How much moose meat?
Moose
I'm going to Newfoundland this sept. How much boned-out moose meat can I expect from an average bull moose? I need to judge how many coolers to take.
Myself and two friends went to NL a couple years ago and one of us (not me) was lucky enough to take a bull that was estimated to weigh in about 900 pounds. We had it butchered in town and we picked up the boned out, wrapped and frozen meat from the processor the day we left. We filled three 120 quart Igloo coolers to capacity. If we had each taken a moose I don't know what we would have done as we only took four total coolers!
BTW the only thing in those coolers was the frozen meat. If you don't have time to allow for freezing the meat then you will have to allow for ice to keep the meat cool. I'd say figure on four 120 quart coolers for each moose harvested.
Nock-
The boned out meat...ALL meat..from my Yukon bull weighed 565 lbs. That is everything from neck to hock.
Hope that helps.
-Steve
I plan on 100lbs of boned meat per 120qt cooler
If your driving a truck you can turn your truck bed into a large cooler. It's easy. doesn't cost a lot and works very well. I brought an entire cut/wrapped and frozen moose home from NW Alberta to western PA and never lost any.....twice. PM if you'd like instructions.
Bestbowhunter- Could you give a brief description of your truck bed cooler. thanks
Bestbowhunter- Thanks for the info.
My hunting buddy was with me in NFL last fall. My bull filled 3 very large coolers...150 range and we needed another for the cape. We had 6 coolers of frozen, boned meat.
About 600lb. clean de boned meat from an average Canada moose....done a few.
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...took me and my buddy 3 hours...the rack was crappy and left it.
I shot a newfoundland moose a few years ago with the rifle, bones out and packaged it was 220lbs
You can always give some to your guide to accomadate what ever coolers you have! Have fun! Love the "ROCK"!
I shot a 1 1/2 year old bull in NFLD three years ago. I got 304 pounds of meat.....
I just hunted there 3 weeks ago..shot a moose..took every inch of meat I could off it...bagged it (5 full bags)...meat processor called me this morning and said 185lbs...there is NO WAY a moose only has that little meat...each bag was easily 75-110lbs..except for the backstraps.
I’d start asking questions mike..
I think I used two 150qt coolers for meat and one 100qt cooker for the cape.
Four of us went cow elk hunting one year. I can’t remember how many coolers we took, but we each killed a cow from 280 lb. to 480 lb. field dressed. They were weighed, not guessed. We bought every cooler in Raton, NM. Every. Single. One. My little trailer was solid coolers and we barely had enough. We should have had them processed and frozen but just had them cut up bone-in to fit in the coolers. Piss poor decision on our part.
I've only been involved with 18 Alaska moose. With bones in the quarters but everything else boned out, our moose averaged around 600 pounds when we got them to the butcher shop and paid by the pound.
My last bull elk yielded 312 pounds.
NW Alberta (up by BC and the NWT) 40" bull moose last year....460# of red meat without bones or fat. Included about 45#s of "dog" scraps. That filled my 12cu-ft chest freezer about 5/8 full for the 18 hour ride home...say 7 cu-ft of vacuum sealed meat with the hamburger meat in bigger 2 gallon bags to be ground at home.
An average Alberta, Canada moose will give 350 to 400 lbs of boneless cut, wrapped meat. A yearling bull would still be 250-300.
But that is with a whole carcass brought in, the butcher does the deboning. If we bring in deboned animals, moose or elk, where we did the deboning in the field it will be considerably less, or a ton more hamburger, probably because we hack off the meat and it’s difficult for them to cut up properly, oddballs cuts just get thrown out, especially if it’s a bit dirty, many butchers will cut off meat and toss it out instead of cleaning it.
Really depends when you weigh it. I've weighed them at different points and it can be so different without details. For example: 120lb hind quarter with hide and down to hock turns into 100lbs no hide and cut off at knees. That deboned turns into like 80lbs. Take that further and depending how much trimming you do and you can wind up with 65 lbs of meat off a "120lbs" of meat. Some guys quote what they are bringing home as meat, and then the final finished product is way different.
This year my Cdn moose yielded about 420lbs of quarters loose meat etc plus ribs. When it was finally packed I had about 300lbs of meat for the freezer plus ribs. Cut into steaks, roast, sausage and grind etc. Was likely a 3-4 year old bull. Little more damage with a rifle than bow.
1000 pound bull will give you approximately 500 lbs of meat It’s normally 50 percent give or take a but but it’s close
I killed a young bull and brought back 271#
2-1/2 year old bull yielded 540 lbs if delicious moose meat. It up took 3 of the large coolers.
We made a big plywood box lined with 2 in foam insul , it was exact size of truck box , put one stiffener in middle 2 pc lid so not so bulky .
Brought 2 boned , vac packed moose from NFL to Pa and had ice thrown on top once meat was loaded , never even thawed out 36 hours from load up to home Did fine. Could have got third moose in but would have had to forgo the ice but think it still would have been fine
