First offf, congrats Jeff!! Seocondly, this buck is a huge deer. I mean down here in below the mason-dixon line average deer grow to be about 125-140 lbs...and some of them carry massive racks... Jeff said this deer weighs roughly 160 lbs, I think it's at least that and maybe a bit heavier.. yes there are heavier deer in certain areas of the south, but it's usually in areas where the food is plentiful and the ration is great, but on the eastern sea board, outside of the eastern shore in Va/Md, 140 lbs bucks are normal, but anything more is considered big.. Im not all that familliar with Jeff's area, but that buck is probably bigger than average... now in mts of Va/Nc, deer can get over 200 lbs, but rarely over 215 lbs.. so not only did Jeff connect on a nice racked buck, he connected on a heavy boddied deer for this region of the country.. I posted this b/c the moment I saw the deer I noticed how heavy he was.. look at that neck too, I think he had some rut left in him!! Good job Jeff!
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The ability to get close to game remains the essence of all bowhunting today.
I shot 3 bucks in '06. They weighed (live weight)....170, 172, & 172 pounds. Two were 2.5yr olds.....and the lightest one was 3.5. The two 2.5's were taken earlier (pre-rut). The smallest (weight-wise) and the oldest was taken on 12/9.
The 4.5 I killed last year was a 200# deer. He was also taken pre-rut (11/6).
I guessed at the weight of this last buck.....and I said I probably slighted him (on the conservative side). It doesn't really matter......as I know he's a good representative buck for here.
I was thinking this buck is on upper side of 170 lbs, which is a big deer. the deer in your area are bigger than the ones here in eastern Va, our average buck weighs 120-140 lbs. I have killed one buck 181 lbs..he was also the biggest antlered buck i have ever shot...go figure. but the buck you shot is healthy and he looked like he was thick bodied from the first pic I saw of him. I keep forgetting that you are in the western part of NC, isn't it sort of like the western part of Va? deer tend to be bigger than those on the eastern side?
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The ability to get close to game remains the essence of all bowhunting today.
Body-wise....I'd say they'r ebigge than eastern NC deer (on average).....but rack-wise.....the eastern side of NC holds the biggest deer our state offers.
obviously b/c of the crops and nutrition is better there wouldn't you say?? ...however in the eatern part of Va we have tremendous racks, but so does western Va, in certain counties...Pulaski, Bedford, and Henry all have great racked bucks..
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The ability to get close to game remains the essence of all bowhunting today.
GMMAT's buck...
