Deer weight
Whitetail Deer
What do you think the average of every deer killed annually is. All including bucks does fawns across all areas.
That’s a pretty question as there are many variety of deer.....whitetail, coues, mule deer, sitka blacktail, Columbia blacktail, etc. Even in the whitetail species, there is a broad range in body size from places like Florida to Canada.
My best guess would be about 115#, field dressed.
A lot lighter than what most people think
We are in Northern NY right on the Canadian border;we have always weighed our deer. Dressed weights;most does go 90-120lbs(largest was 150lb),1-1/2 year old bucks average maybe 125lb,2-1/2 and older maybe 145lbs.Largest has been 215lbs.with about six over 200lbs.Records over the last 30 years or so.
The only one I ever weighed was an 8-point, at the butcher shop guts in he weighed 196. Gutted skinned headless carcass going into cooler weighed 122.
I've weighed every deer we've ever gotten since 1992. I also cut up a few dozen a year for other people. All of them get weighed too. So in the last 30 years I've weighed several hundred. Wildan numbers are spot on.
If you figure half are antlerless and of the other 50% probably a third of those are 18 month olds that would only leave about 15% of the total kill to be males 2.5 or older. I agree Russ far Less than people think. They are big game in name but not in body relatively speaking
When I lived in Maryland I killed a bunch of deer. They had extremely liberal bag limits plus E-A-B regs. Most were donated to the Farmers Feeding The Hungry Program. As I recall the deer had to be over 70lbs or they wouldn't take it. Most of the does I donated were under 100lbs dressed. I shot a very large muley I thought would break 200lbs. When I put it on the digital scales it was something like 165 or 170 dressed. It's easy to over estimate dressed weight because you tend to look at the big body but forget it's got a big hollow spot in it.
If ya average them in the northeast I would say around 105#s, go to the midwest say Indians, Illinois, Iowa Kansas where fawn can dress 85#s or more I say that goes up to 115-120#s. Just a guess but fun to guess! Shawn
I weigh almost every deer I kill. Average does in my area of KY are 70-80 lbs field dressed. I've shot a couple over 120 but 100 lbs is a big doe. Weight for 2.5 yr old bucks is normally 135-145. I have killed 2 heavy bucks in 30 years. One field dressed 200 on the dot a big mature 9 point and the other was right at 190. He was a mature 10 pt.
Kinda like the guy that shoots a 300 Lb. black bear on a spring hunt in Canada, then you see a picture of a "BOOBOO".
Most 1 1/2 year old deer are in the range age 110 to 130 if they are in the northern sector, southern deer, a little smaller, true north deer can be be larger. We are speaking of whitetails of course. Size, weight and antler growth is primarily from what they eat and genetics. Biggest deer I ever saw was a train kill in Ohio. Took 4 men to load. I remove the jaw bone and it had about a 1/8" of tooth left. You guess the weight. Estimate age? Undetermined. Took it to work and had a biologist examine it and he shook his head in dis-belief...never saw one this worn.
Up in MN, we had most decent bucks dress out at 180-ish; range was from #90 for my first Button Buck to a bit over #230 for a real Hoss.
Takes a BIG buck in CT to get a hide as big as a #180....
I think my biggest doe here was about #140 live weight.
Had a button buck(fawn of the year hanging in my garage and a friend from south carolina said 'nice buck'. Their deer are significantly smaller down south. We butchered a doe that was 98lbs of boneless meat once. More meat on her than the bear we butchered at the same time.
The question to get your input on was the average deer nationally considering all the local, and age, and gender statistics. I bets it’s about 125 live.
Bow kills only would be Lower since more does are killed as a % of national bow harvest.
I think that you’re estimate is high, bou.
You are up where there are big whitetails!
Higher total numbers of deer killed in the south than north. Tons of does for population control in many areas. Hell, growing up in Texas my neighbor and his family shot a lot of deer and weighed them all. Very rare to get a buck weighing over 125#. At my folks ranch, with supplemental feeding, the average live weight for all whitetail deer is below 100#.
Those southern deer will bring your average down.
Would say closer to the 100# mark for all deer across the country.
My bow kill bucks in the last 10 years have mostly been 180 +, but in the last couple of seasons, they barely cleared 170. Killed a fork horn one year that dressed 145, then shot a doe that dressed 140 during gun season.
What do you think he national average is 8point. That is the question on the table.
Average 80 to 85 lbs dressed would be my guess.
Yeah, in MN I'm guessing in the 115 range. We kill so many fawns it negates the big deer killed. This would be dressed weight.
Ok, average 8pt 125#s. Some coastal deer will be 85#s dressed and than ya have big Midwest and Canadian that may dress 200#s. Now every place in between and you get 125 pounds. Shawn
can't even guess at Nationwide, multi-species averages. Whitetail in Virginia I'm gonna go with 80# live weight, 65# field dressed.
Biggest dressed out WA blacktail I ever got weighed 206#. Mulie in MT, around 200#, Whitetail, probably 175. Most in the mid 10s. yearlings 120, does, 90 - 100. Bulls, not sure. Always cut up prior to weighing, but I do know the weight of one spike because I dragged it out 3 miles whole - 325# (in snow, mostly downhill). And it took all afternoon.
Once I got a scale the bucks I was shooting were 190-210lbs field dressed, if I remember correctly, thats a mature canadian whitetail, I have shot bigger bodied deer that I didn't weigh before I had a scale
I live in Vermont. Here weight has always been very important. Deer that are actually weighed are lighter than estimated weight 95% of the time. In 1970 a yearling buck would average under 100# dressed while a monster would go 140# There were 200# bucks but they were as scarce as four leaf clovers on a sidewalk. The average yearling buck in Vermont is around 115# Does are lighter. A 80# doe would not be laughed at . This is a very interesting topic .
Isn’t this like asking what’s the average temperature in the US?
Actually, it’s not just “like” it, it’s pretty much the same thing... Really depends where you are.
In Western NY the average dressed buck weights are as follows: Hunter claims - 200lbs Scale says - 140lbs
You have to compare apples to apples and weigh deer of the same age from all over the states if you want to have an accurate picture
Nobody in illinois does live weight. Big doe is 130 dressed. I killed bigger Only had one buck weighed in my life and I didnt do it. My drunk buddy did. Mature heavy 8 weighed 226 gutted. Anything over 250 gutted is a hoss
A few years back my Cajun nephew came up and wanted to take meat back. This is in southern Illinois. Some of my buddies were partying with Cajuns and they had a big doe contest I shot a big doe and told my nephew it probably would not be real good to eat. I talked my buddys kid into field dressing it and he said he would be glad to swap his little doe for mine. I said sure. The next night Saturday we went to their camp and when I saw their big doe results for some reason the same kid won 500 bux for a 135 doe. Coincidence?
A lot depends on whether or not there is agriculture in the area, and if the rut is on. That being said, here in central NY in an area planted heavy in corn and beans, I took a buck that dressed tipped the scale at 219 at the end of October one year. Another year, I took a yearling buck that weighed 147, and a doe the same year that pulled the scale down to 145. Most for the archery bucks have been in the 185 range, while rifle bucks are usually around 150. The 219 buck was on official scale, and and the same on my scale. all the weights are dressed, and other than the big doe, I don't weigh does.
I know the one I dragged out of my woods through flooded timber and a swamp in the dark spitting snow and sleet last year weighted twice as much as it did when I killed it by the time I got him to the truck.
I know this is one of those Lazarus threads, but since seeing it got me to thinking about it...
Up in MN (northern farm country with a lot of big woods) I shot a button buck that dressed at #90; 1.5s dressed at about #155; 2.5s about #185 and the biggest hoss we ever dragged out was a bit over #230. Biggest doe went about #165, as I recall.
Biggest doe I’ve shot out here went I think #140 on the hoof.
I guess this thread went from a discussion of averages to a discussion of big.
I've shot 9 bucks that field dressed over 200 pounds, 7 with a bow and 2 with rifle. Only two of those bucks came from areas with much agriculture. My heaviest, a 255 pound field dressed 8 pointer came from the big woods in far northern Wisconsin in the lake effect snow belt area where there is very little agriculture other than the magic fall corn piles. My second heaviest was a 233 pound field dressed 10 point from the northern Ontario Canadian bush. I guarantee that buck never saw an ag field or even an acorn, yet he was huge.
No doubt deer that live in agricultural areas can get heavy due to their diet and relatively easy life, but I think Bergmann's Rule and survival of the fittest has just as much if not more to do with big deer, at least in my neck of the woods. These deer weren't necessarily fat due to a great diet but they have bigger bodies/frames due to survival of the fittest/evolution.
In the big woods area of northern Wisconsin where I've killed the majority of my bucks over 200 pounds, winters can be long and brutal with very deep lake effect snow. It appears that the tough winters weed out the smaller deer genetics and favor larger deer genetics resulting in overall bigger deer.
Kiant does in Kansas, Iowa have so much agriculture if a buck makes it to 4.5 they are usually near 200#s dress, big Canadian whitetail bucks would be the same. I have seen some giant does in the mid-west as well but I doubt very many would go 200$s dressed! Shawn
The #230+ buck was so big that I could wrap my arms around the base of his neck and touch my fingertips. Just.
I’m not big, but that sucker was HUGE.
I know I've posted this pic before but this is my 255# northern Wisconsin 8 point. I'm 5'11" 200# for comparison. This buck was really long.
in the original post I was trying to get the average weight of the entire harvested population. there is such a number and nobody knows it, but there are about 6 million killed annually. the last year I could get a national number roll up was 5.8M from national shooting sports foundation. call it 6M.
how many does, yearlings, fawns, average bucks, and monsters? this would include all species of deer, but not deer family. what states have the largest harvests (they probably are not the states with the biggest deer).
if we got a spitball of that number we'd be reminded that America's #1 big game animal is really not all that big relatively speaking.
As others, I also weigh my deer...seldom not doing so. I find the span for 1.5 YO bucks to be anywhere from a low of the high 90s to a high end of 125. If I had kept a good record over the years and averaged them out I think it would come close to 115. When doe get into that 120-125 area it's the exception rather than the rule.
