I decided to try a new processor that was closer to my home. He just went in business for himself this year and is a one man operation. Just picked the meat up today and I believe I got screwed. Tell me if I did. See below photos. I called the guy back and asked if some of my meat was left behind. He said no. I told him I really expected more than 20 lbs of meat back. After stating he was a honest christian man at least twice...he stated he would give me some of his personal meat back or half my money back. I'm really not trying to give this guy a hard time but 20 lbs of meat is ridiculous. Am I right? The guy charges $55. I feel pissed not necessarily by being charged this amount for his services but the fact that so much of my deer was wasted. How much should I have expected to get back? I'm thinking at least twice this much. 2.75 lbs of backstrap...shouldn't I have gotten close to 8 or so? This is all I received. Burger = 9.25 lbs Steak (hind quarter meat) = 8 lbs Innerloins (Sweet meat) = .75 lbs Backstraps = 2.75 lbs Total = 20.75 lbs I would call this a medium to large size doe for the area. 80-90 lbs dressed I'd say. The shot entered in her right hind quarter and took out her liver and part of one lung. It did not touch the backstrap. I realize there would be SOME waste on that hind quarter. This is all the backstraps I received back This is the total amount I received back. This is on a 7 cubic foot freezer.
There is no doubt you are missing meat... He simply didn't do a very good job of butchering either lack of time, ambition or what, which has nothing to do with his Christianity....... he took the obvious and threw out a lot of bologna/hamburg meat.. he was likely honest, you didn't have any left behind, he just didn't take it off the carcass.
The doe I butched last year should have been in that 90 - 100 lb range after being gutted. I had weighed her but don't remember the exact weight... I am thinking it was 96 lbs but again not sure. We boned her out and got 46 lbs of meat. I weighed it and do remember that. We didn't leave anything including the meat between the ribs. Her 2 back straps weighed 6 lbs combined. Tim
Agreed... and even if a guy didn't take it all, that doe should have yielded 35 lbs easy... I know I get around 60 lbs of meat out of my bucks... and I'm finicky... ;-)
I took the deer in whole (only way he accepts them). He did say that he didn't cut the rib meat out but that would have been miniscule anyhow. Getting half my money back will help but I'm still upset that a lot was evidently wasted.
I usually shoot for 35-45% back in meat in relation to how much the deer weighed field dressed and depending on where I hit the deer.
I think he didn't 'screw' you but he left a lot of meat on the bone. I think you lost a lot of trim and hindquarter with that hit. How trimmed are the backstraps? 2.75 lbs seems light but maybe he trimmed the heck out it??? It sucks that you had this experiece. That's why I do my own butchering. I once had a processor turn a whole deer into hotdogs (major screw up on butcher's part)..... and I hate hotdogs.
I killed a doe about that size last week and the backstraps weighed 5 lbs. Off of the rear quarters alone I got 17 lbs of very clean meat. So just the backstraps and rear qtrs alone I got 22 lbs. I just checked the inner loins and they were 1 lb. I agree with the others, I think you are missing some meat. Sometimes it feels like a pain in the ass but this is why I like to process my own deer. We also save all and any scraps and use them for dog/cat food.
Never expect to get more than 25% of the weight of the animal back in meat from any processor. It is time consuming to properly trim all the meat out and combined with a low rate and costs to wrap, you gotta DIY if you want a higher yeild but I guarantee you NOBODY is getting nearly 50lbs of venison from a 100lb deer.
Guess I'm in the minority, cuz I think he screwed ya. Less than 3 lbs of backstrap is ridiculous, and how hard is it to cut off meat for grinding? He's filling his own freezer, IMO
I agree...I'm not happy. Usually a deer of this size...the cooler I use to transport it is full to the rim. This meat barely filled it half way. I wonder if he even used any of the front shoulders and the neck. And the backstraps...guess he ate good that night. The 3 packs of backstraps are thawing out now. I sometimes process my own deer but I absolutely dread it. It takes me forever but I do use all the meat I can. It is rewarding eating the meat that I did myself. It just takes me way too long to do one deer.
I just got my deer back from the processor last week, it was 98 pounds field dressed and i got 43 pounds of meat
That would mean my deer weighed a whopping 38 lbs. She was a bit more than that. I'll definitely go elsewhere from now on.
Yep definitely didn't get all the meat off that one. Although last year we were only able to get around that much meat off of a 150 lb buck. Had been hit by a car between that and my piss poor shot we lost pretty much everything but the back legs and the back straps. Took my deer in and get it back Monday to a place we have never used before. I am worried about the results especially since around here its around $100 to process a deer. I would say if you do it yourself you hit in around 50-55% and most descent processors would probably get you around 45%. Anything less than 40% and I would say you got screwed.
We process our own. We usually figure between 40-50% of dressed weight is what we get back. I've got almost 200 lbs in my freezer so far this year. Been a pretty productive year so far
$55 and he didn't even Vacum seal it??, and I would agree, that doesn't seem like much at all man... I've always trusted my guy... but I'm going to weigh my next one to be curious...
