Big six point

[Byron Quick]

Last Thursday, I killed a buck that is the largest six point whitetail that I have ever seen. Fifteen inch inside spread. Brow tines are three and a half inches. Tines off the main beam are five and a half inches. Estimated undressed weight is about a hundred and fifty pounds. (That's about the largest I can load in a pickup without getting the block and tackle)

[Art Eatman]

Interesting about body weights and the lack of correlation to antlers. I killed a mule deer which dressed out at 150. The 9-point rack, outside measure, was 19" wide, 19" high.

In the feed store in Monahans, Texas, right off I-20, is a Colorado mule deer rack. Must be a 30" spread and some 20 points. Shot back in the 1960s. By the looks of the head and neck, the deer probably dressed under 200...All horn, no body.

A quick and dirty indicator of age is thickness of horns, and how dark. Generally, they're darker in older deer...

Dunno 'bout y'all, but I've never really gotten good at telling a deer's age by checking tooth-wear.

Art

[sniper1az]

You guys got little deer back there . Friends in Michigan got a 325lb dressed 10 point in the UP !

Whitetails in Arizona are the "Coues" subspecies and a monster is 110 lb.

But I have a head on my wall of a 322lb dressed 4X5 Mule deer I killed at North Kaibab , Arizona. It was weighed by the Game & Fish Departhent at that unit 12 checkout station located at Jacobs Lake .

[Byron Quick]

Art,
I don't have the teeth thingy down either but I don't think that deer was three years old. He looked young.

[Art Eatman]

The teeth sure do wear with age. You'll rarely see a healthy deer much over 7-1/2 years old...

The farther north you go, the larger are specimens from all species. And, high elevation = northward ecotypes. I forget the exact numbers, but it's on the order each 1,000 feet of elevation equals some number of hundreds of miles northwards. That's why some of these way-south mountains have up-north growies. Madrone trees, for instance, are found above 5,000 feet in Big Bend National Park and on Vancouver Island.

A buddy of mine, while stationed up in New England in the USN, killed a Maine whitetail which dressed out at over 300.

A cousin to the Coues is the Del Carmen whitetail, found in Big Bend National Park and a few places around this area. Bigger than Key deer, but sure not real big.

Art

[P-990]

Good job! But I gotta say, seems a little light!

Yeah, going north things get bigger. About 10 years ago my uncle killed a whitetail up in Orford, New Hampshire. Dragged it quite a ways before coming off the mountain for help. Can't remember the details, but I believe it was a 7 pointer, about 160-170 pounds field-dressed. At the time he weighed about 145-150!

And the elevation thing is really significant. Wander into the White Mountains and you see arctic growth at altitude, plus some severly tempermental weather!

[eroyd]

I shot my first mature muley while out moose hunting up north last week. I know it's not the biggest rack but being more accustomed to hunting Coastal Blacktails, I was thrilled by it's size. It weighed 230 lbs field dressed and am told that would put it over 300 on the hoof.
The deer was also the first animal taken with my Marlin 1895 ss. I shot at a range of 40 yards and was surprised that the buck ran off after being hit. During it's short run it put up two monster bucks but I only had one tag.(usual story). Later I discovered the 350gr. bullet had entered behind the right shoulder, gone through both lungs, the far shoulder and stopped just under the skin on the far side. The bullet had completely separated from it's core and done major meat damage. That wasn't what I had expected from the 45-70. That particular bullet is rated for 1600-2900 fps.

[Art Eatman]

Nice buck, eroyd. Down here, a buck with that body size is pretty doggoned rare.

, Art

[Southla1]

I killed an 8 point one morning with a spread of less than 10" inches but he weighed 182 live weight. My late brother in law and I carried him out of the river swamps on a 4 wheeler and he was hanging from the rafters on the porch of the old house next door to Ray's trailer. We went inside to eat before dressing him out or even gutting him for that matter...............it was cold.

A game warden/wildlife biologist saw him hanging and came and asked to check him out. He weighed him gutted him, examined the stomach contents, drew a syringe of blood, and aged him by his teeth.................he tried to show us what to look for but all I remember is he was 2 years old. He said if he had lived to 4 or 5 he would have been a bigun.

When we pulled the hide off the hind quarters we discovered he had already been "lit up". Found about 7 or 8 #6 bird shot under the hide .

Biggest deer in the body I ever killed was #240 live weight and weighed on a spring scale. He had 4 on one side and the other was broken off................looked like maybe an 16" or so spread if the other side was present.

I been messing with horses all my life and still can only get a general age (young, 10 years old , or OLD) on them from their teeth .

[eroyd]

Does anyone know a formula for estimating live weight of deer from the field dressed weight or the"on the butchers hook weight" ?

I'd guesstimate 30-40% lost on field dressing depending on animal condition.

[Art Eatman]

I've never done a before-and-after weighing, but I've always heard that 30% is a reasonable number.

Art

[geo57]

unless we are talking different terms for field dressing guys, youre 30-40 % estimates on what you lose off of live weight is high. if it were 40 % fellas, a 225 lb buck would shed 90 pounds in blood and gut pile, leaving you with a deer that weighs 135 field dressed. when field dressing a mature deer, subtract 30-40 lbs. and you will be pretty close.

[Art Eatman]

Folks at one of the wildlife agencies probably have a better answer than a guessed-at percentage, or a number in pounds.

I'd hate to see one of those little CenTex "greyhounds with horns" lose 30 or 40 pounds in the gutting. Wouldn't be much left. "mature" doesn't necessarily mean "big".

Art

[geo57]

art, its true i was basing my opinion on corn fed nebraska deer. ive field dressed a small boat load of em over the years. at any rate a 30-40 pound loss will still be less than the 40 % stated for most of the deer around the country

[Keith Rogan]

In the Alaska game regs is a page with a table showing the live weight vs recoverable meat from various game animals. For deer, caribou, etc, you should be able to recover 40% of the total weight as meat. This is without bones, as animals here are normally packed out.

[Rmouleart]

I shot this nice 8 pointer with a scoped 1187 using a sabot(remington) at 5 yards, he still ran 80 yards with a good shoulder shot, 23 inch outside spread weight 227 pds he was around 7 years old a mature buck shot in the great state of NH at 01:00 pm. The buck was chasing doe's, I could barely drag him needed 2 other friends Aim small hit small. RAMbo

[Art Eatman]

227 pounds: Total weight, or after gutting-out?

Nice deer, regardless.

FWIW: Since deer are usually born in the spring, the age during hunt season is called by half-years by our game folks in Texas. To kill a deer exactly, e.g., five years old is poaching.

Art