was 750, I'd say you should have received about 300lbs. If the live weight was 750, I'd go closer to 225.


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## firecapt186 (Oct 31, 2004)

I'd have to agree with everyone else, 1/3 is a close estimate. I've been ripped off before and thats why I have all the machines to do all my own processing now. Plus 3 of us have killed 12 deer and 3 antelopes this year and it would cost me a fortune to pay for the processing.


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## cowboyarcher23 (Nov 2, 2008)

I am not trying to defend the processor that you went to but as a processor myself I get to see over 1500 animals a year. There are a lot of things that can afect the amount of meat that you get back. You can expect to get 50% of the weight of the animal with the hide off head off and the legs off so if the animal weights 400 pounds you should get 200 pounds back but if it is dirty,shot up, or if it was healthy or not. As a processor I as well get acused of stealing peoples meat by some but as a hunter as well my family shoots on avrage three elk some deer and we buy two buffalos a year. we also do not sell any game meat here so there is just no reason to steal any one elses meat for us but I also do know that some of the processors have been know to do that.


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## SteveR (Sep 18, 2002)

I would say that you didn't get all you should have by a long shot. It's happened to me, but only when I hunt large animals out of state and have to use a processor. I de-boned my own elk and got 250 lbs of meat out of an animal in the 600 lb range. I sent two to butchers when hunting in warmer weather, both a slightly smaller size, but only got back about 125 lbs each. I'm real positive they took a lot of meat - heck last year I got 98 lbs of meat out of the whitetail I shot (230 field dressed), and deboned myself. The elk were far more than twice as big. 

The problem I had when getting the meat back, was what do you say. I commented that it didn't look like much, but I couldn't actually weight it until I got home - 1800 miles away. Any future elk will only go to a processor after I ask them a few questions - one being how much meat can I expect back? If I don't like the answer, I'll go elsewhere.


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## v-hunter (Apr 4, 2008)

Can you name the processor? I'd like to get some moose summer sausage.:jksign:


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## Recoil Rob (May 10, 2011)

I know this raising the thread from the dead but I was Googling Dressed vs. Live weight and came across this. I just took my Maine moose on 10/11/16, gutted only, at the check station it was 742lbs. I have read add 30% for live weight and that came to about 960. 

We used a local processor who asked exactly how we wanted the moose cut up, they realize most guys are splitting it so the took an order for my side and one for my buddies side. We told them we needed it on Sunday morning to drive back to NY, "No problem, we understand".

They then proceeded to forget to do it and had to call in 2 guys to cut and 2 girls to wrap at 6am Sunday morning. Needless to say it was a rush job, we asked for 20 lbs of burger meat each, we got 100 lbs each. Good thing it's damn good burger...also about 140-150 lbs of steaks, roasts and other assorted cuts, each.

They didn't short us on the meat though, we ended up with close to 480-490lbs. between us. Just thought this might help someone going forward.


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## benbosh (Jan 14, 2014)

I think you got shafted.. last winter I got a tag for a road-killed buck, farily large-average body 160-180# (not good at judging) and since I didn't have much time I just ground it all into burger (except the back straps and a couple steaks) and ended up with 65# (I had 43 1.5# packages) just in burger alone. Only getting that much meat back from a moose doesn't seem right.


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## willphish4food (Nov 3, 2007)

Guardian Slayer said:


> The 750 pounds was the weight at the tagging station after being field dressed. The butcher claimed the hanging weight with head, hide and legs removed was around 450 pounds.


First, I would question accuracy of scales. One or both are off. There is no way that head, hide and forelegs weigh 300#! At best, 225 or so. Lets say the butcher's quote of 450 is correct, though. I just finished butchering out 6 cows with hang weights of 375 to 450. These were small, grass fed cows. Sides were 180 to 225 pounds. Trim weight was 35-45 pounds per side, leaving 145-160# of bone in meat per side. So with your weight of 175 total, thats roughly the weight I would expect from one side, with bone in steaks and roast, rather than both. Take the bones out, and you should still have 125-140# meat per side, or 250-280 total.

Rather than immediately suspecting the processor of wrong doing, were it me, I would try to find out why the weights are so off. Was there bone rot? Crusted meat that required a lot to be removed? Wound channel, bloodshot loss? Because basically, you're a minimum of 75# short, if what you're stating is the full story, and up to 150# short.


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## Honolua (Jun 6, 2013)

I'd sure as hell be asking his ass some questions...


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## Deerhunter 28 (Dec 1, 2010)

I have never killed a moose never been moose hunting.

I had the same discussion many years ago concerning how much a whitetail will yield.

I had a 150 pound buck live weight.
We got every bit of meat there was on him including the rid meat.
It weighed 50 pounds.

So on a whitetail about 33% of live weight will be actual meat.

I'm not sure if it would be the same on a moose?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## BigBrian (Jun 15, 2013)

Just to let everyone know, this thread is 8 years old. I think the OP has moved on from his question 8 years ago. LOL


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## conquestador (Mar 28, 2010)

I think everyone is pretty much on track here. Not a moose, but in our neighborhood a typical year and a half old whitetail dresses out at 100 lbs. I process my own and bone it out and get just shy of 40 lbs.


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