Ok, here goes again.

some how we are sometimes logged in under HNI visitor, some times under AdkGuidesForHire.

The dimensions I stated for whitetailed deer are the AVERAGE for northern NY.

Even in 5H you will not find the AVERAGE weight of a Doe to be 170+ pounds, live or dead.

It is important to note that the original question asked did not ask what was the largest Doe ever shot or Buck ever shot, nor did it ask what was the largest deer on record, or even average harvested deer, it asked what size is average for Whitetailed Deer.

My numbers are accurate as stipulated for Northern NY, you can also compare them to NYS DEC Dead Deer weights and ages chart from 1992-1997 and see that nothing aproaches the weights stated by 722.

1.5 year old Male Deer 1992-97 avg. weight 127 (number of deer weighed 5678)
1.5 year old Female Deer 1992-97 avg. weight 104 (966)

2.5 year old and up Male Deer 1992-97 152 (1680)
2.5 year old > Female Deer 1992-97 110 (1315)

200 pound deer are like 400 pound bear, everyone ' sees' them but very few are reported since they are not average, but rather the exception.

It is also interesting that Bucks continue to gain weight throughout their lives but Does from 4.5 to 5.5 years old begin to lose weight as they age. Of particular interest to managers is the fact that no deer in northern NY successfully ovulates until a peak fall weight of 129 pounds was reached ( C.W. Severinghaus) ruling out current theory that 6 month old fawns are bred sucessfully if allowed to live.

The difficulty with biological questions is that hunters have it in their mind that the Outdoor Life numbers a writer told them in a 2 page story are gospel and the 800 pages that a biologist hands them showing the opposite to be true is ignored.

If it doesn' t start with " the top 5 ways to kill a big buck" most hunters won' t read it, which is too bad.

Since NY does not have mandatory check stations and the roaming check stations do not often weigh anything, weights and dimensions are compiled from 20 years of being a biologist with a special interest in our native animals and from the following sources which are in most libraries;

Cheatum, E. L. 1949. Bone marrow as an index of malnutrition in deer. New York State Conserv. 3(5):19-22.

Rue III, Leonard Lee. 1997. The Deer of North America. Lyons Press, NY NY.

Severinghaus, C.W. " Deer weights as an index of Range Conditions on Two Wilderness Areas in the Adirondack Region." New York Fish and Game Journal, vol.2, no.2, pp-216-18, July 1955

--------------. " Overwinter weight loss of whitetailed Deer in New York." New York Fish and Game Journal, vol. 28, no.1, p61-67, January 1981.

Mattfeld, G.F. 1974. The energetics of winter foraging by white-tailed deer: A perspective on winter concentration. Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, 306 pp.

Masters, R.D. and N.E. Mathews. 1991. Notes on reproduction of old >9 years free-ranging white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virignianus, in the Adirondacks, New York. Canadian Field Naturalist, 105(2):286-287.

Nesslage, G.M. and W.F. Porter. 2001 A geostatistical analysis of deer harvest in the Adirondack Park from 1954-1997. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 29:787-794.

Underwood, H.B. and W.F. Porter. 1986. Sex ratios and harvest management: A computer simulation and analysis for white-tailed deer. Pp 83-94, in Game harvest management (S.E. Beasom, ed.). Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&I University, Kingsville, Texas. 374 pp.
Torgerson, Oliver and Wayne R. Porath. 1984. MidwestOak/Hickory Forest. Pages 411-426 in Lowell K. Halls (ed.) White-tailed Deer Ecology and Management. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA.

There are literally rooms upon rooms full of deer data that goes ignored by the average nimrod.

R Weber
[email protected]
PO Box 238
Lake Clear, NY 12945