# How many deer to feed a family of 4 for the year?



## Outdoorfan (May 14, 2012)

Any of you eat a steady diet of wild game throughout the year? With food costs being high,you try to offset it with wild game.


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## Tron322 (Oct 29, 2011)

just me and my wife...she doesn't mind store bought food...always gives me an upset stomach with occasional puking...cost me my trout opener in 2013 eating store bought chicken, I try to be done with it after that.

Got 4 whitetails last year, 2 turkeys, around 50 ducks with a few geese mixed in, few squirrels and bunnies thrown in for soups and stews along with fish and a few other small game...it has worked well. don't remember the last time we bought fish or game, our grocery budget is basically none...we go and get some noodles, lunchmeat, sausage, and bacon sometimes...but we Can food from our gardens, make our own bread, tortilla shells, and pizza crusts for a little variety..things really got boring compared to when we met LOL, we are up late tonight, but just because she is getting out last batch of carrots ready for the canner in the morning.

wish I would have figured it out years ago... but I live where I can hunt and fish within a 5 minute drive, that wasn't the case where I grew up in southern Grand Rapids.

personally I would get sick of venison all year, it is nice to have variety...different game and fish year round...getting stuff from the store on occasion.

I usually got one deer a year growing up and it made a nice meal every now and then for my family. most of the time I took the easy way out and dropped it at a processor, but now I process my own deer.

either way it is nice to help the budget, as long as the family will eat it up...had a stepsister once that found out the spaghetti we ate had venison burger in it...she proceeded to stick a finger down her throat and go bulimic...I found it quite amusing, and have since found a lot of people need growth hormone steroid fed critters to eat, all natural meat is no good for them I guess.

good luck out there...I hope someone can answer your question and the bashing doesn't start here too bad.


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

The Mrs and I had just a little left of 5 deer prior to mid October. We have 3 in there now, will get a couple more. The Out-Laws raise beef, chicken and pork. Meat is too expensive at the store


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## N.E. Outdoorsman (Sep 18, 2006)

We usually eat venison all year long. We are heavy meat eaters and still buy a lot of beef, pork, chicken from grocery. I would love to reduce that cost. I have laying chickens for eggs and will start doing meat chickens next year. We grew tomatos and will enlarge our garden next summer.

I plan to shoot some rabbits this year and that will add some variety, but Tron's menu sounds AWESOME! I didn't put 1 fish in the freezer this year. That has to change soon! No grouse or squirrels either :gaga:.

A steady diet of wild game would suit us just fine! Just need to put more game in the bag!

My estimate would be about 1 deer per mouth to feed.


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## Paperboy 1 (Aug 7, 2008)

N.E. Outdoorsman said:


> We usually eat venison all year long. We are heavy meat eaters and still buy a lot of beef, pork, chicken from grocery. I would love to reduce that cost. I have laying chickens for eggs and will start doing meat chickens next year. We grew tomatos and will enlarge our garden next summer.
> 
> I plan to shoot some rabbits this year and that will add some variety, but Tron's menu sounds AWESOME! I didn't put 1 fish in the freezer this year. That has to change soon! No grouse or squirrels either :gaga:.
> 
> ...


Yea that!


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## Zube (Mar 6, 2010)

5 deer gets us to September. It would last a while longer if I didn't have the 2 eating machines in the house still. We also put a lot of walleye in the freezer.


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## HuronView (Oct 18, 2014)

4 people x .5lbs/day-person x 210 day/yr = ~400lbs
210lbs is roughly 4 days of consumption/wk


400 lbs = (120 lbs live weight x 60% after processing) x (X #deer) 
= roughly 6 deer to do the job

Obviously, you'd need about double the deer if you wanted to eat only venison.


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## November Sunrise (Jan 12, 2006)

Family of four could easily eat four deer I would estimate.


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## brushbuster (Nov 9, 2009)

November Sunrise said:


> Family of four could easily eat four deer I would estimate.


Hell, i can eat 2 a year.
I just have a few packs of steaks and 10 #s of sausage left from an early oct. Doe.

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## KalamazooKid (Jun 20, 2005)

Our family of 4 will easily eat 4-6 deer per year and a ****load of bluegill fillets.


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## wdf73 (Sep 14, 2009)

If you have four people like my wife, one would probably be enough. If they are like my oldest son, I would say 124 would be more like it.


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## d_rek (Nov 6, 2013)

My wife loves venison, my three-year-old daughter is also becoming quite a meet hound,and we basically don't buy any beef if we have venison in the freezer. I also give away what seems like at least 15 to 20 pounds of meat to family and friends each year. We would probably need 6 to 8 deer to sustain us through the year LOL


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## plugger (Aug 8, 2001)

My wife and I will go through four and could probably use another one or two if she makes a bit of jerky and summer sausage. When my kids were teenagers and hunting a lot we would go through ten deer easily.


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## November Sunrise (Jan 12, 2006)

We have a large family. Kids have killed 6 deer so far - hoping for 6 more by the time we're all done.


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## plugger (Aug 8, 2001)

November Sunrise said:


> We have a large family. Kids have killed 6 deer so far - hoping for 6 more by the time we're all done.


 I had to read that a second time to see if your were hoping for six more deer or six more kids.


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## November Sunrise (Jan 12, 2006)

plugger said:


> I had to read that a second time to see if your were hoping for six more deer or six more kids.


One of my wife's lines is, "If she could get kids at Meijer she would have 12 more." That's coming from a lady who has went through labor a lot of times and whose husband eventually said, "We have enough.":lol:


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