We have a discussion going at the gun shop regarding maximum live weight for a Columbian Blacktail Deer in the west.
The biggest I've taken was about 220 lbs.
I'd like some input regarding the heaviest you've taken or heard of someone taking.
Hoping to make some money on this one. . . . .

I shot a pretty big one when I was 14 years old just west of Eugene, if I remember correctly he was 148 pounds field dressed (guts, heart, lungs out), not exactly sure what his live weight would have been. I don't remember ever seeing one with a bigger body however I saw several of the same size. It was a true Blacktail and not a "Benchleg" or hybrid Muley/Blacktail that you shoot up in the high Cascades.
Your 220 pounder was a whopper. Where is your gunshop?

Biggest I've seen taken were in the 140-150lb range field dressed. Those were south of SF on the coast. 220 is a monster.

Wow, 220 would be crazy big.

About 14 years ago we took a buck that weighed just over 180 lbs. live. That was on a pretty accurate scale. That was this buck:



This past season I weighed a big bodied buck for a client that was just over 200 (live weight, not dressed). But honestly I flat didn't believe it and assumed the scale was off (cheap/old scale) so I didn't take it seriously. Your call. Here's a photo:

I thought weight was directly related to steepness and depth of the canyon the deer was shot in

169lbs hanging weight at the butcher shop, just meat and bones, no hide, head or legs below the knees, it was too heavy for me to drag even after I gutted it, I made it about 10' and left it to get help!

Biggest I've ever taken here In Mendocino County was 145 field dressed. In our area (northern part of 'A' zone) a 125 lb. dressed buck is considered pretty big. Up in areas of 'B' zone the bucks are bigger.

Good pictures, I have had a wish the last few years to Hunt black Tails . Everyytime I find an outfitter they always want a Trophy fee on top of there Hunt rate. I have Talked to a few
outfitters that produce good Blacktails and by the Time you pay Hunt fees and Trophy fee I could good to Mexico after a Big Mulie.

Thanks all, sounds about right. Had a customer talk about a Blacktail taken in Oregon that supposedly went near 600 lbs! The room fell silent at that comment. A few grins apeared around the shop, and since the customer was a good one, not much we could say except; 'sure would like to have seen that one'.

Nice pics guys, lot's of good eatin there.

Kyler,

The antlers on the mounted deer look unusually huge. Am I mistaken or is it really a great specimen?

Here in Southern Cali I get excited just looking at a buck with more than a fork on his head.

Kyler, how close to Mule Deer country were those bucks taken?
They both look like they got a good bit of Muley in them, not trying to discount them they are nice bucks but I must admit they look a lot more Muley than the bucks I shot just a few miles west of Eugene, OR. They look a lot like bucks we saw and killed just over the east side of the high Cascades in Oregon.

Wrongtarget that is a "HOG"!

DWright...............600 pounds...............................
Good customer or not I would have called him on it maybe he layed it out there expecting you to call him and you didn't, you may have lost a good customers respect for not standing up! (?)

No, I am pretty sure he understood that none of us believed him; we just came short of calling him a dipshit. He kept on trying to convince us of the weight. Of course, no one did believe him and he knew it.
But stranger things have happened I guess , so just wanted some feed back from all you's out there.
When I first heard it, my reaction was like this. . . .

DWright
What part of the Emerald Valley are you in?

Harris,
That buck measures just under 24" wide and about 18" high. It just barely has three points on each side and two small drops down low on each side. I've hunted deer very seriously in this area for all of my life and this is the biggest buck I've ever seen alive, but it looks a little extra big because of the ears being bent back to show the drops. Ironically I passed this buck on the first day of season to save it for clients. Neither my other guide or I could find it all season during our guided hunts. Then in the last week of the season - after all the clients had come and gone - I saw the buck in the same place I'd seen him 5 weeks earlier on opening day. I almost never fill my own tag so I still had it and had my rifle in the truck from guiding a pig hunt that morning. My wife and brother happened to be with me and that buck means more to me than most of my other trophies put together.

Snellstrom,
That's a good question and not easily answered, but I don't think the answer is what you expect. I've done three degrees studying wildlife so I've gotten to hang out with some serious players in deer biology. Hopefully I can paint a good picture of the deer in our area. This goes back some years so its possible things have been reclassified but this is what I learned.

We hunt in Southern Monterey County. The deer experts call the deer in our area a high bred between blacktail and California mule deer (which don't get any bigger than blacktail, probably not as big on average). Boone & Crocket consider our deer California mule deer, whereas SCI considers them blacktail. It doesn't really matter because I don't know if a buck in this area has ever gotten big enough to make B&C. A 4x4 is extremely rare here and I've never even seen one during season. A really big 3x3 will barely make SCI. But the book blacktail hunters always go much further north (at least a 6 to 10 hour drive north).

More to your question: We are within an hour drive from the coast almost exactly halfway between SF & LA. To find what most people would call a regualar sized mule deer you'd have to head east out of the coast range, across the entire central valley and get way up into the Sierras - probably even to the eastern side of the Sierras near NV before you really see typical mule deer body size.

But even then those mule deer don't get that big compared to other states. I've been around mule deer in KS and MT a bit and they were at least 50 to 100 lbs. larger than than good sized bucks in the eastern Sierra.

Long answer to a short question, but I hope it was helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
DWright
What part of the Emerald Valley are you in?

Just outside of Eugene, in a city we refer to as Springtucky. But the area in question is the north eastern part of the state.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
I shot a pretty big one when I was 14 years old just west of Eugene, if I remember correctly he was 148 pounds field dressed (guts, heart, lungs out), not exactly sure what his live weight would have been. I don't remember ever seeing one with a bigger body however I saw several of the same size. It was a true Blacktail and not a "Benchleg" or hybrid Muley/Blacktail that you shoot up in the high Cascades.

I've seen a couple of Black Tails in the Coast Range that looked like "Bench Legs". One was a yearling that at first actually looked closer than it was, because he was very short and stout, with heavy legs. Almost made me think it was a "Dwarf" of some type.

Possibly a mutated gene surfacing in the pool. It couldn't have been a true Bench Leg, since the closest Mulies are 150, give or take, miles to the east in the High Cascades.

A true "Bench Leg" is so called due to the shorter thicker legs, with the front legs being somewhat angled out at the shoulders and bowed. Similar to , but not as exaggerated as a Bassett Hound's legs.

I've also heard a theory that they are not a cross breed, but possibly have characteristics of Dwarfism.

quote:

Originally posted by DWright:

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
DWright
What part of the Emerald Valley are you in?

Just outside of Eugene, in a city we refer to as Springtucky. But the area in question is the north eastern part of the state.

Aaah Springfield!
I used to date a couple girls that went to Thurston High. I went to Churchill in Eugene but lived almost in Crow.
If your customers Deer was in the Northeast part of the state then it would have a hard time being a Blacktail, that is Muley country over there. Even at that pretty tough to produce a 600 pounder!