Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Trophy Doe Weight??

I've never been one to pay too much attention to field dressed weights of deer. Half the time I butcher them myself and have no way to weigh them.
I did, however, shoot what looked to me like a pretty large doe a few weeks back. I took her in to be processed and weighed in at 125lbs (field dressed/internals out).

While this seemed like a pretty good size to me, I am curious what you guys have found your dressed does weigh?

An average mature doe in my area of CT is 100 - 110 lbs. My son shot one that was 140 lbs about 10 years ago. I shot one in Maine back when there used to be check stations on the Maine Turnpike that weighed 163 lbs. The biologist told me it was the 2nd biggest doe they weighed from Kennebec county that year. It was 6 1/2 or 7 1/2 years old. Worst tasting deer I ever killed.

in my area of MS,

120# does is big. Delta deer will go bigger.

120# / 180# buck is big for here.

According to the mndnr the average doe weighs 140 on the hoof so 140 field dressed would be pretty big. I've seen some big does but either out out of season or no permit.

I'll add, live weights are what i meant.

Ive never weighed one after skiinng / gutting to compare before / after

In the piney woods of north Louisiana, a really big one will go 130-140, live weight. Most are 110-120lb. The bigger ones have extra long noggins.

I shot a really long faced doe weighed 176 dressed. very strong tasting. most does here weigh 110 or so dressed

The average mature does I have been shooting in Northern VA hang at 80-90 pounds field dressed. With spikes going about the same. A 100 pound dressed doe here would be at the top end.

A average mature buck around here hangs at 110-125 field dressed.

About ten years ago I shot a doe on MCB Quantico that dressed at 57 pounds and was jaw bone aged by the base biologist at 6.5 years old.

I have a good scale in the garage. On average I can get 45%(+/-3%) of the field dressed weight in usable meat of most whitetail deer here in VA. (Not including heart and liver) I do strip all the useable meat and trim off all the fat to get those averages.

So far this season, I have four down and would like to have one more before the season ends.

A big doe here would be 110-120 live. Killed one a few years ago that weighed 143. She looked like a camel laid out on the ground.
GreggH

I shot one in October one year in central WI farm country that was 151 dressed.

My some has shot a few bigger or what seemed like it anyway but we’ve never weighed them.

Thinking back, don't know if we've ever weighed a deer. Basically just score them by how many times we had to stop and rest, dragging them to the truck.

Killed a few dozen.
Avg dressed weight is 105-110.
Biggest was 131 dressed.
Have heard of some a bit bigger, up to 150.

100 is fine table fare IMHO.
Those bigger have been fine.

Shot one at 104# that wasnt fit to serve to a stray dog.
Dunno why. Appeared fine.

I had a beater CJ5.....no dragging

BTW, big bucks around here, IMHO dress 200# or more.

I would agree. Big deer in the area we hunt, people start paying attention at 180 and weight definitely gets mentioned if they're 200.

Saw one at 207 that had, what can best be described as a mane running down his neck. Like a mohawk of hair 4 inches or so tall, right down the neck to shoulders.

Probably 15 years ago I shot a doe here that dressed 150lbs, she was HUGE. Her head looked like it was off a mule......

I shot a little 8 pt w a mane. Around 150# dressed. Coukd see it sticking up and he was trotting towards me about 75 yards away.

Have no way of weighing dressed deer so go my how much meat we get. Average doe is maybe 50lbs. Few years ago brother shot one that went 75 lbs meat. She was flat out large.

Growing up almost any deer that we killed was weighed once dressed and back at the house. In those days in southern Michigan our average adult doe field dressed weight was 110-130lbs. One year I killed one that the DNR aged at 6-8 years old that stretched the scale to 180. She was a horse. My buddy took a nice 7pt the same day, on the same property that only weighed in at 130 and she dwarfed it by almost a foot in length.
Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan it wasn't uncommon for us to have 130-150lb does.
Moving to Kentucky(Fort Campbell) put me on smaller bodied deer. Average adult doe weight was 100-115lbs.
Moving to Colorado (Fort Carson) on the front range the whitetail does averaged 110-130 in weight. Mule deer does looked to be about the same but I never drew a doe tag, only buck.
Moving to West Virginia adult does average 90-110lbs.

I think a lot has to do where they come from and what they eat. I've seen some deer down in Georgia on Ft. Benning when I was down there for school that were straight up tiny. I would of guessed the many of the adult does would dress around 75lbs or so.

These two were real trophies. 34&36 lbs dressed.



Long drag out too.

-Jake

Assuming you are talking a Whitetail doe, I called a hunter in our Whitetail deer camp who keeps track of deer weights and racks and he got back to me with a 2009 doe that weighed 156 lbs. field dressed. He went on to say that the average for a field dressed doe in his records was 117 lbs..

Last year my doe in Maine went 146. She was good sized. Lots of 250+ bucks in Maine I am told this year. Funny, here in Maine the first question is always what did it weigh? Racks are fine but we hunt for weight with bucks.

If I don't get a chance to weigh a deer live or dressed weight, I estimate it using the Pennsylvania Game Commission heart girth measurement method which has a table of edible meat.

What th they eat plays a huge part.

No one farms here anymore.
Fields were planted in plantation pines.

Hard woods are getting scarce.
Lot of places only hardwoods left are on creeks and Rivers.

Go north to the MS delta and west to the MS River and the deer size are bigger.

Thanks! That’s helpful info.
Yes, I’m talking whitetails. Usually my does are late season and just get hung up at home to butcher w friends and no weight is taken. But, I think I’m going to start keeping track.
This years doe was taken in Ottawa Co. Michigan.

I shot a bigun this year. Her head looked huge too.

Farm I used to hunt was not hunted much for years prior. When it was the family only shot bucks. Lots of old does and tons of food. Biggest one on a scale dressed 180. We shot a couple that seemed bigger but did not weigh them.

Yikes! a 180 lbs dressed doe?

Our record doe is 174lbs LIVE weight. Folks on forums used to say I was lying.


BTW: Our camp record buck was 275lb live weight. I've seen 300 pounders at the processor.

This year, my son pulled out two doe. One weighed 164 and the other 170.

Mike,
Are you in Saskatchewan per chance? That's the only place I've ever seen a doe that I thought might be north of 175lbs (dressed).

FWIW, we seriously doubt you're a liar - but must say you've demonstrated a penchant for spinning some rather fanciful yarns.

For reference, this buck was under 190lbs field dressed. I'm a little over 6' tall. 175=doezilla

No scale weight but took this doe in NY a long while back. Worst tasting deer I have ever brought home. My WAG is that she dressed at near 200#.?. I am 6"6" and 240ish# in that picture. The yearling on the panel behind me is bigger than most adult deer in VA. What do you all think she might have weighed?

I don't make it a habit of weighing does (or bucks) unless they are exceptional. A local tavern used to have a heaviest doe contest every year along with the big buck and heaviest yote contests. Largest I ever weighed in was 157 lbs dressed and I've seen maybe 2 on the hoof that were as large since. WAG I'd say an average doe around here dresses in the 110 lb range.

Southeast Wisconsin. About 800 acres of farmland surrounded by houses and heavily hunted smaller parcels. Lots of deer on the property that likely never left their whole life. Had the age and the food. Did not make a habit of aging the deer but the few we did when the DNR was at the registration station were six plus. Several we shot had teeth barely above the gumline.

Shes got the build of cows we shot. Shes is every bit of 150. Hard to tell how wide she is. But she could go 175 or better if she is a "square" deer. Big does seem to not be as long as bucks rather they are "square" in their body dimensions.

I think I understand what you mean by “square.” Here is another pic.

I've killed just over 100 doe whitetail deer and only weighed one

117#

Yep shes "square". Not one dimension stands out as being big compared to the rest. Width and height are nearly the same. I would say she easily breaks 150 and is approaching the 175 range. Touch thin through the hindquarters in my opinion to break 175. Impressive doe none the less.

Here locally I’d say an average would be somewhere close to the 100lbs mark. I weigh them occasionally and of the 4 I weighed last they was 85 to 109lbs.
Shot a mature buck other day and he was 179

That sounds about average .

The stop and rest periods are effected more by our weight not the deer!😁

Interesting subject. I weighed every deer I shot for many years and for at least 3 decades I have shot between 4-7 deer per year with most of those being only mature adult does. I have also made it a point to specifically target only the very biggest does in my hunting area. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep any records but I can tell you that the biggest doe I have ever shot weighed 185 lbs. on the hoof. Any doe over 165 lbs. is big in my book. I would estimate the average weight of a mature adult doe in my neck of the woods to be between 150-160 lbs.

This is a picture of the 185 lb doe. I was actually hunting for the smaller 165 lb doe that morning because she was really big. Boy was I surprised to see an even bigger doe just a few minutes later! And as luck would have it, I had a chance at a third before I could get out of my stand. I passed. It was Thanksgiving morning and I already wasn’t planning to clean more than one deer LOL.

Many years ago I killed a doe on a State management area and took her to the check station. They aged her at 4.5 years old and weight 67 pounds with the guts in her. From the county just west of mine.

Agreed- the only other place I’ve seen consistently huge does was Ontario. I’ve been deep enough in the woods up there where I considered tryin to capture one for mobile transportation LOL

I've lived all the way the USA, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. The size of Whitetail deer is varied depending on location, available food, climate, hunting pressure etc.. I've seen full grown deer that were the size of a Labrador dog on up. I shot a 4x4 white tail in Missouri whose antlers were about the size of my hands, maybe smaller. My dad shot a White tail buck that after the head and part of the neck was cut off and the deer was cleaned was heavier than him - dad weighed 230 lb. Dad and I pulled him up in the air in our barn using a pulley and when I let go dad went up in the air.

The largest deer seems to be the ones being inadvertently fed corn and grain by a farmer. The smallest ones seem to be in heavily hunted areas where while there's lot of deer, there isn't a lot of nutritious food.

Where I hunt in the TX panhandle any whitetail doe over 130 lbs live weight is a really big doe. Give another 30 lbs or so it it is a mulie doe.

I do know that I grew up in CO and the does of both species were substantially bigger on average.

Around my place in east Texas, 110-120# live weight is a big doe. At my place in NW Oklahoma, I’ve killed several does in the 155-160# range, but I killed one in 2018 that weighed 167# live weight.

I don’t know about doe weights in various parts of the country, but I can tell you there ain’t no such schidt as a “Trophy Doe”. Oxymoron

You're wrong about that

I consider every game animal I take to be a trophy. That doesn't mean I will send them to the taxidermist but they are all special to me. How truly sad it would be to think like you do. Ever stop to think that every "trophy" buck gets half of his genetics from the doe?

Killed at 155# one in AL. 130# is a really big doe in my area.

I'm quite certain the thread was titled with tongue-in-cheek. That said, if it warrants a bullet - headgear or not, the wrapped and shrunk-wrapped goodies in the freezer = all trophy remnants.

Just for grins, I weigh the deer shot on my place. Heaviest buck (2016) field dressed at 150 and was a 4½ year old. Heaviest doe (2006) was 140, field dressed. Not sure on her age. She dwarfed the other does when she was next to them.

South Arkansas doe deer are smallish. Only doe I ever weighed, field dressed, was an even 100 pounds at check station- they checked her teeth and told me she was 10 years old. Don't know if she was actually that old, but she was my trophy that year .

Joe

We weigh every doe we shoot, after field dressing. 50 to 60 per year. Biggest to date was 115.8 field dressed. Average would be 85 lbs, which is around 110 live weight. They are small but we can kill 3 per day, so no real issue. And they are trophies. We have a big doe pot. Won $500 last year!!!!

Our mature does are usually around 105 lbs with a big one going 110 lbs.

Average doe is 80 lbs dressed on left. The doe on the right is 108 dressed.

Never have weighed any deer.

Here's a couple of pretty good ones, that Deb has taken;





Trophy meat, fo sho !!

nice pictures ! just wanna mention in the old days i remember deer contests for biggest buck dressed weight , biggest horns ,biggest doe dressed weight and kinda a favorite smallest dressed weighed deer too , sometimes someone got a 30 lber. and as a young hunter sure was fun looking at the board weights of deer in the bar with dad and uncles.

I have weighed a lot of deer-both whitetail and mulies. Overall, they average about 11-115, dressed. The largest one that I have weighed was was 120 dressed (white tail). I have heard of a couple larger and I have shot a couple of old mulies that were not weighed, but probably were a bit more than the 120.

I hang bucks with a pulley from a garage beam, and the rope around the antler bases; as such a 2.5 year buck's feet normally are almost to the floor. I recall one doe that never was weighed, but she was hoisted with a rope around the neck, so she was hoisted closer to the beam than the bucks, and she hung almost to the floor also. That was my biggest doe.

We would get some over 150 in north Texas, maybe 110 around lake Buchanan

3years ago my son killed a 7 year old doe that dressed 163 lbs was bigger than the 8 point buck I killed. Told him we had to cut it up first before anyone saw it hanging next to my buck. Of course he then called all his biddies to come see the huge doe he got. How embarassing.

Small enough that I can grab em by the legs and toss them on the tailgate with just a little bump from the knee to help out. And I’m not a big/strong guy.

They were bigger where I grew up and it took me a couple years to stop waiting for a bigger one.

JMO- I don't get into all the weight and age and
antlers to post on farcebook and yoofloob and
" live from the blind " and " age this one " and
" score this one " and all that kind of stuff.
A trophy is what you make of it.
I don't care about any of the one-upmanship
that so many have tried to turn deer hunting into.
I'm happy for anyone that can legally harvest
a deer of any size or sex

Yep, here's the trophy, right here;

one of my buds killed the biggest doe i've personally ever seen in the flesh at my new camp this year. she weighed 135lb guts in. we have to weigh em all due to camp rules of doe have to be 100lb or a $200 fine is enacted. i had 2 or 3 in my crosshairs but didn't feel confident they were 100lb so didn't press the trigger. i'm trying to get em to move that rule down the road and make it a mature doe with no weight limits as just 2 outta 14 guys actually killed their quota of 2 does for the camp this year.
Big Ed

The first doe I ever killed years ago in middle Tennessee dressed 133 pounds. She was completely grey, and had a head like a horse. During the first few years of doe permits being issued, and the does still being somewhat protected during gun season, I killed several that dressed 120-125.

After years of hammering does, it’s rare to kill one in my area that’ll dress more than 100.

We're about to enter our antler less season here in Michigan... so I'll try and post some weights.

Anyone downing any big does yet this year?

Does here in the Blue Ridge 80 to 100 on the hoof. I have shot does on the Eastern Shore of VA where I belonged to a hunt club there averaged 120 to 140 on the hoof.

My biggest doe was 146. Both my wife and I missed the same one on 2 different days last week and this one was bigger than my largest I believe. I hope she makes the winter.

It sounds like you may have actually killed a donkey.

That's what we're seeing a few miles south of Mansfield.

My camp mate has a rep for getting big does. A couple of years ago he brought one in that weighed 150+.

At our camp most are probably 95-100 lbs with an occasional one at 110 lbs.

I’ve never weighed a deer. Think I’ll buy a scale for next year just to satisfy curiosity.

Back in my younger days I shot a doe in the Geo. Washinton Nat'l Forest fairly close to Roaring Run. I was about a mile and a half or so from the truck.
I started dragging and after a while she was gutted, legs cut off at the knees and I even cut that bitches ears off. One side was missing a lot of hair. She weighed 88lbs. @ the check station. It was along about that time I started taking into consideration where I was in relation to the truck, and how hungry I was, before I pulled the trigger.

Same here in Tensas.

But just a mile away, buddy has a place that is bordered by ag fields, his average is 15-20 pounds more.

years ago bowhunting at Camp Ripley in Minnesota in December my dad shot a fawn buck that was weighed on the Camp Ripley DNR scale that weighed 93 lbs. dressed .dad thought it was a decent doe he shot when he found this deer it was button buck.

I laughed at that way more than I probably should have 🤣🤣🤣😂

around here 150lbs is average. i have shot 2 or 3 doe that weighed guesstimated 200lbs -230lbs. i have shot many deer that were guesstimated 170-190lbs.

the last doe (Thursday) i shot was around 180-190lbs old, dry doe. i shot a doe the first Saturday that i guesstimate 140-150lbs. i don't like to shoot 2 yrs old thru fawns. there is not enough meat on them. i hunt for meat, not antler size. the biggest buck i shot was guesstimated 240-250lbs.


140-150lbs doe





https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/White-tailedDeer/Pages/DeerWeightChart.aspx

Boom & Crockpot right there

Got one in Ohio in January that was 140 ish based on meat yield, and one in west Virginia this fall that was close to that.

Just got lucky, as those were the ones that showed up.

Biggest I ever shot was 150 lbs. Heck of a deal to get it on the back of the 4 wheeler.

Settle down. I live in PA. Never saw a "170 to 190" pound Doe here in my life. Get a scale

200 pound does and 40 pound bass are more common than you think…

LOL