Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best state or province to shoot a 300 pound whitetail?

It would depend on the calf moose. I've only had the opportunity to pack out one, which my wife got 3-4 years ago here in Montana, but of course it was a Shiras, the smallest subspecies, and was taken in September. Later in the fall it would have been larger.

I've seen three mule deer bucks as large or larger than that calf moose, but no whitetails, though there's no doubt they exist.

My cousins husband shot a 9 point that dressed out weighed 275 lbs.
He hunts in the shotgun zone in SE
Minnesota.
whelennut

Those would be very good deer.
In the skeme of it all I reckon our Canadian moose and your Shiras moose would be fairly close in size at that time.Wouldn't be much in weight difference.My very best mule was close but still a little lite.But it had a touch more size than that whitey.

JB,
An Alberta outfitter you know, Pat Frederick of Ameri-Cana Expeditions, was saying when he started out he was in the Wainwright AB area, and they used to weigh every deer for their records and they never had a whitetail over 300 lb.

I think they exist but may be about as rare as 300 lb ballerinas.

Anybody know the dressed weight/live weight ratio's for whitetails? I think it might be dressed weight plus 20% for live weight.

Sound about right?

Anyone interested can take a look at the Biggest Bucks in Maine Club. They keep close tabs on the size of bucks killed in Maine,where the emphasis is on body size.

The difference is that in Maine (and NH and VT) there is no guessing body weights....by law every deer killed must be tagged and weighed (field dressed)at a certified check station that reports to the state F&G,and all checked deer are recorded and become a record of the State.

Just cruised an article on the 2004 season and something like 600+ bucks were killed in Maine that field dressed in excess of 200 pounds. IIRC the largest that year weighed 277 pounds,dressed.

MM, be careful not to set the bar too high on the weight side. A guy can do a lot of hunting and not kill a 300 pounder. You ever think about setting a goal for antler mass? Some guys here have posted sone real monster coming out of various Canadian provinces over the years. I don't know about you, but I love those big, chocolaty antlers...

I'd be looking at East Central Minnesota.

South of Taylors Falls you will be restricted to shotgun & slug, handgun or muzzle loader. North of there it's rifles.

From Wabasha up to Duluth there's enough deer that big to make it a realistic proposition if you want to try it. I would start scouting and put in as many days as possible starting in August.

There is not so much public land south of Prescott Wisconsin. North of Hudson you get into Wild River National Park along the St Croix which is open to hunting. Order plat maps for the counties you choose from the county recorder's office.

Most nights I have a doe in my yard (Chisago County) that will go better than 200 live weight. Pine county has a lot more public land. Carlton is similar, but you need to find pubic land that is adjacent to corn fields.

In East Central Minnesota you can't expect a big rack to go along with a 300 Lb body. Some deer that heavy will have itty-bitty racks you could catch a cantaloup in. Big racks in that area tend to be pretty uncommon. You see big racks once in a while, but I wouldn't go looking for one there.

The easiest scouting will come in April and May. Just drive likely areas looking for big does loading up on greens in fields for the fawns they're carrying. If there's big does, there's big bucks. The ones you're looking for will be very noticeably taller and longer than normal does. In good country you can see 100 deer in an evening easily. Learn to judge size by comparing to big round bales. When you have a deer that looks big against a 6 foot round bale that's where you start to concentrate your search.

Bob, 20% would be pretty close. The Pennsylvania Game Commission "Deer Weight Tape" indicates a ratio between 15-16%. Any way you look it at it, thats a good gut pile.

Largest was 265# dressed (hide on) after being dead for a week was the heaviest for us...in MN. Probably about 10 years ago and we saw a lot of bucks that year.

Small 8pt. rack....:(

That easily puts it in the 300# class.

Getting it out was a chore. And of course, I shot it in a swale.

20 years plus in that same area for three hunters, and have taken some good racks, but the real heavy ones aren't exactly growing on trees...

The last few years have been grim as the population is down. Done lots of looking....

300 is just a benchmark. It wouldn't matter to me if we were talking 275# live weight I just used it as an example of what I'm talking about. I want something akin to the buck 7mm STW posted on this thread. If it's less than 300# live weight I won't lose any sleep and I'd consider it mission accomplished. I love those chocolate antlers too!

There's always somebody on the campfire. No matter what you ask someone will invariably come on and ridicule you for it. Thanks to everyone else though. The rest of you have been very helpful.

A 300 pound (live or dressed) whitetail is huge. I saw a 275 dressed and our crew has killed a 268, 256 and 2- 255s (dressed). They drag hard.

Good luck in your search.

http://www.jimshockey.com/pages/guided-hunts/canada-whitetail-hunts

Jim Shockey's operation seems to be about the best from what my research is showing me.

JDK has them in his country...


Those Shockey bucks are toads!

IIRC, and that's iffy, the cattle ratio is 30-40% including the hide...and hides are heavy.

Deer hides from really big northern deer dressed for winter adds up.

Moosemike, sinse you live in Pa. I'd go to Maine. It's a lot closer and practical distance. You might want to take a good look at the Adironacks too. Some real bruisers up there and not too far from you.

A real porky big whitetail


http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big-buck-zone/2010/01/biggest-buck-ever

There have been two deer killed in MN that were over 400# live weight, and one of them was in the Cloquet area. That's got to be 300+ dressed!

Spend any amount of time in the Saskatoon airport and you'll hear more bitching about his outfit than anyone's.

I was in the lobby of the Saskatoon Inn when the Shockey outfit dropped off a group of hunters this past season. They were not a happy group because the had zilch, nada.

But last season no one was seeing mature bucks because of the bad previous winter. I think his group of hunters possibly had unreasonable expectations because of his celebrity status.

The source of griping probably comes from his writing "no way to determine how the deer are doing." Which is sort of my bitch about any and all outfitters, of course they know exactly if they have had a harder winter, and if the wolves have been in the area all winter, etc. They don't tell you because no one would book.

We as hunters need to try to pay a lot of attention to previous weather conditions, did the winter start a month early, were the deep snow and temperatures extremely cold for long periods of time, was the spring thaw and green up later than usual?

This quote is from Shockey web link
"QUOTE FROM SHOCKEY'S 7TH PARAGRAPH:
But again, the number and quality of the bucks sighted will come down to what effect the previous winter had on the deer population, what the weather has done in the weeks and months prior to the November hunting season (the colder the better) and what it is doing that particular week. What the hunter sees will also depend on whether there are wolves in the area. Unfortunately we have no way of predicting where and when wolves will show up or the results of a bad winter; no way to determine how the deer are doing, other than putting hunters on stand and awaiting the results of the season