Bocajnala

Guys here in Ohio are tagging 170, 180lbs doe all the time.

Of course none of them own a scale but "trust me, she was big!"

Like mrbb, I've weighed a bunch of deer over the years in both Ohio and PA. Probably 200+/-.

A few bucks went over 200. Biggest doe was just over 140 and she was BIG.

I see and hear lots of people whining about how they only got 40lbs of meat back from their 180lbs doe

If you're getting 50lbs of meat off a deer, you shot a nice sized deer.
-Jake

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I have found that most game animals will give you less than 40% of their live weight in boneless edible meat. Few whitetail deer will go over 200 lbs. I know they exist but they are few and far between except in the most northern areas such as Maine, Minnesota and Canada. 50 lbs of boneless meat is a good deer.

Oldtimr

I agree, it is, there are bigger ones for sure but not all that many.

Champlain Islander

We get quite a few over 200 dressed weight here in Vt. Maine and New Hampshire and the Adirondack in NY does too. Some of my friends who target big bucks score one close to every year in the 200 club. I am a meat hunter and those big old deer often aren't the best and I don't care for the taste of antlers...lol

mrbb

seems to me like the colder the environment the heavier they can be, that and age and good food sources
but colder temps, seem to add up extra layers of fat that add Lbs

My heaviest deer have always come from northern Alberta Canada, many were far past the 250 lb mark gutted on a certified scale, they grow em big up there, very impressive to see deer that size and larger!

and just a little tid bit of info on heavy deer
the heaviest whitetail ever killed in Pa as far as I know that was officially weighted, , was a DOE with antlers! and was something like 400+ lbs, I forget exact weight
Maybe OT can recall the details, as it was a while back now!, so a odd ball on a few levels!

Champlain Islander

I can imagine they can grow big since you have some really huge bears. Lots of good feed down there and acorns too. Our mineral content isn't great so the antlers generally run smaller but we do get some big bodied deer. Not many oaks up in the northern part where I live but do have hickory here on the island. Beaches are dying fast to disease but when they produce there are always a lot of bears around.

Oldtimr

mrbb is correct, the further north in latitude the larger the bodies on ungulates. Reason being, according to scientists is, the larger the body the more weight they can afford to lose over winter with poor food supply before they starve. So far as that large doe goes, I don't know there was supposed to be a buck taken in Clarion Co that weighed 412 lbs but I cannot attest to that and I read it was actually taken in Nebraska. Most records of record deer are records of antler size, not body size. I don't know if I want to shoot a 400 lb deer, it is hard enough to get the ones I kill out of the woods anymore, hence my ATV.

Ridge Runner

They regularly kill around a dozen in canada every year that dress over 400.

Zim

Online check in is convenient but I kinda miss the old days. By us every deer had to be taken to a check station and all were weighed. Because of that I can guess pretty close today when I drag one. But nobody weighs any more.