Blacktail bucks don't weigh squat

[257 Wby Mag]

I like '', more lbs means more $$$ at the sausage shop.grin...

[Palmer]

Guess how much this weighs dead weight? Obviously not a Blacktail but that doesn't matter.  It's maybe 3 1/2 and estimate score of 106.

[Palmer]

135 lbs at the butcher without the head so according to him 135/.6 = 225lbs.  Or according to others on this thread  135/.7 = 193lbs.

I just wanted to give an example of a 200 #er.

[Blacktail135]

Hey Palmer. I was gonna guess 145 field dressed.
 My heaviest was 199 field dressed.
Hunted Indian Is. year's ago out of Port Townsend where they kept track of deer weight's and the heaviest they had on the chart was 212lbs. Smallest was 37lbs.

[Ray]

135 lbs at the butcher without the head so according to him 135/.6 = 225lbs.  Or according to others on this thread  135/.7 = 193lbs.

I just wanted to give an example of a 200 #er.

It is interesting to note that the formulas offer a 30+ lb weight difference. However one thing is for sure... it was weighed so we definitely know something about it. Once something is placed on or hung from a scale a certain amount of speculation is gone from my mind and there is definitely some evidence which is more concrete than "I can squat this and press that" sort of self declared expertise. To me, that is hocus pocus jingus garbage. That's a candid response; not callous, retaliatory or anything with mal intent. I call something like that bogus because it is not even a rarely used standard of any sort and seemingly not by more than one human being. It's something someone made up just today as far as I can tell. Also, me saying that does not equate to: "you have to measure all of your animals or you are a liar" either.

Maybe this subject is like someone field judging their distances while shooting and someone who has an accurate rangefinder... I like to think I am good at judging distance but I would never be certain without verifying with something other than intuition or speculation.

Furthermore... the people who keep perpetuating the topic here about large blacktail deer appear fixated on a remark I made which was "I have never laid eyes on 200lb blacktail buck". They somehow seem to have instantly equated that to "200lb blacktails don't exist"... at least as far as I can tell. The fact is that is a remark which I never made, suggested or implied.  I think that what has really happened is that my comments were completely misconstrued and then people started trying to justify that there are indeed 200lb blacktails. Shortly after that remark Dman and yourself for example started posting links and pictures of large deer which in fact had been measured somehow. Unlike his deer which was called into question by people other than myself. To me, this shows that some people either 1) feel insulted or 2) have read into my remarks and things have become twisted up on their end

The existence of 200lb+ bucks really is not what the topic was about as much as just like I said before... You don't really know the weight of any object until you use standard weights , scales, or other measures to make the call on them. If you don't use something like that then don't be surprised if someone doubts you. That doesn't mean that someone's deer is not a nice one and it certainly is not a discredit. It's a matter of how people measure and compare things using established standards.

[Palmer]

Here's a Western blacktail of the same size or bigger but not weighed because the butcher didn't have his equipment ready for deer season.  Coyotes got at him before we could find him the next morning.  I'd guess he's well over 200lbs.  His hoofs are touching the ground and he's about 7 feet tall.  His teeth show him to be around 7 years old, molars almost warn down to the gums.  Taxidermy score of 114 2/8.  I'll find out in a few months the official score.

[billythekidrock]

I'd guess he's well over 200lbs

Maybe live weight. Looks a little narrow through the chest to be 200 field dressed. 

[boneaddict]

I'd said 145 on your top buck, bottom buck bigger.

Course here is a thought, the butcher makes more money the more it weighs hmmmmmmmm 

Time to start putting pics of 300 pounders on here I guess, you know BIG mule deer.

[billythekidrock]

Time to start putting pics of 300 pounders on here I guess, you know BIG mule deer.

Now you are going to get it started......I saw one killed that was 240 gutted near Omak..not a big deal ya say? The big deal was I watched the guy pack it on his back a 1/2 mile..

He killed this buck, a 4x5, and called me on the radio. Told me it was a 500 meter shot..I just laughed and said "well I don't know, will have to check it out". (The next day we ranged it at 385 yds). He was aiming between the eyes as the deer was facing him, slightly angling down hill and had the chest/neck/head/spine all in line. (hit it just beneath the eye) Anyway, we contacted one of the other two in our group by radio and he went back to the boat for packboards. It was gutted when I got to it so we took a rope and lowered it down the ridge to a draw with a cattle trail on flat ground. After waiting a bit, he remembered me telling him how to turn a deer into a backpack and asked if I would show him how.. I just laughed and said there is no 'f'ing way you are going to carry that out. He said he just wanted to see how it was done, so I showed him. After some time waiting, he asked if I could carry his rifle and pack if he could carry the deer. I told him if he could carry the deer I had better be able to carry everything we had. So he got down on his back and rolled into the deer. It was all I could do to help him get that thing on his back, but once we did I told him "go, don't stop, don't wait...just keep going". After a quarter mile he stopped and we tried to get contact on the radio..no luck. So he tries to load up again and I try to get him to wait. He wants to see the look on the other guys faces so we load up and go another good stretch before we run into the rest of our group.. The look was priceless! They cut him in half (more or less) and packed him out the other 1/2 mile to the boat. I was impressed as was the rest of the folks at camp. I took a ton of pics, but only two turned out (had a cheap digital). The one I really wanted was when we walked within 30 yards of a doe on the hill. She was totally confused by the buck ontop of my buddy, it's rear and tail banging into my buddies thighs...lol

[billythekidrock]

anyway.....we did not weigh that big muley, but I know he was at least 300 if not more!

[YellowDog]

So you're out hunting and spot two blacktail bucks.  One has a huge rack...the rack of your dreams and a smaller body.  The other has a dink rack and the largest body you've ever seen on a deer.  Which do you shoot? 

If you say the buck with the bigger body, I call BS.  My point is that when it gets right down to it, weight doesn't matter. 

A big buck is a big buck.  Its nice to shoot a big bodied deer but weight isn't going to be much of a factor in which one I shoot.  For all the record book guys, just to be sure, is there any scoring method that considers the weight of the animal?  I think not.

If it is about the weight of the animal, go buy a cow its a lot easier and cheaper by the pound than hunting. I'm with huntwa, if you want to talk weight of an animal, put it on a scale, don't guess.

[Dman]

 I would add to this post about my own buck that the hanging weight on the Stuart's market scale was 87lbs without; midsection, including the rib cage and the legs. At this point I really don't give a $hit what that translates in to live weight at this point, but for any who care, there it is.....

[jackelope]

I'd like to meet the man that backpacked 240lb dead deer on his back 1/2 mile.

[Dman]

 Two guys with bicycle's could do it pretty easy..... 

[finnman]

Early to bed, early to rise, hunt like hell and make up lies! This I believe is most hunters motto, the entire being of hunting and fishing is based on estimates and guessing. Its just an accepted fact that when someone says they killed a 175lb. buck, you take it with a grain of salt(tongue in cheek) unless someone says they weighed the thing. If so you can give them the benifit of the doubt.
I never knew the calculation for figuring the weight of a butcher ready deer(gutted,legs and head off and skinned), but if it is weight/.6 then the muley I took last year in Entiat 165lbs./.6 = 275lbs., But again how honest or accurate is the scale your working with? I think it all relative and really an issue not worth getting excited over.