Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How Big Are Texas Whitetails?

The question is meaningless unless "Which part of Texas" is specified.

The biggest ones I've seen come from two areas a few hundred miles apart; the S Tx Brush Country and the Canadian River Bottoms.

Here in N Central Tx, the largest I've weighed was 137 lbs. field dressed. I killed another that was at least 20 lbs. heavier.

Given that 90% of the bucks killed in this County - prior to the 13 inch rule - were 2 1/2 Y O or younger, it's hard to determine from P&W data how large they are capable of becoming.

But I'll answer the question for THIS part of Tx by guessing that the AVERAGE field dressed weight of a mature buck will be around 110 lbs.

How about YOUR part of the country?

A mature buck here will weight around 200# early, and #180 later in the season.





The deer we kill in the Sabinal area are about the same.

my dad killed one in Mcmullen County back in 97 that dressed out at 210.

Here in AZ about 90# for a nice buck

My part of the country grows em heavy. Sometimes, hell, a lot of times, the rack doesn't match the body. A 2 1/2 year old buck in northern MN can get up to 200# and beyond field dressed (guts removed) weight. I shot a very average 8pt that dressed at 204 a few years back.

My heaviest dressed buck is 227 and that was a real long deer.

The bucks in our area tend to be long in the body, which I think leads to a lot of weight. I may be wrong, but it seems that way.

180 live weight is about the average for a 5.5 or older buck locally.

North Idaho has lots of whitetails and they can get big. I've never shot or weighed one but I've seen some real whoppers. The farther north you go, the bigger they get.

The bucks in all parts of Texas are weighing in bigger than ever before. The protein feeding programs instituted by many people on managed leases has resulted in heavier bucks statewide. The great south Texas brush country has many deer weighed in at contests each year that even surpass the 200lb mark. The panhandle area does indeed manage to yield a few 200lbers each year but nothing like the brush country. powdr

this is true of mammals and fish, they need the added weight to deal with cold weather.

my area in west central wisconsin, the avg live weight for a 4.5 yr old buck is around 250-260lb. which is 200-210 field dressed. Biggest buck i;ve killed went 243lbs field dressed, in late november.... so quite possilby could have lost 20-30lbs at that point

From Outdoor Life:

A better choice of words on my part would have been "typical" instead of "average".

For years [don't know if they still do it] TP&W would station a person at each of the larger processing facilities in each area who were tasked with aging the FIRST 100 Bucks brought in every season. This was usually accomplished on opening weekend. Seeing the large numbers of immature bucks killed is what led to the "13 in. rule" being implemented in large areas.

The downside to this rule is encouraging the preservation of genes that contribute to narrow racks. I see quite a few 5 YO bucks that will never reach the 13 inch inside spread minimum.

most i've killed were around 110 dressed

in west central MS.

I'd have to say bucks average 150-175#.

does 80-110#

about 10 years ago I killed an old 7pt. that weighed 215# on the hoof. And of course he died at the bottom of the biggest hill in the country I think.

2 years ago a fellow hunter killed a 120# doe. Largest for our camp in the last 6 years we when been on DMAP.

Took an older buck out of the Red River bottom some years back that went 190 ish hog dressed. Saw two bucks behind the house a couple of days ago both eight points and the same age and one was sporting your aforementioned narrow headgear. Thinking cull...

In my area of South Franklin county in N.E. Texas I would say the average buck of 2.5 to 3.5 years old would weigh about 110 to 140 field dressed. never killed or had a chance to kill one older. I had a pic last year of a mature 10 point that appeared about 180+ on the hoof,

There is a guy who runs a archery store at Lake Fork who killed a monster in Kansas a few years ago. It was so big even the locals came to see it hanging in the barn. I don't recall what it field dressed but it was extremely large in the pic I saw.

Amazing the size of deer when watching the shows filmed in Canada as compared to what we have around here.

I wish we could auto feeder our deer like you all do in Texas. We'd have monsters.

I saw a 200" plus buck that was killed yesterday in Texas that weighs 285 from the photo with him hanging from some scales. Big racked/bodied low fense buck taken with a crossbow.

Field dressed weights in a few of the areas I've lived.

Tennessee: 115

FL: 125

AK: 125

No idea, but I can tell you I stopped dragging deer shortly after moving here.




Dave

The Eastern Oregon mule deer I hunt probably average around 140 field dressed for a 2.5 to 3.5 year old. Some get much bigger. I never weigh them field dressed but I get weights for the skinned carcass without head or the legs past the knees when I take them to the butcher. You can extrapolate live weights from this. I killed one buck with a live weight over 300 some years back and another weighing 250 a couple of years ago.

I moved to Michigan from ND 4 years ago. I don't know about weights but I do know the deer in west central Michigan are a lot smaller bodied than the deer in north central North Dakota.

We have the same here, well not quite a few, but some. But we've had good luck for some reason, they either get wider I guess or disappear.

There are some areas where feeders help, but generally most folks won't feed enough to do much to really help the deer.

I try to keep 10 of our 100 acres or so, in some type of food plot that can help the deer as close to year round as I can.

I personally believe that helps MUCH more than any kind of feeder, though free choice protein seems to help them in a drought.

Both food plots or natural food sources and age are much more important in the scheme of things that genetics cannot touch.

A corn filled auto feeder is nothing but an attractant of a candy store that does no good for the deer.

I'm not sure on the actual poundage but I am sure Nebraska deer are HEAVY!!

yes good point.

from the interweb



being involved in the DMAP gives access to the state biologists.

plan and simple you can't feed deer enough year around.

must have natural browse to go with it.

Gene - never have hunted TX whitetail, so no idea. The heaviest Coues whitetail I ever bagged was probably not more than 100 lbs, maybe not that heavy.

From personal experience and using scales on two well managed ranches in LaSalle County, 220 - 245 average live weight on the scales for a mature buck. One did go 265, but that is not common.

On the east side of South Texas in Refugio County, 180 - 210 live weight.

Those are 6.5+ year old deer on large, low fence ranches.

Younger management deer weigh less.

The key is to keep population numbers low enough to fit the food and water supply.

The best way to kill old deer is to quit shooting young deer.

I've never weighed a deer so I have no idea on actual weight.

I have seen bucks from a couple counties north in the edge of the hill country that were about the same size as our does are here. So size can vary wildly from place to place.

I was always under the impression that we had small deer here, but from what I'm reading here, ours are about the same as most. I'd say our average "antlered" bucks range from 100# to 130# dressed out. But a lot of the bigger ones can be as much as 150# to 180#. One of my guys killed one 2 weeks ago and weighed 160#.

This was my first buck and weighed 158#.



Here are a couple more nice ones. I'm not sure what they weighed because the state doesn't require it anymore.





I keep seeing this big guy, but I can't bring myself to kill him.

Yep.

Body mass vs. surface area.

Adaptation to the climate.

DF

Buy the way, this is in Maryland, not TX. Sorry.

Have looked over some 60 years of harvest data for both bucks and does for Camp Bullis, San Antonio, TX and all weights are dressed/gutted deer. The heaviest buck is 157 lbs and doe is 83 lbs. These deer were taken some 10 years ago when we were feeding protein year round. Just recalling from memory so may be off a lb or 2. Tom

While I've glimpsed some big bodied, nice racked bucks in my area of Northern Lower Michigan, I've never killed one. Most of the bucks taken on my property have weighed 100-120 lbs, dressed, according to my scale. I did take one big ol' doe several years ago that dwarfed the small herd that she ran with. She dressed an honest 140 lbs.

My best buck was a decent 8 point taken on state land in Midland county, down in the middle of the Lower Peninsula. It scaled 150 lbs dressed.

This is true of mammals NOT fish. A 10# bass in Texas or Florida is a nice fish, but in Illinois or Missouri, it's a Whopper. Down here, they feed voraciously pretty much 3 seasons in warmer water.

IL and MO whitetails routinely go over 200#, but that's pretty rare in Texas and is unheard of in FL.

its true of fish as well redfish and spotted weakfish run much larger on average the farther north you go, do a little research and you will see this is true. now large mouth bass are a fish whose normal habitat is in the south so LMBass introduced to more northern ranges might not do as well and follow the rule.

I believe it applies to catfish, too...most any freshwater fish. May be much different for saltwater, though.

Gene, we have a 200 lb +/- show up here on occasion, but they are not common. About South Texas, Blue (RIO7) weigh all of their deer both before and after gutting so he can clue you in on that area. They also age them and pull jaw bones to send to the state. I do know that the older Bucks that we saw were a lot bigger than the does. After looking at deer down there, I feel that I have seen very few old bucks here, so what I thought was our potential is wrong and we could have much bigger bucks. Won't happen because acreage is too small and not enough people would let them walk long enough to get old. miles

Guess it depends on where you are in Texas, each year we kill between 330 to 350 Whitetail deer, we weigh each deer live weight and dressed weight, we score every bucks antlers and collect the lower jaw to age them, on does we weigh and collect the lower jaw to age them, and make note if they are lactating or not. when he season is over we know the average weight, age, and score on the deer taken that year.

The weights will be 25% to 30% higher before the breeding season starts, the weights will go down, until the breeding season is over.

Pre-Breeding season we kill does that will weigh 120+ # and bucks that weigh 240+ # The big difference is we don't shoot young deer, we try to take deer that are 5 1/2 years old or older, and we try to take off deer that are poor quality deer no matter their age.

We look at the age of the deer before we judge antler score, our system works for us, it might not work for everyone. Rio7

Big here dressed 180-200lbs largest I've killed was pushing 300lbs(230 dressed) live weight

sounds like a well thought out plan.

we do something very similar to that here in MS with the DMAP program.

also over the last 6 years we have participated body weights have increased by killing more deer.

average 40-45 deer ( 35 does , 10 buck) on 900 acres.

we do have some big spikes

after Keith and I raided Doc's freezer i REALLY want one of those spikes

Ever hunt over a feeder?

oh, keep that a secret, that and axis are both horrible on the plate... lol

Interestingly enough, the worst drough we had, 2011, I had deer consuming a bit over 50 pounds of protein a day. Now that was not 5 or 6 deer, but more like 7-9 deer a day per my camera. They did pretty good at getting close to 4-5 pounds or so a day off my feeder, truth be told, I suspect the 3 oldest bucks did get their full fill of at least 7 pounds a day from that protein feeder.

Have to at our deer lease, no other choice, you have to go to your stand and sit. Everyone else feeds, if I didn't.... though I have set up my stand strategically around other food sources and in wet years when they don't go to feeders I still see lots of deer due to my stand placement.

At home I don't, as I hunt around the farm, different places, often around food plots. We have an auto feeder at the house, and at moms house, just to watch the deer. Though I sometimes kill culls off the feeders at the house if they are ones that really need to go. So far its been 2 in about 20 years off the house feeders....

I have one feeder out feeding high protein feed, free choice. I have a camera on it, but no stand. I can tell to the day when the acorns start falling, because there will be no feed consumed. My deer do not eat a lot of this feed, but they can if they want. We have a lot of vegetation here for them, but at times the quality is not as good as other times. There is a salt lick that I made close to the feeder, and lots of times you can see where they have been at the salt and not the feed. I have hunted over corn in the past, but I have never seen a mature buck at the corn. They all have corn in them when killed so they are coming at night. Again they have corn in them, even though I am not feeding corn. Does and young buck are easy to bring in with corn. At least this is what I have observed on my place. What your deer have to eat during the season, and year around will change things up. miles

I don't know what the average deer around here weighs. I had to hurry and get this one dressed so I didn't get a weight.

Roger or any body, can you please tell me what the hell that crazy thing is?

Dan, unbelievable monsters. Was that from around your area?

nilgai

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgai

I hunt within 50 miles of San Angelo. The fire deptarments cut many high fewnces during the fires a few years ago. We have seen an improvement in deer size.
If you could convince people to let the nice 6 and 8 points age a few more years we would have some nice deer.
The bucks do appear to be heavier bodied but I cannot prove it. A BIG buck will weigh 160-pounds on the hoof and they are not common outside the high fences.
120- to 130-pounds is an average mature buck.
We take cull deer anyway we can. The big bucks will be taken over water rather than food.
Here is a nice buck for Tom Green County. We have several around which are close to this one.