Many times a first time elk hunter finds themselves sizing up the freezer before they head out with the thought “If I get one will I have enough room?”  So I’ve taken a step here to elucidate folks on just what they can expect once they have an elk on the ground in terms of red meat yield.

The best way of estimating yield from an elk comes to us from the University of Wyoming.  Their 8-page publication “The Elk Carcass” provides an in depth look at the data collected from actual hunter harvested elk.  it provides a good starting point for hunters who want an idea of just how much meat is in a cow, bull or calf elk. 

In this publication are some formulas for estimating yield that you can use.

Whole weight = 1.42 x field-dressed weight 
Field-dressed weight (viscera and feet removed)= 0.70 x whole weight
Skinned carcass weight (skin and head removed) = 0.83 x field-dressed weight 
Boneless lean = 0.50 x field-dressed weight 

A real world example:

So if you are lucky enough to get a bull down in the back country , and you skin, and quarter the bull, that would be considered the skinned carcass weight.  Say he is like my 2007 bull and the 4 quarters weigh 360 pounds that night at the locker. 

DIVIDE 360 by .83  to get the field dressed weight of 433.7 pounds. 

To estimate the boneless meat yield then multiply the field dressed weight by  by .50 to get 216.9 pounds of boneless meat.  

I got nearly 250 pounds of boneless steaks, roasts, and ground meat from that bull, so you can see there is some wiggle room.  Generally bulls will be higher yielding than cow elk, simply due to additional muscle.  Below is a table from the Uof W publication I mentioned earlier.  Click for the full size table

So here is wishing you a happy hunt and a full freezer this fall.  Please let me know if these formulas work for your harvests.  Good hunting.