Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Heaviest VERIFIABLE weight of a deer, field dressed

This always seems to be good for some heated discussion- The heaviest weight that I can find on any deer, mule deer or whitetail, is the Hinckley (sp.?) buck killed in Maine in 1955 that field dressed 355 pounds. I suspect that some of the corn belt states have produced heavier deer than that by now, anyone have any reliable data?

Not sure. Though a friend of mine killed a blacktail buck here in Oregon that went 300 lbs with the guts in.

Get a copy of Leonard Lee LaRue's book "The Deer of North America." He describes deer that probably weighed 425-481 lbs. on page 129. They went 354 hog dressed and 386 lbs. All weights were verified and witnessed, etc. E

a fellow killed an average 8 pt in canada a few years ago that weighed 405 "live weight". there was clip about the deer in north american whitetail.

Thanks for the posts. I grew up in Vermont, and back then there was more interest in how much a deer weighed than the antler score. I love to see and hear about big whitetails, the largest I ever saw fisrst hand was one that dressed 260-something at a hunting camp on Second Roach Pond in Maine in the eighties, but many years in Maine several are shot that weigh over 300 pounds field dressed.
The cow elk I see here in Montana usually weigh around 350 pounds field dressed, so a white tail that approaches the weight of a cow elk is certainly impressive. Again, thanks.

There was a deer in MN that dressed out to over 400 lbs! Wildlife guys said that its live weight was around 525. I cannot remember when and exactly where, but its a documented fact. 400+ lb. field dressed whitetail, can you imagine???? Can you say I need help dragging!

Thanks for the info about the Michigan deer. I had never heard of that one.

From the Minnesota DNR:

"The heaviest whitetail ever recorded in the United States was a 500-pound Minnesota buck."

MN DNR

Royce, they need to start feeding those cow elk out there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Yearlings will go 350 lbs. A mature cow will tip the scales EASILY at 600+. Something doesn't add up. Perhaps the DOW in your state needs to fix their scales <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I have personally killed 300+ lb. mule deer bucks, and I can't imagine a 450+ lb. buck. WoW...what a trophy. It still makes me wonder how they get them to a scale <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> It was all I could do to roll mine over to gut them. Flinch

Never got this buck on a scale but it was the heaviest I have seen. Any guesses on the weight - I'm 6' 200 lbs for comparison.

ranger 1,
I dare say he meets or exceeds your weight. I'm no expert by any means, but I can safely say 200+ easily without hesitation.

Flinch,
How much do the bulls weigh if the yearlings go 350 and mature cows 600+? Of the elk I've taken, a cow was the biggest (around 600 lead cow) my bulls (2 spikes, 2 rag 4x5's and two mature 5x5's) ranged from 275-500. The spikes were Rockies and the rest Roos'. Takes alot of age to get body weight.

Them dad gum deers are getting heavier by the minute. If they keep growing I am going to be scared to get out of the house for fear of being trampled to death. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />


BCR

Makes me wonder how you define field dressed. I always weighed my game as field dressed with the guts out, the legs cut off short and the head off. Two years ago I got a nice 10 point in Northern Ontario that field dressed 300 pounds. He was a nice one, and tasted great. This year I saw one that would make the 10 point look small. I have shot nice bull moose that field dressed 680 pounds, and you don't drag them anywhere.

I think most people mean the deer is gutted (and no more) when they say field dressed.

Because of the requirement in many states to leave proof of sex on deer while in the field and in transit, I think most people leave the head on until they get home or to camp, in part, to comply with the game rules. I realize that the proof of sex requirement can be met at the other end of the deer too, but some states (Arkansas being one) don't allow anything more than gutting the deer in the field. Of course, in Arkansas you probably can't find a place where you're more than two miles (in most places one mile) from some type of road, so trying to get a deer in from wilderness areas is not really an issue.

Also, I don't think most people want to go to the trouble of being careful with the cape for the head mount (or mess with the head at all if they aren't having it mounted) out in the field unless they're backpacking it out.

It'll be interesting if there are other interpretations, but I've always assumed people mean just gutted when they say field dressed.

I think the term "field dressed" says it all.

My experience with the weights on elk are right on with Flinch's. A yearling cow about 350, a spike bull about 400. Boxcar sized cows can go 700, but I'd guess that they average around 500. The couple good 6x6 bulls that I've shot that knocked on the 300 mark both were about 700, and the typical 5 point in the 500-550 area. Real big mature bulls can go 800-900 pounds, though you hear of 1000 pounders, I've unfortunately yet to get any firsthand experience them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />.

These are live weights, BTW.

As to deer, I've experience with two that I feel would go close to 400 pounds (not verified -- you have to get them out somehow!) and quite a few that range from 250 - 325 (verified).

My elk experience matches yours. It's pretty common around my neck of the woods for elk killed on farmland and ranch land to be loaded up and run over scales. Mature five and six point branch antlered 4.5-5.5 year old bulls will weigh 550ish in the early season, with BIG herd bulls up to 750ish. What tends to happen here though is that the late season hunts which coincide with the wind down and end of the rut sees the big bulls drop a hell of a lot of body weight through rut and "homeland defense" activities and though still bigger and rangier than the younger bulls the weight difference closes considerably - the overall average of the mature animals probably ending in the 500-650 range.



Mule deer that stand out as "looking" big will end up from the 220s to 320s typically...

Here is my interpetation of "field dressed". First of all, its a somewhat vague term no matter where its looked at, but in the eastern states of New England where I grew up, I generally saw field dressed as meaning the animal had its intestines removed, and its heart, liver, etc, but usually not the wind pipe. Of course, when someone has shot a large buck, they tend to not be as thorough when the "field dress" it prior to being weighed.
In Montana where I live now, when deet are weighed, (and weight is not usually as big a concern here), the deer are weighed at the meat packers with the intestines, heart, liver and windpipe, head, and legs removed. There fore, the same deer would weigh more "field dressed" in Maine than it would in Montana by somewhere around 15 or 20 pounds, I guess.
The elk weights that I have mentioned have been the weights as taken on Fish & Game scales at weigh stations, eviscerated but with head and legs on.
Field dressing is not an exact science, but discussing the size of deer is kind of a welcome change, at least to me, from the endless and somewhat pointless discussion of which latest bullet or cartridge has some miniscule advantage over last years latest and greatest invention!
Have a great day, and remember, except for you and me, all hunters tend to exagarate!

To me:

Field dressed = gutted only
hanging weight = gutted, skinned with head and legs removed.