Buck weights

[TheHornHunter]

I'm not sure how many of you guys weigh your deer, but curious what the dressed weight for some of your bucks have been, especially later in the season? I weighed my buck today and he was 155 dressed. I always weigh the meat from my deer after I process it, but I've only ever weighed a couple of my bucks at the pole before and they were from early November so very little rut rundown. Those bucks were 180-210 and honestly didn't seem bigger than this one other than having big swollen necks so I'm curious what other people are getting for weights post-rut.

 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, TheHornHunter said:

I'm not sure how many of you guys weigh your deer, but curious what the dressed weight for some of your bucks have been, especially later in the season? I weighed my buck today and he was 155 dressed. I always weigh the meat from my deer after I process it, but I've only ever weighed a couple of my bucks at the pole before and they were from early November so very little rut rundown. Those bucks were 180-210 and honestly didn't seem bigger than this one other than having big swollen necks so I'm curious what other people are getting for weights post-rut.

 

The only buck that I weighed, in the last 10 years, was killed on opening day of sz gun season and weighed 182 pounds field-dressed on a “legal for trade” butcher’s scale.  I only did that to calibrate the PA chest girth chart, which one of our members was kind enough to post on here a few years ago.  
 

I can now get a pretty good idea of their weight, and approximate edible yield, using just a tape measure and that chart.  

In my area (wmu 9F) that’s about the average field-dressed weight of a 3.5 year old buck on that date.  4 or 5 other members (mostly from wNY) also weighed and measured their bucks that year.  
 

It seems that the PA chest girth chart consistently underestimates the weight of a wNY deer.  I can only assume that is because whitetail deer tend to be heavier, near the northern edge of their range . The little ones they have down in FL illustrate that pretty well.
 

The only antlered buck that I killed last year might have been a few pounds heavier. It’s chest girth measured 1/4” more than the 182 pounder’s.  
 

One of the issues with weighing field dressed deer, is that the weight varies so much with time.  When the guts are first removed, well over half of the measured weight is made up of water, which has no nutritional value.  The longer the deer hangs, before it goes on the scale, the more that water percentage drops, and the weight drops accordingly. 
 

 The chest girth method provides for more time-independent results and better approximation of edible yield volume. I always want to know how many quart sized bags I will need to package my meat, That is a volume, not a weight measurement. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

210 is a MONSTER


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[BizCT]

I'm not sure how many of you guys weigh your deer, but curious what the dressed weight for some of your bucks have been, especially later in the season? I weighed my buck today and he was 155 dressed. I always weigh the meat from my deer after I process it, but I've only ever weighed a couple of my bucks at the pole before and they were from early November so very little rut rundown. Those bucks were 180-210 and honestly didn't seem bigger than this one other than having big swollen necks so I'm curious what other people are getting for weights post-rut.
 

We noticed a significant drop off in weight locally on December deer. My dad shot a nice 8pt a few years ago that was 108lb dressed in December. I bet he was 140-150lb in late October.

I’ve always read 20-25% is a good estimate but sometimes as much 33% weight loss


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[sbuff]

We weight all our deer gutted, average weight is 125lbs I'd say based on our records .

This would be in 6k .

[Chromeslayer]

One i killed this year on 11/27 weighed 188 dressed.. wny 8G

[Fletch]

We weigh all our deer. For the area we hunt the general averages follow. For pre and early rut bucks.

1.5 yo - 115-125

2.5 yo - 135-145

3.5 yo - 155-165

4.5 yo - 175 - 185

5.5 yo 185 - 195

older 175- 200 - we personally have not taken a buck over 200 in CNY and I do not remember too many I have even heard of.

 

There are always outliers these are averages. Post rut bucks 2.5 and lower seem to lose less weight. 5-15% Older bucks can lose quite a bit more than that even. As you can figure our sample includes a lot more earlier bucks than late season bucks. 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Fletch

[BowmanMike]

3 hours ago, TheHornHunter said:

I'm not sure how many of you guys weigh your deer, but curious what the dressed weight for some of your bucks have been, especially later in the season? I weighed my buck today and he was 155 dressed. I always weigh the meat from my deer after I process it, but I've only ever weighed a couple of my bucks at the pole before and they were from early November so very little rut rundown. Those bucks were 180-210 and honestly didn't seem bigger than this one other than having big swollen necks so I'm curious what other people are getting for weights post-rut.

 

I wish I had a scale last year. I shot a forkhorn in bow season but he seemed big and heavy. Then I shot my best buck to date opening day of gun season and his body looked smaller to me but his rack said 3.5 all day.  He also had a lot less fat than the late October bow buck.

So this year I bought a scale and only got a few does that I didn't bother weighing.

[Will_C]

We have weighed 50 + deer over the last 20 years here in the Southern Tier. Our averages are just what Fletch posted above. 

[TheHornHunter]

The only buck that I weighed, in the last 10 years, was killed on opening day of sz gun season and weighed 182 pounds field-dressed on a “legal for trade” butcher’s scale.  I only did that to calibrate the PA chest girth chart, which one of our members was kind enough to post on here a few years ago.  
 
I can now get a pretty good idea of their weight, and approximate edible yield, using just a tape measure and that chart.  
In my area (wmu 9F) that’s about the average field-dressed weight of a 3.5 year old buck on that date.  4 or 5 other members (mostly from wNY) also weighed and measured their bucks that year.  
 
It seems that the PA chest girth chart consistently underestimates the weight of a wNY deer.  I can only assume that is because whitetail deer tend to be heavier, near the northern edge of their range . The little ones they have down in FL illustrate that pretty well.
 
The only antlered buck that I killed last year might have been a few pounds heavier. It’s chest girth measured 1/4” more than the 182 pounder’s.  
 
One of the issues with weighing field dressed deer, is that the weight varies so much with time.  When the guts are first removed, well over half of the measured weight is made up of water, which has no nutritional value.  The longer the deer hangs, before it goes on the scale, the more that water percentage drops, and the weight drops accordingly. 
 
 The chest girth method provides for more time-independent results and better approximation of edible yield volume. I always want to know how many quart sized bags I will need to package my meat, That is a volume, not a weight measurement. 

Good point about time, I hadn’t thought about before. I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes but I guess a best practice for weighing would be to do it all at the same time. I’ve never done or looked into chest girth method but I’d guess we have more ag than PA so our deer are probably better fed. Thanks for the thoughts


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[TheHornHunter]

210 is a MONSTER


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He was a fat slob. Antlers didn’t come close to matching the body though. My buddy killed a bigger one but we never got a weight on him. When I was in Kansas someone killed one just under 300 dressed and that thing was a horse!


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[Robhuntandfish]

38 minutes ago, Fletch said:

We weigh all our deer. For the area we hunt the general averages follow. For pre and early rut bucks.

1.5 yo - 115-125

2.5 yo - 135-145

3.5 yo - 155-165

4.5 yo - 175 - 185

5.5 yo 185 - 195

older 175- 200 - we personally have not taken a buck over 200 in CNY and I do not remember too many I have even heard of.

 

There are always outliers these are averages. Post rut bucks 2.5 and lower seem to lose less weight. 5-15% Older bucks can lose quite a bit more than that even. As you can figure our sample includes a lot more earlier bucks than late season bucks. 

 

In all my years of hunting I've seen one def over 200. And one or two that were close.  

The one I seen that was definitely over 200 I couldn't believe it. I swear it was 240.  I was bow hunting and it was an awesome day but never got a shot off. 

Had two 4 points come out in a field and then they went down over a hill and I couldn't see them. Then 6 does came chargng into the other end of the field from a cornfield. 

Then to my far left a 5 point stepped out and behind it was this 9 point.  It literally waddled across the field and it had 75+ pounds on any of the deer out there.  

All the deer went right too him like he was the king. Even the two 4 points came back over the hill. He never came into range. Tried grunting at him and he barely looked my way. Like you come here if you want to start something. Lol. Closest he got was 70 yards. Huge buck. He was twice as big as the does. It was almost freaky. 

Then had one a couple of years ago that had a huge body but a small rack I got close to a couple of times but didn't get a shot. Prob not 200 but a def tank 

But deer that big sure are rare. 

[TheHornHunter]

We weigh all our deer. For the area we hunt the general averages follow. For pre and early rut bucks.
1.5 yo - 115-125
2.5 yo - 135-145
3.5 yo - 155-165
4.5 yo - 175 - 185
5.5 yo 185 - 195
older 175- 200 - we personally have not taken a buck over 200 in CNY and I do not remember too many I have even heard of.
 
There are always outliers these are averages. Post rut bucks 2.5 and lower seem to lose less weight. 5-15% Older bucks can lose quite a bit more than that even. As you can figure our sample includes a lot more earlier bucks than late season bucks. 
 

That seems similar to us in 8H, all the ones I killed and weighed were 4+. We’re in prime ag though and always have a few pigs that are 200+. Interestingly, it’s never the ones with the biggest antlers. Like this one from this year, just a mean fat old slob. I think my buck this year was just rutted down. I’ve never killed one close to this late before to have anything to compare it with







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[TheHornHunter]

I wish I had a scale last year. I shot a forkhorn in bow season but he seemed big and heavy. Then I shot my best buck to date opening day of gun season and his body looked smaller to me but his rack said 3.5 all day.  He also had a lot less fat than the late October bow buck.
So this year I bought a scale and only got a few does that I didn't bother weighing.

Our biggest bodied bucks have been on the lower end of our antler spectrum and our highest scoring bucks typically haven’t had much for bodies. Weird dynamic


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[TheHornHunter]

We noticed a significant drop off in weight locally on December deer. My dad shot a nice 8pt a few years ago that was 108lb dressed in December. I bet he was 140-150lb in late October.

I’ve always read 20-25% is a good estimate but sometimes as much 33% weight loss


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I guess the numbers make sense then. If he lost 20-25% and is 155 he’d have been 190-200 pre rut. I’ve never killed one or even been around one that I can remember in December before. I didn’t recognize him the first time I saw him in part because how much weight he lost but I’ve shot does that were 140-150 so I was surprised he came in only a little over that


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[TheHornHunter]

In all my years of hunting I've seen one def over 200. And one or two that were close.  
The one I seen that was definitely over 200 I couldn't believe it. I swear it was 240.  I was bow hunting and it was an awesome day but never got a shot off. 
Had two 4 points come out in a field and then they went down over a hill and I couldn't see them. Then 6 does came chargng into the other end of the field from a cornfield. 
Then to my far left a 5 point stepped out and behind it was this 9 point.  It literally waddled across the field and it had 75+ pounds on any of the deer out there.  
All the deer went right too him like he was the king. Even the two 4 points came back over the hill. He never came into range. Tried grunting at him and he barely looked my way. Like you come here if you want to start something. Lol. Closest he got was 70 yards. Huge buck. He was twice as big as the does. It was almost freaky. 
Then had one a couple of years ago that had a huge body but a small rack I got close to a couple of times but didn't get a shot. Prob not 200 but a def tank 
But deer that big sure are rare. 

Watching those big boys move is a thing of beauty, especially working does. Always blows my mind how they can move thru the woods in almost silence yet a little squirrel can make a noticeable ruckus 100 yards away.


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[Lawdwaz]

I can't add anything to your question on post rut weights but can say I've killed (without checking my notes) two bucks over 200#.    Not surprisingly both were archery kills, a 217# 8pt in 2009 in 8N and a 203# 11pt in 9H in 2015. 

For sure another one was crowding 200# but has some controversy surrounding it, lol.  That was the one that Biz just can't let lie......I killed it and in the excitement of the moment, explained numerous times here, I didn't remove the heart and lungs when I weighed it.  IIRC it was 205# with that in so my conservative accurate weight would be 195# just to NOT fudge anything.

I've killed a couple others in the 180# range also.

The guys I hunt with have been weighing anything obviously over 1.5 YO since the early 70's and until 2009 the heaviest buck was a 163#.  Things have certainly changed for the better in the area for numerous reason such as less pressure from hunters, easier winters and high deer numbers among others.

This is the 217# buck

 

203# buck

Edited January 5, 2022 by Lawdwaz

[WNYTRPR]

This one was 184lb.The one and only deer I ever weighed ,for the simple fact my buddy was interested in weighing it ,so we did at his place .I shot the buck on Oct 2nd .(last season)

Edited January 5, 2022 by WNYTRPR

[Lawdwaz]

Beauty!

[WNY Bowhunter]

The buck that I killed on 11/24/20 was 246 live weight / 196 dressed. He is the heaviest deer that has every been killed in my family, which includes 100s of bucks taken here in 8P/8R in Steuben County over by a span of 70+ yrs of hunting here (granted the average age class taken over this time has been far from being considered mature). As expected, he was very lean and I believe he would have been 25-30lbs heavier had he been killed a month earlier. His cape and body frame were notably larger than the 220lb dressed buck that I mounted for a buddy of mine that was killed on Oct 2 that year. 

As noted earlier, most of the highest scoring bucks that I've had the privilege of mounting or even know of locally have been smaller bodied deer than would be expected. Most people grossly overestimate a deer's weight and I've only ever seen a handful of confirmed 200# dressed deer from my area.

[NYBowhunter]

This is my buck from this past bow season, a big boy and was probably up there weight wise (unfortunately never weighed), have shot a few through the years that were bigger. One of my biggest racked bucks a late season muzzlelaoder kill and he was by far the thinnest of them all, big rack but he was run down. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

187 on 11/21, weighed three days later FWIW so lets call him 225 lol


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[Marion]

187 on 11/21, weighed three days later FWIW so lets call him 225 lol


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Easily 230

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[Hock3y24]

I've killed one at 187 ( certified scale), one in the 170s, pretty much every other buck I've shot is 145-160. Biggest antlered buck was 160. the biggest one we had to drag damn near a mile, and was my first buck.  

[Four Seasons]

213lbs, 191lbs, 189lbs. All November harvests.