I need some help settling a bet. What is recognized as the world record body weight for a Whitetail, both male and female?

Supposed to be the biggest in USA. I dunno.


http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/index.html

Have never heard of or seen offical "books" on weights. Deer are scored as with all horned/antelered animals by inches of horn/anteler. Some states (seems to be mostly north eastern and border)keep records on weights. Always seemed odd to hear hunters talking about that 250LBS 6 point deer. Guess the meat factor is more important to some. Kind of hard to mount meat on the wall though.

Asians don't seem to think so. But now that Viagra is out I hear they eat a lot less antler!

BS,

There have been deer that have topped 400 pounds. Saw the top ranking one a while back but do not know exactly how heavy it was. Know for a fact it was over 400 lbs and I believe it was from the North East USA but not 100% on the loacation.

I hunt whitetails alot here in Montana and have harvested several that had live weights over 300 lbs. My heaviest to date was a 328 lb 5x5.

I will also tell you that the heaviest Whitetail on record out weighs the heaviest Mule Deer. That was also listed in the information I read. That will start some heated debates in the hunt camp, especially here on the Rocky Mountain front where 95% of the hunters are Mulie fanatics.

Good Shooting!!!

50

The largest deer on record for Weight was shot in Stearns County Minnesota ( near St Cloud), back in the 1890s or so.

The guy posing with the picture had a lever action rifle in his hand, Winchester Model 94.

The field dressed weight of the deer was 425 pounds.

For some of those southern boys that think a 250 pound deer is rare, or a fib, They have not hunted southern Canada or the Upper Midwest.

My biggest deer was field dressed at 265 pounds, after the 444 Marlin took out another 10 to 15 pounds of hamburger when it cut a 4 to 5 inch sapling in half before it hit the buck.

It was a 6 point buck and weighted about 325 on the hoof.

It was taken in 1985 in St. Louis County MN, about 30 miles North of Hibbing,MN and about 70 miles south of International Falls. It came out of a swamp on a drive, and the temp was about 20 below zero at the time.

At the butcher's shop, it was funny, When we brought it in, because of the size of the bullet wound, the butcher asked who had shot it. Before we could answer, he answered his own question: Al Capone?

Cheers and good shooting
Seafire

I've personally shot two bucks here in Warren County, (southwestern) Ohio that field dressed over 240 pounds.

I have no doubt that both were at or near 300 lbs on the hoof. The farmer said "my son has shot does bigger than that!"

Quite an eye opener for a transplanted Texan. I can remember that any Hill Country buck that field dressed ove 120 pounds was a "pretty decent buck"!

Most of my does here average in the 160-180 lb range (field dressed). I have to admit I shoot the young ones by preference.

These deer are big bodied and are just rolling in fat. When they jump/run the fat rolls in waves up and down their body under the hide.

They taste better than their hardscrabble cousins, too!

My heaviest to date was a 10-pointer that field dressed at 315# back in '91, taken in northwest Missouri. Conservation Department estimated his live weight over 400#. That's not a record, by any means. In fact, his antlers only scored just under 150B&C. I checked him in next to a 22-pointer. My buck was at least twice his size, but I'd have swapped antlers in a heartbeat. I've got him mounted, and he's a big bruiser, but there are bigger deer out there, especially in the upper midwest and Canada.

My brother-in-law's brother shot a big mature Alberta praire buck as it ran out from alittle patch of isolated brush in a wheat field. That buck field-dressed at 278 pounds. At a distance the wall mount doesn't look that big but up close you see how big the antlers are on that big mule deer sized shoulder mount. He says, the antlers get bigger as you aproach a downed northern buck but get smaller as you aproach a downed Texas hillcountry buck.

Bog,

I moved from Minne-soooda, back in 1995. I know that the DNR use to have pictures of it and have seen it in some of the whitetail hunting books, especially having to do with history.

The guys name was Leandor or something close. May I suggest contacting the Stearns County Historical Society, if the DNR doesn't have something to help you out.

Maybe you could come up with a picture to post for the rest of the crowd.

Cheers and Good shooting
Seafire

I've never had a Muley break 300. The big Whitetails that I normally chase come in between 240-300 lbs. normally.

Jack O'Conner talked about the record weight of whitetail bucks, and apparently did some research on the subject. I believe the heaviest one he thought to be reliable was a buck shot in the 50's in Maine that weighed 355 field dressed.
He also tells of researching a deer that weighed a reputed 460 pounds field dressed, but the story blew up. There was no verification, no biologist had seen the deer until it had been partially eaten.
Three hundred fifty five pounds is believable, 450 seems a little hard to beleive.

Royce

I have n idea what the biggest is and I've never weighed a deer, but I have hunted in Ontario, canada (deer are small) and Alberta (deer are much bigger) A big doe here weighs as much as a regular sized buck. The only thing I've ever weighed was the boneless meat. Last years buck delivered 127 lbs of bonelss meat.

Then he must have been a monster. I usually figure 23-27% meat on a carcase. A fat deer will be 23% meat, IIRC.

I have found that you lose approx 45% of a deers weight by removing the internals,head,legs and hide and approx 15% or slightly more in bone and scraps leaving close to 40% meat.Of course those numbers will vary somewhat from deer to deer.Using those figures,a deer producing 120lbs of meat will weigh approx 300lbs live weight which is certainly a good sized buck but not a monster for the farmlands of alberta or saskatchewan.

40% is just about the maximum theoretical yield from hanging weight for a mature buck, according to Univ. Wisconsin (see link below.) So you are doing extremely well, I should take lessons!



The UW suggests that 70% of the theoretical yield is the typical yield, this is 28% of the hanging weight. The UW does NOT list fat as a typical loss factor, but around here there are usually big leaves of fat in the gut and a 1/2 inch (or more!) layer of fat under the hide, making my estimate practical for local harvests. (In Texas I didn't even know deer could get fat!)



BTW I bleed my deer ASAP and hang my venison for 7-10 days, which gets rid of more water weight and greatly improves the flavor and texture.



All I'm really getting at is that you shouldn't consider your butcher a thief if you only get back 25% of the live weight.



BTW they say live weight is about 1.28 times the hanging weight.



So for a 300 lb buck according to Univ Wisconsin:



Live weight 300 lbs (100%)

field dressed weight 234 lbs (78%)

hanging weight 176 lbs (57%)

theoretical yield 70 lbs (23%)

practical yield 65 lbs (16%)



http://www.butcher-packer.com/news_deeryield.htm



HTH,

Try the following link.It closely matches my own experiences.



http://www.askthemeatman.com/estimate_deer_weight.htm



Using this link the weights are



live weight 300lbs

field dressed weight 234lbs

hanging weight 175.5lbs

edible meat weight 131.6lbs



Using this method Martins buck would have weighed just under 300lbs live weight.

I can not remember the name of the hunting book but I saw a picture of a Maine buck in it that was reputed to have dressed out at 355 pounds; maybe it's an O'Connor book. The buck was hanging by the antlers with the hunter standing beside it. It looked as big as a spike bull elk.

But then you'd have to have a deer with a better yield (from hanging weight) than a Black Angus steer! (And those are some seriously studied numbers!)



Sorry, I think your source copied the info from a beef chart!



Weigh your meat next year. I think you will be shocked.



You did point out an error I made. I forgot the loss from field dressed to hanging. I changed my original post. Now that I see the 16% "practical" number, I think they are bit pessimistic.



My brother in SC has to weigh deer before they are field dressed for the DNR. His club keepos careful records, and they come out around 25% - matching the theoretical yield from my original link.

try this link

http://www.whitetails.com/weight.html



Or this one



http://ronaldbissonnette.tripod.com/bissonnetteinvitationalbowhuntingclassic/id14.html

It's easy to see we won't settle this with other people's numbers.

If I don't have to drag the thing too far I'll weigh next year's harvest, and you can do the same.

Don

It seems that all three of my links although using different sources,charts or calculations closely agree with each other and closely match the weights that I have seen over the years from my butcher and when weighing deer myself.Believe what you will, but with three independant sources and my own experiences in agreement and only one source disagreeing,I know which numbers that I believe to be more accurate.

Look, then try this one!

http://www.riverratt.com/huntingbutcher.html

I can do web searches, too!

I'm not calling you a liar, man. I'm just saying you and the people you quote are wrong!

Seriously, I find the links are about evenly split, and I'm tired of thinking about it. A deer makes as much meat as hits my freezer. (That's a period at the end of that sentence!)

Adios,

PROPORTIONED VENISON MEAT YIELD

FROM 158 POUND WHITETAIL DEER

HANGING (CARCASS) WEIGHT 115 POUNDS





Cut From Total

Weight

Lbs. Steaks & Roasts Burger & Sausage Trim

Lbs. Waste (Fat & Bones)

Lbs.

Hind Shanks 5 None 3 2

Rounds 16 3 lbs. Rump Roast

4 lbs. Round Steak

2 lbs. Finger Steak 3 4

Sirloin Tips 7 1 1/2 lbs. Sandwich Steak

3 lbs. Sirloin Tip Steak

1/2 lb. Bite-Size Steak 1/2 1 1/2

Rumps 4 3 lbs. Rump Roast 1/2 1/2

Sirloins 6 3 lbs. Sirloin Steaks

1 lb. Bite-Size Steaks 1/4 1 3/4

Flanks 2 None 1 1

Loin Half Backstrap's 5 4 lbs. Butterfly Steaks 3/4 1/4

Tenderloins 3 1 1/2 lbs. Whole Tenderloin none 1 1/2

Plates Spareribs 11 6 lbs. Spareribs 3 2

Rib Half Backstrap's 16 6 lbs. Stand/Rib Roast

6 lbs. Rib Chops 1 3

Briskets 2 None 1 1

Shoulder (Chucks) 19 6 lbs. Shoulder Roast

2 lbs. Stew Meat 6 5

Foreshanks 3 None 2 1

Neck 16 4 lbs. Neck Roast

2 lbs. Stew Meat 5 1/2 4 1/2



Total Yield 115 58 1/2 27 1/2 29



The 86 lb. yield from the above 158 pound deer is about normal for what you would expect form a healthy whitetail deer. Generally, the yield is about half of the live-weight of deer, elk, moose, caribou, antelope, etc. However, poor shot placement and less than conscientious field care, starting the moment an animal is down, reduces the yield further, as much as an





You might want to pick a different link as this one does not support you at all.It shows 86lbs of edible meat(58-1/2lbs steak and roast and 27-1/2lbs burger and sausage meat) from a hanging weight of 115lbs.In this case the edible meat is 75% of the hanging weight.That coincidently agrees with my numbers.Using your numbers the edible meat should be 40% of the hanging weight.

I don't know of any organization that recognizes or keeps records of deer body weights. I know the largest deer by body weight in my records comes from Pickway County Ohio. That 6 point buck was stuck by a car in 1975, live body weight 459 lbs and was weighed on certified scales.

Canadian provinces boast they harbor the heaviest cold climate deer on the planet but I have no certified weights that can be verified. It is common practice by most all hunters to estimate deer body weights and they are most always above actual live weight. The weight of most mature bucks in colder climates are 200 lbs or less live weight. I would guess the average body weight of a mature buck in my home state Ohio is 150 to 190 lbs. The deer is field dressed, then the hide, head, legs are removed, that is about half the deers live weight. Deer must forage every night to fill their belly and they are lean and burn of body fat staying warm and feeding.

Cold climate deer are heavier in body weight to survive the cold winters better. Any buck deer over 200 lbs live weight is exceptional but you better have the slip from a certified scales to prove that claim. As with any species there are exceptions to that rule and a giant in any species can surface once in while.