Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
12-28-2006, 03:21 PM
#31
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SCOTLAND COUNTY, MISSOURI
Posts: 552
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
We weighed 3 mature bucks killed on the same day in 05. After being field dressed they weighed in at 232, 234 and 236. My buck this year was 205. My does were 140 and 165. Fatty girls!!
We found one on our property, the third day of gun season, that was a little over 300 pounds!! We hooked the scales to the bucket on our tractor to weigh him. I have pictures of him, just haven't figured out how to post them yet.[:@] I saw him on two different occasions when bow hunting. He was probably 6 1/2 years old and had a neat funky rack. We are having a European mount done but were afraid of the meat. We thought he had been dead a couple of days but not sure.....we seem to have a problem with poachers in our area...this was the 3rd buck we found.
Diann
We found one on our property, the third day of gun season, that was a little over 300 pounds!! We hooked the scales to the bucket on our tractor to weigh him. I have pictures of him, just haven't figured out how to post them yet.[:@] I saw him on two different occasions when bow hunting. He was probably 6 1/2 years old and had a neat funky rack. We are having a European mount done but were afraid of the meat. We thought he had been dead a couple of days but not sure.....we seem to have a problem with poachers in our area...this was the 3rd buck we found.
Diann
12-29-2006, 07:44 AM
#32
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Baltimore, MD Suburb
Posts: 34
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
I hunt central Maryland. Average doe is probably 85-110 dressed and bucks 125-150. I think I've done good on the small farm I hunt when I take anything over 85 pounds. The state record was broke this year in southern MD by a buck that will probaby score 260+ but only weighed about 165 pounds. This buck looked like it had a forest on its head for antlers.
12-29-2006, 08:50 AM
#33
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Wisconsin and Canada
Posts: 2,415
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
ORIGINAL: GregH
You got that right! I too weigh all of my deer, I started doing this in 1992. EVERYBODY thinks that they have shot a 200 lb. deer. I'm usually 5 lbs or less when estimating the deer my friends and I have shot. If anything, I'm on the conservative side of estimating weight and score. I don't like exaggeration. I found something different doing this. My heaviest wis. deer weighed 190 and 193 lbs. My heaviest Ill. deer was 220 lbs. A good 3 1/2 from Ill avgs 195-205, where as in my wis. spot, one will avg, 175-185 lbs.. The weird part is that these two spots are less than 40 miles apart. The same food, climate habitat etc. Must be the genetics!?
You got that right! I too weigh all of my deer, I started doing this in 1992. EVERYBODY thinks that they have shot a 200 lb. deer. I'm usually 5 lbs or less when estimating the deer my friends and I have shot. If anything, I'm on the conservative side of estimating weight and score. I don't like exaggeration. I found something different doing this. My heaviest wis. deer weighed 190 and 193 lbs. My heaviest Ill. deer was 220 lbs. A good 3 1/2 from Ill avgs 195-205, where as in my wis. spot, one will avg, 175-185 lbs.. The weird part is that these two spots are less than 40 miles apart. The same food, climate habitat etc. Must be the genetics!?
I agree that most people drastically over estimate the size of their deer. Both in weight and in rack score. But I can tell you that my estimates for the average sizes are pretty close forthe areas I hunt.
Like you said Greg, its genetics. The deer I hunt in Canada have developed large body sizes over the years due to natural selection. The winters are hard, and there are lots of wolves. When out hunting, it is not uncommon to see the body of a deer and think it is a buck, until you see its head and its bald. It an amazing sight that I am blessed to be able to enjoy every fall.
12-29-2006, 11:16 AM
#34
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 174
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
I'm outa Central NY, I also have scales that we weigh all our deer on and the following is what the averages are here.
Buck
1.5yr old 115 to 125 usuall 4 to 8 pointer
2.5yr old 135 to 150 usually 6 to 10 pointer
3.5yr old 150 to 170 usually 8 plus from here
4.5yr old 175 to 190
5.5 and up 180 to about 205 is tops
These are dressed out weights.( All guts organs removed, hide head on)
For does nock 23% off those figures.
The biggest I have seen with my own eyes weighed here was one I took in bow a few years back, it aged at 5.5 years old and weighed 186 dressed on DEC scales.
Buck
1.5yr old 115 to 125 usuall 4 to 8 pointer
2.5yr old 135 to 150 usually 6 to 10 pointer
3.5yr old 150 to 170 usually 8 plus from here
4.5yr old 175 to 190
5.5 and up 180 to about 205 is tops
These are dressed out weights.( All guts organs removed, hide head on)
For does nock 23% off those figures.
The biggest I have seen with my own eyes weighed here was one I took in bow a few years back, it aged at 5.5 years old and weighed 186 dressed on DEC scales.
12-29-2006, 01:09 PM
#35
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location:
Posts: 87
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
I would say the biggest doe I have ever heard of on Otsego Co. Ny is 153lbs..i would say the majority of bucks in my area of Ny are 120-160's....my brother last year got a 195lb 10 pointer.....we weight them on a good set of scales.
12-29-2006, 02:34 PM
#36
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
RE: Average Deer Size in Your Neck of the woods?
Good post, Pro-Line! I'd say 80% of hunters out there really have no clear idea what their quarry actually weighs, or scores when we talk about antlers.
I used to work in a taxidermy shop where we took in a lot of bears. The average hunter (and I mean average, because the extremes were even worse) considered their 175 lb. bears to be 300-pounders. We could lay out a 125 lb. bear and have guys walk in and call it a 300-pounder. Maybe it's not quite so bad with deer, 'cause they aren't scary like bears, but it's close.
(I had a college buddy who came in from antelope hunting reporting that he had killed a 180 lb. dressed weight antelope doe! Wow. The world record antelope buck probably didn't weigh 3/4 of that live.)
Anyhow, to the main question. Here in MT I hunt two subspecies, one western and one eastern. The eastern strain will weigh a little more and have a little more antler size, but the difference isn't great. For western MT, where I've gathered by far the most data:
Bucks
1 1/2 years old75-95 lbs. dressed
2 1/2 years old100-130 lbs. dressed, 75-105 gross antler score
3 1/2 years old 140-170 lbs. dressed, 100-130 gross antler score
4 1/2 and up 170-maybe 240 lbs. dressed, 110+ gross antler score;
Does
All ages 70-110 lbs. dressed, 0 gross antler score (gotcha!).
My bucks (dress weights approximate):
'003 1/2 y.o., 160 lbs. dressed, 111 gross 10-pointer, western MT
'02 3 1/2 y.o., 185 lbs. dressed, 123 gross 8-pointer, eastern MT
'03 3 1/2 y.o., 145 lbs. dressed, 109 gross 9-pointer, western MT
'04 4 1/2 y.o., 195 lbs. dressed, 144 gross 10-pointer, eastern MT
'05 4 1/2 y.o., 185 lbs. dressed, 135 gross 8-pointer, eastern MT
'06 6 1/2 y.o., 170 lbs. dressed, about 110 7-pointer, western MT.
My '03 and '06 bucks were taken at the tail end of the rut, and both bucks probably had lost 10-15% of their body weight.
I used to work in a taxidermy shop where we took in a lot of bears. The average hunter (and I mean average, because the extremes were even worse) considered their 175 lb. bears to be 300-pounders. We could lay out a 125 lb. bear and have guys walk in and call it a 300-pounder. Maybe it's not quite so bad with deer, 'cause they aren't scary like bears, but it's close.
(I had a college buddy who came in from antelope hunting reporting that he had killed a 180 lb. dressed weight antelope doe! Wow. The world record antelope buck probably didn't weigh 3/4 of that live.)
Anyhow, to the main question. Here in MT I hunt two subspecies, one western and one eastern. The eastern strain will weigh a little more and have a little more antler size, but the difference isn't great. For western MT, where I've gathered by far the most data:
Bucks
1 1/2 years old75-95 lbs. dressed
2 1/2 years old100-130 lbs. dressed, 75-105 gross antler score
3 1/2 years old 140-170 lbs. dressed, 100-130 gross antler score
4 1/2 and up 170-maybe 240 lbs. dressed, 110+ gross antler score;
Does
All ages 70-110 lbs. dressed, 0 gross antler score (gotcha!).
My bucks (dress weights approximate):
'003 1/2 y.o., 160 lbs. dressed, 111 gross 10-pointer, western MT
'02 3 1/2 y.o., 185 lbs. dressed, 123 gross 8-pointer, eastern MT
'03 3 1/2 y.o., 145 lbs. dressed, 109 gross 9-pointer, western MT
'04 4 1/2 y.o., 195 lbs. dressed, 144 gross 10-pointer, eastern MT
'05 4 1/2 y.o., 185 lbs. dressed, 135 gross 8-pointer, eastern MT
'06 6 1/2 y.o., 170 lbs. dressed, about 110 7-pointer, western MT.
My '03 and '06 bucks were taken at the tail end of the rut, and both bucks probably had lost 10-15% of their body weight.
