Moose meat weight

[Bambistew]

I was reading a thread the other day on another board and the 'size' of moose came up. What I got from the discusion was that people tend to exagerte on the amount of meat they get off a moose. I've only packed 3 so far but they've all been about the same size. I actually weighed the one from this year when we got home. It wasn't a monster bull but wasn't much smaller than the bulls we shot last year either. The boned hind quarters weighed 95lbs The fronts were 70 total weight was 440. The bulls from last year we estimated at 475. I wold believe our estimate was close.

I also asked the gal at Indian Valley Meats here in Anchorage on size. She said a monster bull would weigh 600 lbs bone in quarters, hinds weigh about 125. She also said that 500 lbs was a typical weight for a bull off the penisula and a little less for interior bulls, boned.

I was around a few dead Shiras bulls in mt but never packed one. The seemed pretty big too. I can't remember the weight from the ones at the butcher shop when I worked ther but want to say hanging carcases were around 400lbs.

I've also weighed quite a few elk and they were considerably lighter than a lot of people think. The most I can remember recieving from the butcher cut and wrapped was 260 lbs. It was by far one of the biggest bodied bulls I've been around and was shot in sept at the peak of of his weight. Bone in quarter weight, trim and back staps was 380 lbs.

Back to the point, I was wondering what your weight experinces are and if it was estimated or weighed for moose.

 

[2rocky]

Bambi, I haven't had the pleasure of packing a moose yet. but since yo mentioned elk....

Four elk 2 done in the traditional Sawn Quarters and 2 "indian (gutless) quarters".

my 2008 WY elk was sawed and weighed 407 at the meat plant post skinning.
my 2007 Wy Elk was sawed as well and 380 at the meat plant.
My 2005 Oregon Bull was 283 with indian quarters
My 2010 CA tule elk was 218 with indian quarters.

My father has had only one bull (his best to date) go over a 400 pound carcass.

My best guess is that the dressing pecentage for moose is near the same as for elk...

 

[----]

260 pounds of wrapped meat off an elk is ridiculous.
It's amazing how much bigger bodied an old bull is than a cow/raghorn.

I'm thinking minus the straps and loins, the four bone in quarters off my bull last year were like 190.
He was bigger than most the raghorns I've helped pack, but not even close to the body size of the six year old bull my fiancee shot the year before.

We kill a lot of whitetail bucks, and weigh them all 'hanging weight' (minus hide, guts, and head). They're almost always between 100-120 pounds, with one giant seven year old buck of ours going 143. We always figure if you double the hanging weight on deer you'd be close on live weight, so that guy was probably a 280 pound buck.

 

[Wyodeerhunter]

There is an Indian valley meats in anc? Did you get any moose bacon made? That shit is amazing!

 

[Bambistew]

Well if I said Indian, no one whould know WTF I was talking about.

Yeah the bacon is awesome, I like the hot breakfast sausage better.

Randy,
I killed a bull a couple years before that netted 240lbs of cut and wrapped, but on average I would agree a typical bull will net you about 160-180lbs. The only reason I know the weight is because I had to get it on the plane with me in as few boxes as possible.

I've weighed a couple whitetails I've killed that were right at 200lbs (gutted only) they were considerably bigger boddied than most I had killed though.

 

[Drake4]

I weighed the 3 game bags from my archery bull this year..I was between 210 and 215 pounds of boned meat. We do all our own buthering...but I would imagine you get a little more "net" weight from a butcher shop as they are not quite as picky with the trimming as we are.

 

[ismith]

Well, I still hurt from packing my bull the 400 yards to the truck. I didnt weigh the boned out meat though.

 

[AKDrifter]

Dropped off 488 without backstrap, loin and flank from this guy.

 

[Gerald Martin]

My Montana Shiras bull from 2003 gave me 333lbs back from the butcher after trimming and grinding.

The couple of bull elk that I've weighed game bags from ranged from 215-260 lbs. boned out. That's before final trimming and grinding. That's just what I've packed out of the woods.

 

[danr55]

That's the biggest Beaver I've ever seen.. !!

Biggest deer carcas I've ever seen hanging weighed in at 186 pounds less hide, head, hooves, and guts. I guessed his weight on the hoof to be about 325.

 

[CBender09]

My Montana Shiras bull from 2003 gave me 333lbs back from the butcher after trimming and grinding.

The couple of bull elk that I've weighed game bags from ranged from 215-260 lbs. boned out. That's before final trimming and grinding. That's just what I've packed out of the woods.

Not trying to revive an old thread..but I just heard my moose is done (Montana bull), and came out with 168# total, vacuum packed everything, no grind. 50#steak, 118# trim.
Seams a little low? We aren’t the best field butchers, and I don’t think he was the biggest moose on the mountain, but I was expecting more around 200#.
I dropped off all bone-in quarters, and a bag with the backstraps/tenderloins. Kept all the rib/neck/etc trim at home

 

[shrapnel]

My taxidermist once told me how many 250 pound bears he picked up by the hind legs. It seems everyone gets a bit over zealous when they talk about the game. I shot a good Shiras moose this fall, easily the biggest ungulate I’ve ever killed. We cut the quarters off the carcass and as much meat was we could salvage off the carcass and the quarters weighed 345 pounds, the trim was an additional 100 pounds.

I have never seen an elk, even in a 380 class size that would come close to this moose...

 

[rmyoung1]

My taxidermist once told me how many 250 pound bears he picked up by the hind legs. It seems everyone gets a bit over zealous when they talk about the game. I shot a good Shiras moose this fall, easily the biggest ungulate I’ve ever killed. We cut the quarters off the carcass and as much meat was we could salvage off the carcass and the quarters weighed 345 pounds, the trim was an additional 100 pounds.

I have never seen an elk, even in a 380 class size that would come close to this moose...

View attachment 157859

That’s a monster Shiras bull! Holy smokes!!

 

[Happy Myles]

A few years ago I took a good Alaskan moose and as I recall the butcher shipped me 576 pounds of packaged meat.

 

[CBender09]

My taxidermist once told me how many 250 pound bears he picked up by the hind legs. It seems everyone gets a bit over zealous when they talk about the game. I shot a good Shiras moose this fall, easily the biggest ungulate I’ve ever killed. We cut the quarters off the carcass and as much meat was we could salvage off the carcass and the quarters weighed 345 pounds, the trim was an additional 100 pounds.

I have never seen an elk, even in a 380 class size that would come close to this moose...

View attachment 157859

Congrats! I’ve seen a few pictures of that one, here, and other sites. That thing is massive..especially his left side.

As I’ve thought about it some more, I think it’s about spot on. Probably 195lbs ish, processed and packaged meat, when I include the 30 or so lbs of trim from the field. Definitely a little over-estimated. But that 190 lbs is plenty to fill my freezer, and it’s not even general season yet!

 

[Carnage2011]

We recently flew home 589lbs from a friends Alaskan moose. That’s no bones, and every ounce of meat we could take off the animal.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

Old thread, but since it’s been revived, we got 350 pounds of boned out meat off our shiras last year. This is a weighed amount. I was expecting more but haven’t gotten an elk yet so I don’t really have a baseline to go off other than a whitetail.

 

[brendog84cj8]

Got a Montana bull Moose last year. The 4 quarters were 329lbs. I always take a healthy amount of meat that stays attached to the front quarters, which had them almost weighing the same as the hinds. Just to be clear I am not one of those goof balls that hauls the lower hoof end of each leg back to the truck. I then had about 130-140lbs of loose meat off the animal. So I would of had 459-469lbs of meat i took off the animal. I didn't do a final weight after trimming and packaging but if was to guess it would have been 300lbs or a little less. It was a ton of work I will say that, along with all the meat, my buddy and I also took the head and full hide back to the truck. Had to have been at least 600 lbs of stuff that was hauled back to the truck. Shot the moose at 7:25 pm, end of shooting light was 7:50pm. After all the processing and multiple trips back to the truck, we were done right about 6:00am. By the time we were back to camp it was a 26 hour day. Moose are a ton of work I will tell you that. Be prepared for some heavy loads if you have to put it on your back.

 

[Sask hunter]

The two moose I have shot went 550 bone in and 435. Takes a really big moose to break 600 bone in and usually don’t get much bigger

 

[MMS1919]

We just finished my brother's cow moose from North Dakota. A total of 217.5 lbs of cut and wrapped meat went in the freezer. This includes a few bone in cuts like ribs and cross cut shanks.