quote:

I've had two spike elk that Fish & Game weighed (field dressed) at their check station at 300 and 305 lbs. I also checked a field dressed cow elk that they weighed at 350 lbs.

Actually weighing game is not fair. It's like actually measuring the distance of a shot. What fun is it if your deer shrinks from 210 to 125 pounds and he was only 185 yards away instead of 415 ?

This old (retired) northeastern US deer hunter found himself nodding in agreement to one poster -and then agreeing with the next poster who disagreed with the first. In other words, there is just no way to make a general statement about white tail deer weights -or what to use to put one down. (I do agree that the 30-30 is perfectly adequate to plant the biggest white tail that ever walked. My child, (in my Yoda role),I keep telling you, it's shot placement, shot placement!) OK, having said all that, my general experience in looking at (and trying to shoot) white tails bucks in NY, Vermont, is that they seem to average about 135-175 field weight. Yeah, I know about the "monsters" but they are few and far between.The white tail at any weight is hard to put down and I always was very happy when I didn't have to try my Daniel Boone imitation at 4 or so in the afternoon. A superb game animal and I envy guys starting out after him for the first time.

The largest Mule Deer I have killed weighed 240 plus ? on the scales gutted...He had a 36" spread and was a prime buck. the largest Whitetail I have shot was $156 lbs.

Some Eastern and Canadian Whitetail will go near 400 lbs. and are as big as a small elk.

The contention is usually because some weigh the whole animal and other weigh the gutted animal..

Realistically,I would guess that Nation wide the average Mule deer weighs 140 lbs gutted and the the average whitetail weighs a tad less..

While most of the focus has been on whitetails (naturally), mule deer are typically a bit larger. I generally agree with the 200 pound average, even for mule deer, but it is not uncommon for a truly big mulie buck to break the 300 pound mark. I have personally seen a few that broke the scale at over 350 pounds (whole) but have never seen a mule deer break the 400 pound mark. I suspect that happens on rare occassion, but in terms of selecting appropriate calibers, planning for a 300-350 pound mule deer will suffice in almost any deer hunting situation.

Bill

wow, i got alot of reply's on this one.

the reason i started this tread was two-sided:

first of all, about 50-80% of the hunting litterature i read is American.
and the writers seems to be very fond of the term "deer sized animals", so i hoped to be able to translate it into a Scandinavian animal.
(here where i live there is nothing between a fox and a moose)
from your answers it seem that we can roughly compare it a reindeer(pretty similar to your caribou)

here is a little video, hopefully you will get an idea of the size:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz8K2nfR2e4
or am i wrong?



secondly, i've always wanted to go to Texas.
and it is nice to know what i could expect if i were fortunate enough to hunt there.

thanks or all your reply's.

StormsGPS showed the photo I was looking for: the Maine state record is that deer, shot in Bingham, ME in the mid 50s. Dressed weight was 355. Figure the live weight approx 1/3 more and that is over 425 lbs on the hoof.

Bear in mind, that is central Maine and from there north there are fewer deer but they are hardier due to the winters. Take this past winter, for example. A true Darwinian weather cull. Think of it like a forest fire; it clears the clutter. Maine IF&W estimates as much as 1/3 of our state deer herd may have died. The ones that made it were the strongest. If we have a few easy winters ahead of us, there will be a run of new entrants into the Biggest Bucks in Maine Club (200lbs dressed on official state scales to get in).

In the southern part where I am from we have more but smaller deer where a big 8 pt buck will be around 175-190 lbs dressed.

Incidentally, in the middle part of the state I know a bunch of people who have gone to 338s for deer hunting because the cover is thick and the deer are big and they want them put down where they are hit so they don't have to track them. Some of that tangle has to be seen to be believed! A half frozen alder swamp will absolutely eat your lunch!

llamapacker:

You seem like just the guy I always wanted to ask about a question I have about mule deer. I'm relying on your honor as a Westerner,now! I always had the impression that mule deer were not too bright.(I hasten to admit that I never hunted a mule deer in my life) I won't ask you if you think that mule deer are smarter than white tails. (I guess that you don't have many white tails in Utah)In your opinion, is the mule deer particularly smart? I'm not looking for an argument. I'm just curious what Westerners really think about the mule deer. (We have people here in the East who have hunted white tails for years on end -without getting one. Does that happen with mule deer?)

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
The largest Mule Deer I have killed weighed 240 plus ? on the scales gutted...He had a 36" spread and was a prime buck. the largest Whitetail I have shot was $156 lbs.

Some Eastern and Canadian Whitetail will go near 400 lbs. and are as big as a small elk.

The contention is usually because some weigh the whole animal and other weigh the gutted animal..

Realistically,I would guess that Nation wide the average Mule deer weighs 140 lbs gutted and the the average whitetail weighs a tad less..

I'd like to see a picture of that rack.

I ran into (within 6 feet) some sort of really big deer at the end of a road on my nightly run in a new development. This was in the city limits and about two miles from the ocean. That deer was standing at the edge of a canyon with his nose into the wind as I ran up behind him. He was easily twice my size and I was about 170 LBS then.

I was gonna ask him how much he weighed but he did a Scooby Doo - slipped and fell on the concrete and then darted into the scrub.

I weighed two of the WT bucks I shot last fall.
One weighed 136 and 145lbs field dressed.

This websitedeer weight
States: live weight x 78% will give you field dressed weight.

That comes out to roughly 174 and 186lbs respectively. It may not be exact, but close enough for me.