I don't have the scale for weighing a field dressed deer so I sometimes take each quarter either before I hang it or before I butcher it and hold it while weighing myself on the bathroom scale. A real biggie can have a carcass weight of over 200 lbs. and I'd guess I lose maybe 25 - 30 lbs in bones and trim if it's well shot. I've never weighed the head, hide, hocks or guts. The heavier the carcass weight is, the field dressed weight or the live weight will naturally be exponentially greater. On a really big buck I'd guess the difference could be as much as 65 - 75 lbs. That would translate into a live weight of 300 lbs, or close to it. Does that sound about right? The times I've had to spend 3 or 4 hours dragging them out of the valley it seemed every bit of 300 lbs.
A 2 1/2 year old doe might only have 80 - 100 lbs of meat on it and less if you shot it in the pork chops ...... if you shoot a fawn the whole thing cut and wrapped will fit into an apple box. That's about the same as you get off a spring lamb (33 or 35 lbs. from my experience processing lambs). It was a few years ago, but guys told me they were paying about $60 Cdn to get their deer cut up and more for sausage, etc. One reason I like doing my own is that I get to make the steaks nice and thick (1 1/4" and one rib per chop, depending on the size of the deer) so I can broil them and get medium rare every time. I found when my neighbor used his bandsaw the blade kept wandering and the steaks were wedge shaped and impossible to cook evenly.
