Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: gordydog on October 07, 2020, 01:00:17 PM
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I was looking at some Roger Rothhaar photos, particularly the monster buck hanging ungutted next to him indoors. Ryan, what did that weigh? What is everyone's biggest whitetail and what state? I weighed one dressed at 230# from
southern Wisconsin, a 4 1/2 year old
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My heaviest was 217# live weight. But I’m in TX, and our deer just don’t have the mass like northern deer do.
Bisch
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We have weighed alot with guts in. The biggest we have weighed were in the 265-270 lb range live weight.
Dad kept records and the most he ever had one lose was 38 lbs, with the average mature buck losing 30-35 lbs by field dressing. When you see guys talking 50+ pound losses with dressing...well.... :biglaugh:
Of course time of year matters, the buck I just killed in Indiana was this size (265), but he would have lost alot by mid November, probably 20-30 lbs I'd guess. He had fat pads 2 inches thick over his hips and rump.
Here in Indiana the 4 1/2 yr old and better bucks I've killed were all 240-265 live wt. In Iowa on Dads old farm the average 4-5 yr old buck was in the 220 range with only a handful of the really big ones over the years. Genetics? Feed? I don't know, but the Ohio/indiana bucks we weighed averaged more than the iowa bucks.
That one you are talking about was in that 250-260 range.
R
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Here’s a picture of the read out of a certified scale weighing a nice field dressed 11 pointer from 2016.
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Here’s a picture of the 11 pt. mentioned in earlier post [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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Growing antlers takes a lot of energy. The bucks tend to add a tremendous about of body weight after the antlers harden. Typically this is during the months of September and October. Ryan's buck had a huge body during the first few days October, and yet there were still 4 full weeks to put on even more weight. Acorns and many high nutritious food are all available. The huge necks and shoulder muscle these bucks build during prep for the rut are not filled with air, but heavy mass of dense muscle. The fat that Ryan described is also not going away, but will continue to build. We talk about "Come November" or the magic of the "November Rut" for a reason. It is then that the bucks go to chasing and tending does without eating properly. And it is then they burn off a lot of weight like Ryan describes. 20- 30 pounds by mid November and even much more by the end of November. If you think Ryan's buck looks big now, image that beast on Halloween! hahah I have killed a lot of bucks in Illinois and even Minnesota that field dressed 200 - 245 pounds.
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A seven year old Missouri buck that was either 203 or 207 field dressed and fat doe that was either 163 or 167 field dressed. If memory serves me right the doe was 163 and the buck 207 but that was many years ago. The buck was a heavy mass, short tine ten point that only scored in the mid 120s. Still the prettiest rack I have.
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205# dressed, Kentucky.
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Had a nice 10 point that field dressed 215#. NW Iowa.
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My biggest was 165#. Middle Georgia deer often don't run as large as in other regions of the country, but every once in a while somebody takes a really big one. I've seen a few of them...
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The biggest one I have ever seen was 311 lbs. live weight That said he was a pen raised stud buck that a friend had on his deer farm. I don't remember how many points he had but his rack was huge. As soon as his antlers hardened they were cut off to keep him from hurting the other deer in the pen. A buck isn't much different than a bull when the rut gets started, they will get dangerous real quick.
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My biggest Kansas whitetail buck field dressed 205#. Most FD I've shot were from 165-190. A friend of mine in Parsons, Ks. shot an average 8 pt that field dressed 308# and he kept the locker print out of the weight as it was so big. He looked like a butcher steer.
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Hunters tend to really over estimate the weight of "their" deer. Every year hear talk of 200+ pound bucks and 150 pound does.
Here in Kentucky, I've personally seen two that cracked 200#, and barely. Takes a heck of a doe to hit 120#. 100# is a good one. Most of the bucks I see that "had to dress 200" are more like 140-150#.
I do know they get much larger farther north.
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My biggest #206 dressed and this was killed during the prerut he was chasing [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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One of the largest my dad put on the scale was 265lbs +, field dressed Kentucky buck (very heavy racked 8pt)....stomach was loaded with acorns. Super thick layer of fat on carcass. This was a really good deer but not even his largest...just the largest I can remember him putting on a scale.
Lived in eastern South Dakota for a while during college...even larger deer up there. One of the professors up there did deer research and they had an experimental herd (penned). Does estimated field dressed weight over 200, bucks 300+
Northern deer are heavier...especially the corn feed ones.
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I've killed several in Michigan's UP that weighed over 200# dressed, the biggest was 215. My brother and I were in Bruce Crossing one day in late November when they were weighing one on the scale at Digger's bar, and that buck weighed 251 dressed. My brother killed one near Kenora Ontario a few years ago that weighed 245. He sent teeth to DeerAge.com to be aged. The letter he got back said the rings were very distinctive, and the deer was 9 1/2 years old.
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I've weighed every deer I've shot in the last 10 yrs at my home, the largest were 218, 215,208 and 204 all field dressed. They were taken in NE Iowa and SE MN. Biggest doe was taken in Wi and weighed 143.
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Kentucky for a while (might still do it but haven’t seen anything about it in a while) had a “trophy” doe program. Entry was a minimum 140 lbs field dressed.
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The year was 1982. I killed it in Northern Elkhart County, IN. Weighed on certified state scales at my Kingsbury WMA office. 265# field dressed. Eleven yard shot, he ran about 55 yards and fell just inside some thick stuff. A little 5-6 point went right up to where he laid and hung around. Landowner scooped him up in a tractor bucket after I field dressed him for the check station. I had seen him only one time before on a Sunday and killed him on a Wednesday AM.
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Hunters tend to really over estimate the weight of "their" deer. Every year hear talk of 200+ pound bucks and 150 pound does.
Here in Kentucky, I've personally seen two that cracked 200#, and barely. Takes a heck of a doe to hit 120#. 100# is a good one. Most of the bucks I see that "had to dress 200" are more like 140-150#.
I do know they get much larger farther north.
That's why we have a scale. And no, it's not certified but we've checked it with sacks of feed and it was PDC.
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#223 and #218 dressed. Half dozen 195+ dressed
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Mike ,
Is that “Shakes” ? I don’t recall seeing or having a photo of that one but if it isn’t him it must be his twin.
Here’s my 2017 I didn’t find for several days but I moved him out of some briars for photos and I don’t know what he weighed but in this picture I’m 300# on the hoof to give you an idea. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
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My heaviest whitetail weighed in a 210 lbs and we have had one that my brother killed weigh 220. Both are huge for South Georgia bucks!
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236lbs dressed and 92lbs of boned out meat.
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Put a perfect shot on a tall-tined 12 pointer that when I recovered him I knew he was way too heavy for me to drag back to the Jeep . . . and then I woke-up (needed to pee).
I hunt the deep timber of Michigan's Manistee National Forest and these high pressured, smart, forage eating deer just don't get large enough to put on a scale. I'm too old to be dragging brutes out of the forest anyway, but am envious of some of the deer I've seen in this post! Go Get 'Em Trad Gangsters!
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Put a perfect shot on a tall-tined 12 pointer that when I recovered him I knew he was way too heavy for me to drag back to the Jeep . . . and then I woke-up (needed to pee).
I hunt the deep timber of Michigan's Manistee National Forest and these high pressured, smart, forage eating deer just don't get large enough to put on a scale. I'm too old to be dragging brutes out of the forest anyway, but am envious of some of the deer I've seen in this post! Go Get 'Em Trad Gangsters!
The pics I posted were of a MI buck as well, but just outside of Kent County around farm ground. I grew up hunting Northern MI cedar swamps and big timber and could not agree with you more, although the APR's are growing some impressive bucks in some areas!!
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That's a real nice MI buck MGH. We have been seeing and harvesting larger antlered deer in Pure michigan since the Antler Point Restriction was enacted. Had to let some nice 'freezer deer' walk though because the points didn't add up. Makes hunting a tad more interesting as I don't want to make a mistake and shoot one that doesn't have the correct number of points. My eye glasses and binoculars get a workout before the decision to shoot is made. Shoot Straight!
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Most Oklahoma deer are on the small side, believe my biggest buck was in the 150# dressed range. Most were only 120-130#. But a friend and co-worker killed a monster just a mile from my house. Dressed weight was over 220# but not sure how much because his scale bottoms out @ 220#.
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The weight of bucks has always had a degree of mystery unless they were actually put on a scale. The local club I was a member of for 20+ years when I lived in Illinois (Central Illinois Bowhunters) had a history of weighing deer after they were field dressed for end of year statistics for club members dating back to 1970. Most 1.5 year old bucks average 135 lbs., 2.5 year old bucks 160 lbs., 3.5 year old bucks 180 lbs., and 4.5 year and older 200+. I have always laughed when I see a photo of a 1.5 old buck and the guy said it weighed 200 lbs. Did you weigh it or guess? My brother shot a 5 x 5 Illinois buck over the weekend. It looked to me like a 3.5 year old buck and tipped the scale dressed right at 200 lbs.
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I killed a doe in Pennsylvania three or four years ago that dressed out at 156 lbs.
I just heard about a buck killed yesterday from the same part of the state (north central PA) that was 267 lbs. live weight. That's the biggest PA buck I've ever heard about.
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We've had a lot of bucks between 225-250, but my biggest was 255. My uncle on the other hand went three years in a row with bucks maxing out a 300lb scale about 15 years ago. Two years ago a buddy had one go 315 from southeast Kansas.
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Last years weighed 240 dressed. Ended up getting 90 pounds of meat off of it. I was very happy with that!
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Wow, you guys are getting some monster deer. I only see those guys on trail cam.
My heaviest was a 30-30 killed 165 lbs. 8 point and my big bow kill was a 148 lbs. 6 point.....dont cancel me cuz it were with my ancient 1985 compound. My recurve has lighter, run of the mill, public land deer.
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Wow, you guys are getting some monster deer. I only see those guys on trail cam.
My heaviest was a 30-30 killed 165 lbs. 8 point and my big bow kill was a 148 lbs. 6 point.....dont cancel me cuz it were with my ancient 1985 compound. My recurve has lighter, run of the mill, public land deer.
Don't feel bad. My best bucks to date are a rifle and several modern bow kills. One average buck is all I've taken so far with a single string along with several doe and a bunch of pigs.
But every animal I take with a recurve or longbow is a big deal to me. No matter how much bone it has or how much it strains the scale.
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I see there was a question of the weight of dads biggest, the one you were referring to weighed 279 guts in, and he killed one within a few pounds the year before. I weighed dads biggest in iowa at 255, but found later that wgen i pushed up on the scale to hand the deer on it, the scale would move (mechanical scale) minus 20 pounds. So would have been 275. However, his highest scoring deer, and mine also, were NOT the heaviest ones, the had heavier beams but shorter points. Also i will add, a shoutout one way congratulations to my little brother on his 2020 buck, nice job!
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Note, correction, the one indoors was that iowa deeri referred to, with the "off" scale. It was 275, the biggest taken off the farm. That huge 9 point, that was on the front of pbs magazine, the magazine i also laid on my booner for pictures in 2018, weighed only 209 pounds live weight, yet gross scored 273.
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The biggest one I have ever seen was just over 300 lbs. but he was a pen raised breeder buck that my neighbor owned.
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The 10 point I killed in Oct. was a brute. I didn't try to weigh him, but I got 109 pounds of meat back so do the math.
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198lbs field dressed Macon County, Georgia 9pt buck. 150lb doe (live weight) Macon County, Georgia. The doe only had 3 legs but whatever caused her to lose it had completely healed. She had twin yearlings with her.
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After 13 years of bowhunting, I killed my first deer. I was tired of waiting for one bigger than my dog. He field dressed at 220#. I found out then that I have no perception of deer size while perched 12 up in a tree. A few years back, I shot my biggest one, dressing out at 230#. This years buck was 150 lbs. I no longer discriminate.
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The heaviest one we recorded in MN right at the Iowa border, corn fed fatty 227 field dressed
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This one bottomed out a 250# scale and still had the whole hindquarters on the truck bed. I got well over 100# of great tasting meat from him. Shot him with a selfbow, cane shafts, and an obsidian head, from the ground. 24” spread, but just didn’t have the point length. It seems a lot of the really heavy bucks are like that.