Re post: problem with photo bucket:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/bdestafeno/library/2014%20idaho

Cursing Photo bucket right now. Click on link to see bucks. Will try to get it straightened out and post story.

Well this is the best I can do with photo bucket.

I shot the big whitetail in NW Idaho. Tracked him and jumped him out of his bed. First shot running away hit his hip and angled all the way to the front shoulder. Finisher through the chest. 165 accubond out of my .308 NULA. The 8 point was 185lbs and shot at 110 yards in the timber. Double lunged and DRT.
It took 5 of us most of a night to get him out of the woods. Pegged our Cabella scale at 350. F&G asked me to take him to a meat packer where he weighed in at 376. Aged at 9 1/2 years.

If anyone is well versed on Photo bucket I could use some help to get these pictures posted better.
Better picture

Lefty



Lefty

Those boys can grow big, but often we never know because they don't get shot. Here in MN I recall a native american shooting a whitetail buck that weighed over 500#. It had no antlers and teeth were almost gone. The fellow thought he was shooting a cow moose. .

Good on ya, mate!

Nice buck.

One of the things on my bucket list is to shoot a whitetail buck that field dresses over 300 lbs.

Any better pics?

Now thats a big whitetail!!! Congrats

deer in the picture aint anywhere near that big..

Way to go, LC.
I've really wondered lately how big they could actually get around here. You answered my question!

Related side note...
I also killed one in the Idaho panhandle this year (right on my place) and felt almost guilty telling people how big it was body-wise. I've said 235-240, but realistically he was over 250lbs. His teeth were worn as well, but ironically he was loaded with fat.
I ended up with 127# of processed meat.

Iddave from here at the 'fire had a fine 200lber of his own hanging next to mine in the garage and his looked puny.

I figured this BS would chime in sooner or later....The deer in the picture weighed in 376 after hanging all nite, so GFY really!

LC

That's a hell of a deer.

Broomed,

I hunted this same exact area last year and couldn't find a buck no matter what and lots of woof sign as well.
Prolly walked by this deer a couple of times in the last few years.
My 16 year old Nephew got a big 10 pointer near there two years ago that weighed in at 258. I thought that was pretty big.
Have seen some pretty big tracks and hellacious rubs so I guess they are out there.

We were sort of near Harvard

Lefty

Broomed,
there was not a ounce of fat on him so either he was rutted out or just old. Surprised the woofs didn't get him. lots of tracks everywhere.

Being from Potlatch, I'm not too surprised. Did you take him to Terry in Troy?

Wow!!!!

That beats any B&C record book Buck.

Well done lefty. That's a Hell of a buck, I couldn't imagine a beast like that. Amazing...............

I always wanted to shoot a buck that weighed more than me! Well I did just that a few years ago when I killed a 217lb dressed buck with the bow. I don't know what live weight would be on him, 240lbs? Heavier than me by a couple pounds.....

AH
We process our own meat but we got him weighed in Potlatch.
Cape and horns are in Moscow. The taxidermist has a daughter in fort Collins that he see's every summer so if I have something done he brings it with him. Works out pretty good.

Lefty

Lawdaz Nice buck!

Lefty

Damn right, wow!

I've lost track of who runs Potlatch Pack now.

Regardless, outstanding deer and congrats!

You have no clue. Shut up.

True beast right there also, Larry.. Well done.

375# with the guts out puts him well over 400# on the hoof.
That's a BFB!

Lefty, were his hind quarters small for his size? I've only killed one deer in that age neighborhood and he was shaped like a triangle - huge up front and narrowed down quite a bit toward the back end. That one didn't quite make 300# dressed. The one I shot the week before did though.

SKane he was smaller in the hips kinda like a greyhound. This picture doesn't show it as much as it does when he is stretched out. For comparison the 10 pointer next to him weighed 180.
Lefty

Now imagine what he'd weigh if the back matched the front!

+1

This is a real trophy for the way it was killed, it's size, and it's age. Very cool! I hope all that meat is great eating!

At 376 lbs, that buck is absolute freak for this area! It is akin to an 8 foot tall human.

I've lived here my entire life in this area and have seen hundreds of dead whitetails and never seen or heard of anything even close to that.

I've weighed a few of the bigger bucks that I've killed and anything field-dressed that goes over 175 is a good buck. Something that goes much over 210 is gonna turn heads.

From what I have seen, 180-220 lbs field dressed is by far the norm for an older buck living good in this area. It's hard to imagine something that would be a 100 lbs bigger.

You got yourself a freak of nature. Congrats on one heckuva deer.

Holy crap. I have had one that was over 200 dressed. I can't imagine one that big.

Nice work!!!

The buck I got this year weighed 173 at the locker, dressed. No hide, head, guts or lower legs. What would he have went live?

I wish you had taken a photo of the two bucks hanging side by side. The 375 would have to have been twice the size as the other.

I wish we had taken more pictures also. It didn't really sink in what we had until I thought about it for a while. The 10 point buck laying next to it on the picture above is a decent comparison. He was 180+. Taxidermist is going to do a full shoulder mount that hopefully shows his size.

Lefty

It is simply amazing. do you think the area had more or better food?

Congratulations! That is a MONSTER!

Lonny,

No I don't think so. Heavy green timber broken up by clear cuts.
I have been hunting there on and off for 15 years and there are some really large bucks there. I got a big 250 lb 10 pointer a while ago, and my Nephew go a 250+ 10 pointer 3 years ago. The taxidermist told me he had one come in about three years ago that was as big and had a bigger rack. Based on the size of the tracks I have seen I would expect there to be some other really big bucks.

Lefty

Congrats on a slob!
Largest weight wise I have killed here in WNY was 228 lbs dressed
That deer was a foot longer than any deer I've killed

Dvg,

Very nice buck!

Lefty

This about tracks weights for mature bucks in Maine,with a few nudging over 270 pounds dressed. Usually such bucks are killed before the 3rd or 4th week in November when they have lost weight from running does all month.

But the Maine record is a buck killed by Horace Hinkley and dressed 355 pounds,so sure...they can get that big!.

Lefty, your buck beats the Maine state record....that's a hell of a deer. Congrats and nice job with the tracking and shooting. That is not an easy way to kill one.

I'd have to agree, there isn't better feed, but I think there is better cover where the big boys and girls can hide. The heavy timber in the area is generally such that you and I can't sneak through it without letting everything living there know we are coming.

We used to sit the clear cuts as teens, but we didn't see much. Combination of being teens -distracted easily- and not willing/mature/knowing enough to tackle the hard hunting just yet.

Depending on how far he ranged, he could get to grain fields (winter wheat is the most common) that border the start of the timbered areas, but I suspect he was further in the deep stuff.

Bob.

Growing up in Northern Vt. I can relate to maine hunting. My dad used to go there and bought some pretty big deer home, but a lot of years nothing.
The day I got this buck was unusual. It had been below 0 for a few days and the ground was rock hard, crunchy, like walking on corn flakes. Any tracks were weeks old in the frozen ground. I was rewarded with "thumps" and cracking brush 150 yards ahead. 4days of hard hunting=0. Then it turned warm and rained all night. Any tracks at all were very fresh. I picked up this bucks track in big timber on a ridgetop. Followed them slowly for about a 1/2 mile and then down and around a large clear cut, through more timber to the edge of another clear cut, another 1/4 mile or so and found a huge scrape and small tree demolished. I was getting pretty pumped! Over a small knoll and spotted a doe standing in the clear cut. Scoped her and there were antlers sticking up by her feet. The doe had me busted and took off and the buck took as well. Three shots and he was down. 1 in the hip, a miss, and 1 low in the chest. He turned out to be farther away than I thought. Ranged from where I shot and it was almost 300 yards. His size made him look closer. All my shots were about 6" low which makes sense with the 308's zero. Shot at noon.
One to remember for sure.

Lefty

Quite a bit more.

AH,

He was back a ways. In the last few years I have been seeing less and less deer and more and more of this:





Woof and cats are working on them. One of the guys said he saw a grizzly track as well.

Lefty

Its a hellova buck no doubt. Deer do get that big on occaision. I believe the MN state record is something like 408 pounds!

My biggest is 227 field dressed and i had to turn the head/neck to fit it in a 6.5' box on my f150.

....from Northern Vermont....You're a New Englander! No wonder you knew to track him!

Great story and great job! If he had not bumped into that hot doe, you might still be following him! She made him slow down,and they will demolish a tree and/or scrape in the presence of a hot doe.

The whole thing was too absolutely cool!

I'm getting light headed.

"....from Northern Vermont....You're a New Englander"

And I still have my teeth"

Lefty

Congrat's Lefty-, there is no more challenging way to take a big whitetail buck than tracking him and that big deer is one in a million or so.

Tracking,

Dad saw two wolves north of Potlatch below Lookout Mountain last summer, and the cats are no longer uncommon sightings in the area.

I'd bet the area around Gold Hill is being re-infiltrated with both types. I haven't been through the Deary cut-off in a number of years, so don't know what the population looks like out that way. I do know the hunters around St Maries were reporting wolve sightings within 5 miles of town.

Could have? But if LC is running into wolves, this buck is probably a deer that probably didn't spend summer grazing in wheat and alfalfa fields.

I think it might have something to do with a particular area producing big bodied deer. Just like some areas are prone to producing non-typical racks, yet 20 miles away a non-typical is rare. We have a river drainage in this area that can produce female lions with skulls big enough to make P&Y. That isn't the norm for most areas.

At 9.5 years old, that buck was ancient which led to many years of allowing it to grow as big as possible. Hard winters, preds, human and furred, make it tough for a deer to last that long in this area. Whether it was food, genetics, or being in a place where a buck can live a long life, something about that deer and area made it grow into freaky size.

The largest deer we have shot in our area have gone about 215-220 field dressed

I can't believe you didn't know what you had for awhile and taken better pictures. Your doing this deer unjustice by not having better pictures. Lefty I hate to say it but I have to call you out on this one. You shoot a buck that big and don't get better pictures??? Then doing the eye test I really can't see where the deer on the left is twice as small as the other one. Then in the original story the 180 was a 8 pt now its a 10 pt is it a different deer? I hate to say it but I don't see any proof that your deer weighed that much. The Alberta buck in another post and the 212 lb buck in your post look every bit as big and yours is 150 lbs bigger? I would have made sure I got a picture of the scale on this one just to put an end to the doubters. You gotta admit its hard to believe without 100% proof a deer will dress out at 375. Not trying to start anything just my opinion. I hope you will respect it.

GW

FWIW

I shot two deer on this trip. The big one and a 8 pointer. A ten pointer was also taken by one of the guys with us.

10 point:


8 point I shot day before:



Both respectable deer. I believe the ten is laying next to the big buck.

Sorry about the pictures but not trying to break records just sharing pictures of a large unusual buck I was lucky enough to get

Lefty

" Yes sir...he's your deer. Just let me get the saddle off him...

I've been around here long enough to know that if lefty says it's raining, I'm packing a rain coat.

I don't doubt the weight of the deer for a second.

Jiminy Christmas man! You deserve your own website for killing a buck that large. Post all the pics you want and brag away.

Huntsman: There are formulas.

A buck with a hanging weight (like yours) of 173 #'s will have an estimated live weight of about 289 pounds...if I did the math right.

I have seen these formulas before but just pulled this one down off the Innanet....so it has to be right

Yeah, I figgered. But I don't know 'em.......grin
Dattsa why I axed.....I know he was as heavy as my big muley was.

Sorry if I missed it, but was that live, or field dressed.

Either way, what a hulk!

Congrats.

MAn, thats a hefty deer.

Guy in NJ just took one that weighed in at 249 dressed. Thats gotta be close to 300 live, and is definitely BY FAR the largest confirmed that I have heard of around here.

Must have been a real bitch to drag out! I guess quartering wasnt an option?

Either way, congrats on a monster!!!

Guy in Chinese restaurant say: Hory Shet

no, you have no clue, ive shot plenty of deer that have went over 220lbs dressed. either there is some crazy camera tricks, or someones full of [bleep].

Lefty is not known for being full of [bleep]. What you have or have not shot means what exactly?
Can you prove the man wrong?

i can tell by looking at it, that its not a 475lb deer on the hoof. Is it a big deer, sure, but its not a near 500lb deer. That is stratospheric numbers. Look up some pictures of legitmate 300lb dressed deer. Ive shot my fair share of big deer, and hunt and area where we consistently kill big deer, SKane can vouch for that. Maybe lefty isnt known for spinnin yarns, but nothing about that deer says its withing 100lbs of whats bein claimed. You dont shoot a 375lb dressed deer and not take a picture of it on the scale. Id love to be wrong here, but i just dont think I am. Trust me i love it when people kill monsters. Thats a big deer, its just not 375lbs dressed big

Couple years ago one of my chums with hounds starting a big kitty track down that way off of Spring Crk I believe. They finally treed it right off the St. Maries river about a mile or two up from Lotus. It had even killed a 5 point buck on the way north. It hit the scales at 160lbs plus. Heck of a long race.

The wolf tracks were thick the one day we had snow on the Emida side of the Palouse divide. Ran into several spots where 2 or 3 were cruising the clear cut edges. No sightings though.



Lefty,
Awesome buck. What a monster. My grandpa told me once of a 300 lb plus deer he killed while guiding some elk hunters. That was back in the 40's or 50's though. Right in Broomd's back yard.

leftycarbon;
Thanks for sharing the photos of your giant whitetail with us sir and hearty congratulations!

I've copied the photo because we happen to have been using the same type of plastic toboggan as our family's "dead sled" for a number of years. It's about my height so 5'6" I'd say without going outside to measure it.

Anyway, even a pretty decent sized local mulie buck will fit inside the thing.

As a by the way, we've punched holes every 8" along the sides and then run a 5/8" braided boat rope through it for lashing the carcass into the sled, but then that might not work on one quite that large.

Thanks again for sharing the grand buck with us and all the best to you this Christmas season.

Dwayne

Lefty Nice Buck. Did You grow up in the N.E.Kingdom?

Taconic,

Richford,
We had a deer camp near Newport. We later moved to Richmond.
Hunted in Victory and later a lot it camels' Hump state forest.

Pretty rural back then...28 in my HS class.

Lefty

Yeah - A guy that married my aunt had a camp in Victory Swamp. Never got up there with him but was invited many times. He took some big deer up there. He was from Shaftsbury. My niece graduated from Johnsburg H. School 2002 ( North Creek N.Y.) 26 in the class. She is now a PHD. That year I think that Newcomb graduated 7. How the hell did you drag out?

5 of us. 2 guys in the front of the sled, 1 behind. 1 guy ahead with the light scouting the best way & another helping as needed. Once we got it on a log road it went on a game cart. Not bad with the ground frozen, but a long pull almost 3 miles.

We pulled 5 deer out in 5 days all at night. With 5 guys it actually went well most of the time.

Lefty

Idaho's known for mulies and elk and the whitetails aren't mentioned much. They're very much underrated. There are some beauties in parts of north Idaho.

No, no there's not. Complete BS.

Those are my 2 best whitetails on the right. One is a 8x9 that gross scores 172 and the other is a 7x10 that has a 157 inch frame with 23" of extras.

bigswede: I have heard very good things.....for years.

One place I have not visited and should.

Those bucks are beauties!

Um...
New thing called, THE PHONE.
post the name of the meat packer...sure they got one AND sure that if a deer a biscuit short of 400 pounds got wheeled into their locker...uh...they'd fkin remember it.

Lefty, are we talking field dressed ?

Bob,
You'd be one of the few that hasn't made the trip. This area is no secret by a long shot. Come the second week of November the local motels are filled to the brim, there are huge camper and wall tent towns set up all over, and there are a constant line of pickups and 4-wheelers on every logging road for miles. Don't get me wrong, lots of good hunting yet, it just amazing how many people infiltrate the woods now. When I was a kid elk season was the same way, the wolves took care of that for us though.

Hey Lefty, let's let these innernet experts figure out what this one weighed.
#7 P&Y in Oregon at the time I killed him. I couldn't drag it whole, so I halved it. No head, hide, or guts it weighed 107. Live weight, anybody?

bigswede always good to get straight skinny on a spot. I used to find that, by the time I drew a tag and got to a new area,everyone was already there or just a year behind me!

Fireball beautiful buck! Here's the formula I used for Huntsman's buck. This is meant for estimating:

"Hanging Weight" X 1.33 ='s Dressed Weight;

Dressed Weight X 1.26 ='s Live weight


I would assume "hanging weight" to be gutted, head/hide off/legs off at knees. We might also call this "hog dressed"?

I've never seem those number's used before. What would that make live weight? I have always added 60% to the hanging weight. That's skin off, head off and bottom of the legs off. Using that, the deer in question would be just over 170#. If I figured it right.

So, less than 200 lbs. Wow, 375 lbs is 2 of these?

Don that's about right...I got almost 180, which strikes me as light for a mule deer with a rack like that.

I got this formula from a meat packing/processing plant on line....obviously the numbers could be conservative. There's other formula's as well but they all seem to work about the same.Keep in mind we are "estimating" here.

I've moose hunted Victory bog. One of my favorite places.

First of all, Lefty congrats on that honker of a deer and sharing the story. You also have triggered an interesting conversation on actual and estimated weights.

I have a Pennsylvania Game Commission "Deer Weight Tape" that is marked in inches that is placed around the chest and that reading gives you estimated live weight, field dressed weight and weight of edible lean meat.

The largest chest measurement is 46" with a live weight of 286#, field dressed 244# and 126# of meat. Your deer is way off the charts.

Once again, congrats.

Very nice buck. Curious of his age? Was he regressing? Amazing he could get feed browse to grow that big in that area of N Idaho. I hunt up there too and becoming much more popular. As you mentioned the wolves up there destroyed some of the best elk hunting in the US.

Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy seeing huge bodied deer.

Leftycarbon: Congratulations on the whopper buck!
Good for you.
I normally concentrate on Mule Deer Hunting but over the last 56 years of Deer Hunting have also killed many Blacktailed Deer and maybe a dozen Whitetails in various states.
This year I shot THE biggest bodied Whitetail I have ever taken - it was a 10 pointer and I estimated its live weight at 270 pounds and I estimated it to be 4 1/2 years old (maybe 5 1/2?).
He was a SW Montana "ranch Deer" having lived his whole life on cultivated crop fields (I am sure) and he was still "hog fat" at the beginning of the rut here.
I have Hunted that northern panhandle of Idaho before - one year I saw some of the rare Caribou that frequent that near the Canadian border area.
Thanks for sharing and many happy returns of the day.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I really appreciated that story, Brent. Thanks for sharing.
I love hearing that north Idaho history especially when it occurred right on our place!
It's amazing how those giants can evade hunters, vehicles etc. and get killed right on local properties. I've hunted many, many times up in the high country around us, but always end up in the back stand during the rut waiting on our local does to bring in the big boys.
I went back into the backyard bedding area this week (Obviously I avoid that area during the season) and I was shocked at the destruction--scores of rubs on 3-4" trees--everywhere. Hard to miss too, the buck I killed has a couple of nasty 1" stickers coming off his bases and his rubs are obvious due to the deep gouging.

I'll share a quick story...Cory B. was hunting down by our pond about twenty years ago, long before we lived here. He was walking through at first light blowing a grunt call, and I suspect he had some does estrous scent on himself...
Before he knew it he was pinned down flat on his back with a massive rutting whitetail trying to gore him. Cory said he was lucky to flail and kick the deer off to where it finally bounded away. Thankfully Cory is a big man.
He was shook up after that for some time, who wouldn't be!

What an amazing deer, and hunt! Well done, Lefty! My bro went to school at the U of I, and he had all kinds of huge Whitetail stories. Nothing like yours was mentioned! I've seen deer that would go 300 live weight killed, and they looked big laying there. Can't quite picture an elk-sized body on a deer!

There is a big old Muley that comes into my yard on and off all year. He is a 6x5 this year. In the spring and summer, he and his buds are small. This year, when he was losing his velvet, he showed up once and tore up a lilac bush. He didn't look much bigger in the body. When the rut started, he showed up again, after getting his ass kicked by I don't know what, but he had gashes and a big hole in his hind quarter on the left side. He was a GIANT. He looked double the size he did in summer. I wouldn't try to guess what he weighed. I think the testosterone quantity has much to do with what the big bucks weigh from day to day.

Hello Ladies and Gents, thought I would join to share the story of Lefty's Monster.


Please bare with me because this happened some two months ago...


First off, I am the handsome devil in the shot with the nice buck. Secondly, this was my first hunt with Lefty, and I (and my legs and back) can vouch for the size of this deer. Remember, the young guys at deer camp do the work.


The day Lefty bagged this guy, everyone who had a buck was already back at deer camp, waiting for Lefty (he always was the last back to camp) to start chow. I heard a vehicle hauling a down the road, and low and behold Lefty comes roaring up to camp skidding out down the driveway talking about I just shot a monster. Ok.

Driving to the location Lefty states that the buck is only 150 yards away from a logging road, and its a one mile trek through the logging road (no vehicles). Fine lets get this over with I'm thinking. (The buck is actually 3 miles down the logging road, but one mile as the crow flies, thanks old timer. )

We get to the buck, and I am amazed, the darn thing looks like a freaking horse, its stinky, ugly, and looks retarded, did I mention it looked like a horse? The deer is down at the bottom a nasty clear cut pocked with missing stump potholes, and its already dark with this thing.

Did I mention Lefty's patented wolf protector he left on the buck? He has a patent on it so you'll have to ask him yourself.


The buck was so heavy it took all 5 of us to grab an antler/leg/tail what ever, and count to three and lift and swing/drag a few feet at a time. You could not walk/drag this buck on the ground, too hard, tried it. At least we had a deer cart that worked on the logging road, but the deer was too big for the cart, it just wasn't a fun night, and we had not even got to the truck. It took five men it seemed like 8 tries to lift this buck up to the tail gate and shove him up. Ridiculous. After all this loving/hugging we had been giving this buck, the gland oil was all over. Stinky mofo's for sure.

No one dared even mess with getting that guy out of the truck that night, no way, hungry, tired, and going to sleep. Lefty do it on your own bud.

The next night we dragged this guy out of the truck, and over to the tree to hang. My buck was a 180lb and we had to put the log at least nine foot high to keep the ten point off the ground. We go to hang lefty's monster, and again, it takes four of us to shove up and one on the rope/pully to take in the slack. Lefty's bucks head / legs were still on the ground when we bottomed out on the log/scale, even then the scale was damn near bottomed out. We tied the head and legs up and voila! Scale freaking pegged, even tried lifting up to see if scale was stuck, and it wasnt.



Lefty is not bullsh!ting. This guy really got a whitetail of a lifetime. I know I was there .

Welcome and thanks for the story,not that I doubted Lefty

There are a few that don't believe deer get that nig because they're the greatest hunters in the world and haven't seen them.

Well they exist.

Thanks fur jumping in and giving your resion, I liked it.

Welcome to the fire!!

I believe it...
Its on the internet, that's as good as gospel.

Look up the MN record deer for weight.

Just going from memory with no google-Fu, I think it's 511 pounds.

http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/blogs/deer-pictures-real-slobberknockers

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Great buck Lefty Carbon -buck of a lifetime .

I saw a buck in SW Ohio where i'm from -there are a lot of big deer around there but this buck dwarfed a typical big buck.

It's been asked several times but I haven't seen an answer from Lefty. Is 375 pounds whole weight or dressed weight?

I believe ya, Lefty. Congratulations!


Pictured is a Colorado High Plains Whitetail that my son shot a few years ago.

Weighed 315 lbs. field dressed (gutted).

Had a huge rack before he did a running headstand and shattered it.

I've never seen or killed a deer that big before or since, but they are out there.

I'm from Missouri so forgive me.........

Lefty got back to me and said that was dressed weight, so live weight would be 420 - 445 pounds.

Copied and pasted directly from the Outdoor Life website.
"On a cold November day in 1926, Carl Lenander Jr. dropped a monstrous Minnesota buck with a single shot. Field-dressed, the deer weighed 402 pounds. The state Conservation Department calculated its live weight to be 511 pounds. No heavier whitetail deer has ever been recorded. "