quote:

Originally posted by CanadianLefty:
Come on, do you really expect us to believe that B.S. ?!!

Read the longest shot thread for more of the same

LOL! Yeah exaggerations like those are everywhere and relative to the particular area you live in. Here in Alabama whitetail bucks that top 200 lbs are as rare as an honest used car dealer but not if you believe the talk around the campfire or at the local sporting goods stores. They do get that big here but I figure the claims of bucks killed that size outnumber the actual bucks killed that size by a ratio of about 50 to 1.

Well, here are some facts:


Brown/Kodiak:

quote:

• Kodiak bears are the largest bears in the world. A large male can stand over 10' tall when on his hind legs, and 5' when on all four legs. They weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Females are about 20% smaller, and 30% lighter than males.

Alaska moose:

quote:

... that Alaska's moose are the largest of their species as well as the largest member of the deer family? Moose weigh between 1,000 and 1,600 pounds and are a celebrated symbol of the Alaskan wilderness.

Source:
http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=funfacts.muskox

And how about the largest Chinook (king salmon)? Would you believe that a 97-pound king was caught on the kenai River, Alaska?

quote:

Four of the five largest sport caught King Salmon were taken from the Kenai River including the I.G.F.A. ~ All Tackle, world record catch at 97 pounds, 4 ounces!

Considering the 1st question hunters ask each outher is. "How Big?".....What would you expect?

I think we'd be better off as hunters if the question was, We're did you hit hit?, How close did you get? or How many shots?

Now let me tell you about my 400# Russian Boar

quote:

Originally posted by CanadianLefty:
Come on, do you really expect us to believe that B.S. ?!!

Luckily, I am fairly sure that this exaggeration doesn't apply to most members here

Probably 8 out of 10 times that I get into a discussion with someone at a gun store, hunting club etc. I always hear how they shot their monster animal that weighs more than the largest ever recorded weight for that species...and then some!

What stories have you heard?
What would you feel are realistic weights for some of our big game in your area?

Here is a brief list of live animal weights that I know from personal experience to be pretty accurate:

Canadian Moose: sm. 600 lbs, med. 800 lbs, lg. 1000 lb, xl. over 1000 up to about 1400 lbs. (Yet, we hear only of 1200+ lb Moose being shot )

Quebec-Labrador Caribou: sm. 125 lbs, med. 175 lbs, lg. 225 lbs, xl. 300 up to about 375 lbs. (Yet, to many, there is not a Q-L Caribou under 400 lbs!B.S. I have shot and seen taken and helped butcher and process, then weigh over 200 animals.)

Rocky Mountain Elk (in Canada): sm. 300 lbs, med. 450 lbs, lg. 700 lbs, xl. 850 to about 1000 lbs. (I regularly hunted Colorado a few years back, nobody would second guess someone who said that they shot 1000 lb elk every season)

Canadian Whitetailed Deer: sm. 125 lbs, med. 175 lbs, lg. 225 lbs, xl. 250 to about 350 (Seems everyone's 10 pointer is a 300 pounder! Heck, in one of the hunting brochure that I received at SCI, they mentioned "400 plus pounds live weight regularly taken!" - sure anything is possible, but come on!!

CANADIANLEFTY, Are you trying to say hunters, and bass fishermen would exaggerate?

I read a book a number of years ago about the Jordan Buck. This was a buck taken near Danbury, Wisconsin. It is an interesting story (going off of memory here) about a huge buck taken by a logger. He tracked down the buck by following his tracks and jumping it near a creek. The buck was too big to pull out by men so logging equipment was used to hoist the buck. To make a long story short, the deer's antlers were lost for years and eventually sold to a dentist or something. He had them scored and they scored high enough to become the world record, (which was beaten by the hanson buck). When the owner of the rack tracked down the man who shot the rack, jordan, he said the buck weighed in excess of 400#. When the subject of big bucks comes up, I used to tell people that the jordan buck weighed 400#. Now I dont say anything about it so as to maintain my credibility since most people will just laugh at such a claim.

Like I said, I'm going off of memory on the story so I'm sure you will all go online and find the details and correct my mistakes so as to sound like experts on the subject.

quote:

I think we'd be better off as hunters if the question was, We're did you hit hit?, How close did you get? or How many shots?

And you don't think hunters lie about those?<lol>

Jeff

It is interesting how those things tend to grow, even with experienced hunters. My son-in-law killed a monster buck in Co and estimated it at about 220 dressed out. I helped drag him 200 yars uphill in the snow and would have sworn that was light.

But when I helped him take his "about 200 LB" hog to the butcher darned if it didn't weigh 90 Lbs without the head.

Well, I haven't shot any 1800lb Moose, but I have been fortunate to take a few big'uns down here on the Rock. The biggest I ever shot ended up dressing out 255lbs each for the front quarters and 160lbs. rear quarters. That was with the lower leg cut off at the first joint, but hide still on. Not sure what he dressed out live weight, all I know he was Big! We had to make up a hand barrow to move the quarters to the shoreline of nearby Long Pond (Area 34) to transport him back to civilization. My Dad, brother and my buddy Dean helped me move the quarters. I usually just use a packframe and can usually take a quarter each trip, but not this time! I ended up shooting him standing in the middle of a bog that was halfway up a ridgeline. It was about 1km from the bog to the shoreline of Long Pond. We just about killed ourselves getting him out. Going downhill wasn't too bad, but after carrying the second quarter to the boat, going uphill sure got a lot harder! I shot him a little before 8AM, we never got all the meat back to the dock and loaded in the pick-up until a little before midnight! We all vowed then and there that that would be the last "big" bull we ever shot!

We also have tons of Woodland Caribou that tend to run bigger and heavier in the body that the Quebec-Labrador Barren Ground Caribou. I've taken two stags or bulls that were pretty good with quarters averaging 125lbs, hide off. I still have the racks stored in the loft of my barn. Was going to get them mounted, but never found the time, money or space to put 'em.

We don't have any elk or deer, so never shot any of them. We do have monster black bears though! They average about 400lbs, but there are lots out there that run 600-700-even 800lbs! Don't take my word for it, contact Shane Mahoney with the Newfoundland Department Of Wildlife. He's they're chief wildlife biologist.

As for the Kodiak being the biggest, baddest bear...I don't think so. I've seen Polar Bears that ran 10-12' or longer with claws damn close to a foot long. Watched one big bastard kill and drag from the water a mature Walrus. Sliced that big boy open like he was using a paw full of Ginsu knives. From what I've read, the Polar Bear is the largest land predator on Earth, and the only one that can and will deliberately hunt humans for food. Every now and then we'll have one or two come ashore in the Spring, usually they were hunting on the ice pack up North when the wind shifted and they drifted too far out to sea to swim back. They're usually pretty lean and pretty mean by the time they hit Newfoundland.

Shot a one and only last year that after complete gutting and drying in the bush,hanging for 36 hrs cause I had no choice,my buddy wasnt available to help me with him. We brought him to buddies first cause his dad has accurate scales from a shipping business he used to be in,so buddy weighs things for people still,and it was between 310 and 312 lbs depended on which angle you looked at the needle..Now having said that,on my way home from buds,I stopped in at the fella who is subsidized by the gov to feed the in rough winters(he sees them by the hundreds)He's also been around for 82 years.He said""""What the fuck is that""""""".So obviously what I'm saying is that its as rare as growing a second pecker,but can happen...

Some years ago I shot a Bull Moose near Dease lk. Hide off, legs/head off, quartered he was 685 lbs. on the butchers scale. How much would his live weight have been?
He was the biggest Bull Moose I ever shot.
I guessed about 1200 lbs?

Here's the Montana official B&C record weights. Every state has some big critters but I think we hold our own. This table just highlights what some people think they shot compaired to what they really shot.

Species Whole Dressed
Bear, Black 505
Bear, Grizzly 1,102
Lion, Mountain 176
American Elk 1,010 810
Deer, Mule 453 340
Deer, Whitetailed 375 275
Shiras "Wyoming" Moose 1,117 840
Pronghorn 160 121
Bison 1,555
Rocky Mountain Goat 310 212
Sheep, Bighorn 302 222

I used to live in northern MN and have spent many motnhs in NW Ontario. I have seen several whitetails that weighed over 300# on the hoof. SOme of these were weighed (others shot them, I never have gotten one that big) and some are just seen on the road at night. They are not the average for sure, but there are tons of tons of them out there. The problems is for them to get that big, they have to get some age to them. THis makes them much harder to kill, of course. But no, they are far from myths