Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What Is It About 300 Pound Deer?

First deer I ever killed was an 8-point buck that dressed 192 lbs. Even that was a heck of a drag for my Dad and I (I was 16), but at least it was all down hill! I don't know if I have any digital pictures of that fella. Those toads from Canada sure are something else entirely though. Are they cross-breeding them with holsteins or something? Grin...

I didn't go thru all 31 pages here...

I am sure someone mentioned that the biggest recorded buck on record was shot in Sterns County MN, and supposedly 425 lbs or so on the hoof, and it was shot with a lever action... likely a 30/30 or 32 Special...

my biggest buck was a whitetail in St Louis County MN, north of Chisholm... weighed about 340 on the Hoof according to the DNR biologist...field cleaned at 265 lbs...

that one was taken with a 444 Marlin...in 1984... at about 30 below zero...

the biggest in maine was 355 dressed taken by author hinkley. in 1955. i believe he shot it w/ a 32-40

I think a good many of the 300 lb deer were never actually weighed. From a conversation with an Alberta outfitter he has yet to bring in a (field dressed) 300 lb whitetail by the scale.

But, I see nothing wrong with a big exit hole from a fast magnum especially when hunting down a cut line through the thick stuff.

Well, some parts of WI get 200# bucks, but in that part I'd never seen one or seen one killed. My FIL was sure he killed on WAAAY over 200. Kept telling me "this is the biggest bodied deer I've ever killed". He was pissed I kept saying "180-190#", that was a big body buck for that area and it went just over 190. He couldn't believe it either.

My dad got a 12 pt in the U. P. in the mid 90's that weighed 197 on a scale after being gutted and hanging three days. There aren't many, but there are some.

We are talking "deer"- not "dear"

hahaha i know a few places up in northern maine where you can find some of those manatoba monkeys as well. any of you boys evcer come up ill point ya towards 'em hahaha

After reading through this a bit...I gotta quit shooting elk with my 150 grain -06 loads....chit!

I've shot 2 big deer in the past 20 years in NE, both under 100 yards with a 25 WSSM, 110 grain AB, and a 260, 129 grain Hornady SpirePoint. Both were shot through the lungs, behind the shoulder. The deer shot with the 260 went, maybe, 20 yards before piling up and the deer shot with the 25 WSSM fell over dead in its tracks.

No air breathing animal can go far if you Wreck their lungs and since deer aren't usually dangerous, I don't see any reason to break bones if the target offers you a lung shot.

JEff

If I ever saw a 300lbs deer first thing I would do is check what state/province I'm in. Second, I hope my 308 or 30-06 would work as that's what I plan to elk hunt with. I'll just make sure that the range is under 301 yards.

I remember reading about this in Sports Afield, many decades ago. I thought he used a Model 1886 Winchester chambered for the old .33 WCF, but I can't remember for sure.

i have the article somewheres, i actually tried finding it the other night so to post it. i know it wasnt a .33 but i also could be mistaken about the 32-40 as well....i WILL find it lol

I see the cause as lack of experience. They use advice from other people to replace it and some of the advice is specious.

Most folks don't kill enough animals to really know what a given round will do. Compounding that is some of us have so many rifles we rarely shoot more than two animals with the same rifle in a given year.

I admit to shooting an animal with a ne to me round and trying to see if it fits with what I have read.

For example, I now agree that a 225 Bearclaw out of a .338 Win or a .35 Whelen appear to kill deer a little slower than my '06 used with Partitions. Based on a sample of five does killed with the larger rifles and many with the '06. Similarly I find the 225 Hornady appears to be a bit too much for my taste when used on does. Is any of that true? Who knows?

My heaviest deer was shot with a .300 Savage 150 gr. It weighed well over 300 lbs. It just laid over against the bank it was standing by. I got a past prime bench legged blacktail/muley near Estacada that was probably over 300# but never weighed it. It went about 40 yards but it was moving when I shot it. Deer, even big deer are pretty easy to kill.

Posted this before...247 lbs dressed weight on a Fennimore Roller Mills scale 1965.

I shot an 8 point in PA back in 1992, that I honestly say
weighed 180 on the hoof. I have know several guys that have
killed some monsters in WI, MI, and MN.

we were both wrong, although i couldnt find my hard copy of this an article on this buck i did find one on the net. it says he had an '06. i do know thats not what the other article read because i chuckled when i read it and then looked at the energy charts on the 38-40 just for grins. i read it sometime last fall. but theis is a neat read just the same.

"Each fall, the annual gathering of the red coats brings on a renewed enthusiasm and expectation. As groups of hunters find their way to their traditional hunting camps, talk of big deer abounds. The anticipation of meeting up with the buck of your dreams fuels the desire as you encroach upon his domain.

One such buck in Maine's rich deer-hunting history met and surpassed even the wildest dreams of a 59-year-old hunter back in 1955. Horace R. Hinckley did what no other hunter has been able to match since, by shooting the heaviest whitetail buck on record within the state of Maine. In fact, Hinckley's buck places second in all of North America, only to a Minnesota buck shot in 1926 by Carl Lenandor. Carl's buck topped the scales at 402 pounds dressed.

The events surrounding the taking of this enormous animal are Horace's own words, excerpted from the August 1969 issue of Outdoor Life. I certainly would not want you to think I had any first hand knowledge, seeing as I was nothing more than a mere twinkle in Pop's eye when this momentous occasion occurred.

Little did Horace know as he struck off that morning that he was about to embark on a whitetail record that would stand for forty-three years. Days off for a lumber worker came only on holidays and during inclement weather. Vacations were out of the question, especially to go deer hunting. The Hinckleys hunted when they could, and because of expected rain on the first Saturday of deer season, they jumped at the opportunity to hunt.

Trophy hunting as we view it today had no bearing on the Hinckley mindset. They hunted deer out of enjoyment and to lay up sweet tasting venison for the coming winter.

Horace, his wife Olive, their son Philip and his wife Madeline traveled 60 miles from their Augusta home to hunt Northwest Bingham. The area is located on the western side of Fletcher Mountain. Once reaching the desired location, the elder Hinckleys hunted an old tote road for the first hour. Due to the lack of fresh deer sign, they stopped to ponder their next move.

While talking it over, a jeep approached. The driver was the foreman of a local logging operation who offered to take them to the end of a remote, almost undriveable road where he had seen lots of fresh sign two days prior. At the end of this two track, the Hinkleys made their way up through a winter beech valley encompassed on both sides by rising mountainous terrain. By 9 a.m. they had each taken a stand a few yards apart, in what appeared to be a great spot.

They didn't have to wait long before the action started. Twenty minutes after taking his position, Horace heard a twig snap, spotted a buck and fired. Fortunately for him, he completely missed. Within five minutes his wife's rifle echoed, only to be followed by her excited voice yelling for Horace to come see her nice buck. For unexplainable reasons even to Horace, he never moved or made a sound. Something within (a gut feeling most successful hunters have learned to trust) told him there was more action to come. No sooner had that thought passed when the buck of any hunter's dream was sneaking directly towards Horace. It only required one shot from his .30-06 to put this monster down for the count.

As astounding a morning as it was, there would be much more excitement to come before darkness fell on this day. Quickly realizing the two deer lying before them were more than they could handle, the couple started back to retrieve help. Not finding his son at the vehicle, they drove to his brother Ralph's house a short distance away.

Approaching the kill site with Ralph to help in the dragging chores, a six pointer was jumped and taken by Horace's brother with one quick shot. Instead of easing the burden, Ralph only added to it with the third Hinckley buck. Once the two men had finished getting the six pointer and Olive's big buck out, they jubilantly spotted Philip making his way toward them.

By now, the events thus far would have been more excitement than any hunting family could have expected in several lifetimes, but there was more good news. Philip's wife had shot a spikehorn, and during the dragging process to get her buck out, a big 200-pound plus ten pointer materialized. Philip made the shot count, and thus gave the Hinckley family five bucks in the space of one hunting morning. The story should end here once Horace's mammoth buck was laboriously hauled out, but it doesn't.

It was three days before a scale large enough to handle a buck of this proportion could be found. Once this great buck was hoisted up in front of several witnesses, including state sealer of weights, Forrest Brown, the giant deer pulled the scales to a whopping 355 pounds. It was calculated that Hinckley's buck had an approximate live weight of 488 pounds. Several measurements were then taken which included: neck girth - 28 inches, body girth behind forelegs - 47 inches, greatest girth - 56 inches, and a total length from antler tip to rear hoof of 9 1/2 feet.

Because of the constant influx of inquisitive viewers, Horace was unable to butcher his buck. To add to his dilemma, the sheer weight of his buck after six days of hanging collapsed the barn roof. When the animal finally reached the freezer plant the next day, it weighed almost 100 pounds less. A cloud of doubt now hung because of the unsuspecting discrepancy to the original weight. Due to the length of hanging time and the amount of trimming Horace had to perform since shooting his now famous deer, it was determined that shrinkage could easily have diminished the weight of the buck.

Unfortunately, and not without much difficulty, it took Horace over a year to have his buck validated as the heaviest ever recorded in the state. To you who think a buck of Hinckley's status is a thing of the past, and a record that may never be broken, I need only to remind you of Mark Maguire and his 70 homeruns. I, for one, know that a buck of that caliber not only exists, but I am also in hopes of dethroning the reigning king with the taking of him."

I remember seeing a picture in a magazine, maybe OL/F&S/SA, of a man with a Winchester 71 next to a huge whitetail buck with a caption that identified the hunter as being Mr. Hinckley and the deer as weighing 355 lbs. dressed and an estimated 488 lbs. live weight.

JEff

Jeff it was an Outdoor Life article....seen it many times.

And you are correct....he did not use a 30/06. It was an older Winchester lever action (not a M95)chambered for one of the older cartridges but can't recall the chambering.

The buck was killed in the Skowhegan vicinity.

From Outdoor Life's Deer Hunting Book, Maine Biggest Buck by Horace R. Hinkley.

"My rifle was one that very few of today's hunters have heard of, a Winchester Model 1886 in .33 caliber. In Maine we used to call it a moose gun because of its knockdown power." He indicates that the rear sight was a Lyman peep with the small center ring removed.

He also says that he had to replace in later years with a Remington 742 in 30-06 when the barrel "played out."