how much meat?

Just wondering how many pounds of meat do you get out of a mature bull elk?

Depends on how big it is. Reported weights ive been told vary 300-400 lbs live weight. Just like some whitetails at maturity weigh 125 lbs and some weigh 220.

250-350# average finished I would say if you just take in the qtrs and loins, add more if you get it in whole or stay and nit pick the neck meat and trim type meat. I m going off the average bulls I have seen over the years on public land, on the hoof I'd say they range from 500# up to 800#, A big old mature bull can go as much as 900#.. Hide, bones and head are allot of weight.

Boneless packaged meat seems to come out about 30-35% of live weight. Depending on how picky you are and how diligent you are at trimming. But other factors can make the yield a tad less or more, "neck shot/shoulder shot etc..." This has been my experience over the years.

Thanks that's what I was thinking. I've been hunting elk hard the last couple years around Chama New Mexico and haven't had any luck... Hopefully next week that changes..

Hope you get one!! Most anything can be figured 30% +/- live weight.

Good luck, Sq2. Beautiful country around there. Be safe and have fun. Good luck.

I got 230 lbs off mine. Boneless

Chama has some stellar bulls, haven't hunted there, but drove through many a time and seen some real nice ones around town.

230 to 350 boneless meat on the ones I have been lucky enough to get.

Yeah it's a cool area!!! I think some depends on if your packing it out on your back..

Thanks guys I'm hunting Texas this time. Spent around $7000 in the last 2 years so I'm gonna cheat.. lol I need to pull the trigger on one so next year it won't be so bad if I get skunked on my Colorado archery hunt..

7K!! how did you manage that, burn up truck?

BTW, I have only ever boned one out when I had help packing out. most the time I elk hunt alone and the bone in those qtrs sure help toting them out, for me anyway. I leap frog them out, so loading loose meat and unloading isnt going to happen, I carry a qtr as far as I can, then go get another, its a work out.

They were both outfitted hunts.. Yeah packing out meat is tough but I would definitely debone the quarters though..

Good luck.

I've found a good rule of thumb is to figure no more than 40% of the live weight of the animal to be edible boned meat. Your average bull elk will go about 600 lbs live weight. I base that on the 25 elk I've killed in my native CO and the 100 or so that I've seen killed. So your average bull will probably yield about 230-250 lbs of table fare. Bulls heavier than 600 lbs do get taken every year but I'm pretty sure 600 would be about average. But the 40% can be figured for whatever the weight is.

More than your family will eat in a year. So make sure it's vacuum packaged really well.